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USS Sirona (AKA-43)
Encyclopedia
USS Sirona (AKA-43) was an named after the asteroid 116 Sirona
116 Sirona
116 Sirona is a somewhat large and bright-colored main-belt asteroid. It has an S-type spectrum. It was discovered by C. H. F. Peters on September 8, 1871, and named after Sirona, the Celtic goddess of healing....
, which in turn is named after the Celtic goddess Sirona
Sirona
In Celtic mythology, Sirona was a goddess worshipped predominantly in East Central Gaul and along the Danubian limes. A healing deity, she was associated with healing springs; her attributes were snakes and eggs. She was sometimes depicted with Apollo Grannus or Apollo Borvo...
. USS Sirona served as a commissioned ship for 13 months.
Sirona (AKA-43) was laid down on 15 February 1945 under Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 1904) by the Walsh-Kaiser Co., Inc.
Walsh-Kaiser Co., Inc.
Walsh-Kaiser Co., Inc. was a shipyard in both Cranston and Providence, Rhode Island. It was built during World War II and financed by the Maritime Commission as part of the country's Emergency Shipbuilding Program. It was originally operated by Rheem Manufacturing, a company with no previous...
, Providence, R.I.; launched on 17 April 1945; sponsored by Mrs. Lawrence B. Harris; and commissioned
Ship commissioning
Ship commissioning is the act or ceremony of placing a ship in active service, and may be regarded as a particular application of the general concepts and practices of project commissioning. The term is most commonly applied to the placing of a warship in active duty with its country's military...
on 10 May 1945, Lt. Comdr. Joseph A. Neal, USNR, in command.
Service history
Sirona arrived at Hampton RoadsHampton Roads
Hampton Roads is the name for both a body of water and the Norfolk–Virginia Beach metropolitan area which surrounds it in southeastern Virginia, United States...
on 24 May 1945 and underwent abbreviated shakedown training there from 28 May to 1 June. After a brief repair period, she departed Norfolk
Naval Station Norfolk
Naval Station Norfolk, in Norfolk, Virginia, is a base of the United States Navy, supporting naval forces in the United States Fleet Forces Command, those operating in the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, and Indian Ocean...
on 7 June for France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, arriving at Marseille
Marseille
Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...
on the 21st. There she loaded troops and supplies and sailed for the Pacific, transiting the Panama Canal
Panama Canal
The Panama Canal is a ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Built from 1904 to 1914, the canal has seen annual traffic rise from about 1,000 ships early on to 14,702 vessels measuring a total of 309.6...
on 11 July. On the 28th, she rendered medical assistance to the crew of tanker Esso Rochester; and, after calls at Eniwetok and Ulithi
Ulithi
Ulithi is an atoll in the Caroline Islands of the western Pacific Ocean, about 191 km east of Yap. It consists of 40 islets totalling , surrounding a lagoon about long and up to wide—at one of the largest in the world. It is administered by the state of Yap in the Federated States of...
, she arrived at Manila
Manila
Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...
on 13 August.
On 25 August, Sirona left Manila as part of a large transport force bound for Tokyo, Japan. She remained in Tokyo Bay
Tokyo Bay
is a bay in the southern Kantō region of Japan. Its old name was .-Geography:Tokyo Bay is surrounded by the Bōsō Peninsula to the east and the Miura Peninsula to the west. In a narrow sense, Tokyo Bay is the area north of the straight line formed by the on the Miura Peninsula on one end and on...
from 2–5 September and arrived at Okinawa
Okinawa Island
Okinawa Island is the largest of the Okinawa Islands and the Ryukyu Islands of Japan, and is home to Naha, the capital of Okinawa Prefecture. The island has an area of...
on the 7th. Upkeep there was interrupted when she got underway to avoid a typhoon between the 16th and 18th. On the 19th, the ship embarked 200 Marines and 514 tons of cargo; and, on the 27th, she sailed with a large transport group, which arrived at Taku
Taku Forts
The Dagu Forts , also called the Peiho Forts are forts located by the Hai River estuary, in Tanggu District, Tianjin municipality, in northeastern China. They are located 60 km southeast of the Tianjin urban center.-History:The first fort was built during the reign of the Ming Jiajing...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, on 30 September. She offloaded her troops and cargo there on 4 and 5 October and then sailed for Manila on the 6th.
Upon arrival at Manila, Sirona's crew built temporary troop berthing facilities in her cargo holds, adding 295 berths to the 264 in her normal troop quarters. The ship departed Manila on 22 October; and, upon arrival at Kowloon
Kowloon
Kowloon is an urban area in Hong Kong comprising the Kowloon Peninsula and New Kowloon. It is bordered by the Lei Yue Mun strait in the east, Mei Foo Sun Chuen and Stonecutter's Island in the west, Tate's Cairn and Lion Rock in the north, and Victoria Harbour in the south. It had a population of...
on the 24th, she embarked 1,035 troops of the 13th Chinese Army, with 34 tons of rice, small-arms ammunition, and light equipment. She sailed with six other transports on the 25th for Darien
Dalian
Dalian is a major city and seaport in the south of Liaoning province, Northeast China. It faces Shandong to the south, the Yellow Sea to the east and the Bohai Sea to the west and south. Holding sub-provincial administrative status, Dalian is the southernmost city of Northeast China and China's...
, Manchuria
Manchuria
Manchuria is a historical name given to a large geographic region in northeast Asia. Depending on the definition of its extent, Manchuria usually falls entirely within the People's Republic of China, or is sometimes divided between China and Russia. The region is commonly referred to as Northeast...
; but, on the 28th, was diverted to Chinwangtao
Qinhuangdao
Qinhuangdao is a port city in northeastern Hebei province of North China. It is about 300 km east of Beijing, on the Bohai Sea, the innermost gulf of the Yellow Sea....
where she disembarked her troops and cargo on 30 and 31 October. Returning to Kowloon on 7 November, she embarked about 800 men of the Chinese Honorable 1st Division, which she delivered at Tsingtao
Qingdao
' also known in the West by its postal map spelling Tsingtao, is a major city with a population of over 8.715 million in eastern Shandong province, Eastern China. Its built up area, made of 7 urban districts plus Jimo city, is home to about 4,346,000 inhabitants in 2010.It borders Yantai to the...
on the 14th.
The ship remained there until being assigned on the 26th to return servicemen to the United States under operation "Magic Carpet"
Operation Magic Carpet (World War II)
Operation Magic Carpet was the post-World War II effort by the War Shipping Administration to repatriate over eight million American military personnel from the European, Pacific, and CBI theaters. Hundreds of Liberty ships, Victory ships, and troop transports began repatriating soldiers from...
. Between 29 November and 1 December, she embarked 504 troops at Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
and disembarked them at Seattle on 16 December. Sirona was detached from the "Magic Carpet" force on 30 December, and remained in Seattle pending a decision on her postwar employment.
On 9 April 1946, she sailed from Seattle and arrived at Boston, Massachusetts, on 17 May. There, she was decommissioned on 12 June and transferred the same day to the Maritime Commission for service as the training ship Yankee States at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy
Massachusetts Maritime Academy
Massachusetts Maritime Academy is a regionally accredited, coeducational, state college offering undergraduate degrees in maritime-related fields, as well as graduate degrees and professional studies. Established in 1891, Mass Maritime is the second oldest state maritime academy in the country...
. Struck from the Navy list on 3 July 1946, the ship was laid up in the Maritime Commission Reserve Fleet
National Defense Reserve Fleet
The National Defense Reserve Fleet consists of "mothballed" ships, mostly merchant vessels, that can be activated within 20 to 120 days to provide shipping for the United States of America during national emergencies, either military or non-military, such as commercial shipping crises.The NDRF is...
in the James River
James River (Virginia)
The James River is a river in the U.S. state of Virginia. It is long, extending to if one includes the Jackson River, the longer of its two source tributaries. The James River drains a catchment comprising . The watershed includes about 4% open water and an area with a population of 2.5 million...
on 29 July 1947; and was sold to the Boston Metals Corp., Baltimore, Maryland., on 17 May 1966 for scrapping.