USS Wildcat (AW-2), was a Stag-class tanker

USS Stag (AW-1)

USS Stag was one of four water distilling ships built for the United States Navy during World War II. The lead ship in her class, she was named for a ruminant mammal belonging to the family Cervidae....

, built for the United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

 during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, the only U.S. Naval vessel to be named for Felis silvestris

Wildcat

Wildcat is a small felid native to Europe, the western part of Asia, and Africa.-Animals:Wildcat may also refer to members of the genus Lynx:...

.

Originally projected as the Liberty ship

Liberty ship

Liberty ships were cargo ships built in the United States during World War II. Though British in conception, they were adapted by the U.S. as they were cheap and quick to build, and came to symbolize U.S. wartime industrial output. Based on vessels ordered by Britain to replace ships torpedoed by...

 tanker SS Leon Godchaux; however, before her construction began, the ship was allocated to the Navy. She was classified as IX-130, an unclassified miscellaneous vessel

Unclassified miscellaneous vessel

The IX hull classification symbol is used for ships of the United States Navy that do not fit into one of the standard categories...

, and renamed Wildcat on 27 October 1943 and acquired by the Navy under a bareboat charter

Bareboat charter

A bareboat charter is an arrangement for the chartering or hiring of a ship or boat, whereby no crew or provisions are included as part of the agreement; instead, the people who rent the vessel from the owner are responsible for taking care of such things....

 from the War Shipping Administration

War Shipping Administration

The War Shipping Administration was a World War II emergency war agency of the US Government, tasked to purchase and operate the civilian shipping tonnage the US needed for fighting the war....

. Her keel was laid down down under a Maritime Commission contract (Z-ET1-S-C3, MCE hull 1934) on 16 November 1943 at New Orleans, Louisiana

New Orleans, Louisiana

New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...

, by the Delta Shipbuilding Company. She was launched

Ship naming and launching

The ceremonies involved in naming and launching naval ships are based in traditions thousands of years old.-Methods of launch:There are three principal methods of conveying a new ship from building site to water, only two of which are called "launching." The oldest, most familiar, and most widely...

 on 7 January 1944 sponsored by Mrs. Leonie Godchaux Mayer, reclassified AW-2 on 4 February 1944, delivered to the Navy at New Orleans on 16 February, 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...

 as USS Wildcat (AW-2) the following day, 17 February 1944.

Soon thereafter, the ship was shifted to Tampa, Florida

Tampa, Florida

Tampa is a city in the U.S. state of Florida. It serves as the county seat for Hillsborough County. Tampa is located on the west coast of Florida. The population of Tampa in 2010 was 335,709....

, for hull alterations by the Tampa Shipbuilding Company, and was decommissioned

Ship decommissioning

To decommission a ship is to terminate her career in service in the armed forces of her nation. A somber occasion, it has little of the elaborate ceremony of ship commissioning, but carries significant tradition....

 at Key West, Florida

Key West, Florida

Key West is a city in Monroe County, Florida, United States. The city encompasses the island of Key West, the part of Stock Island north of U.S. 1 , Sigsbee Park , Fleming Key , and Sunset Key...

, on 10 April 1944. At the naval operating base there, Wildcat underwent the balance of the conversion from tanker to water distilling ship into the autumn of 1944. She recommissioned at Key West on 15 October 1944 with Lieutenant Commander George H. Burrows, USNR, in command.

Service history

Wildcat conducted shakedown training in the Gulf of Mexico

Gulf of Mexico

The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...

 before she underwent post-shakedown alterations at the Todd Shipbuilding Company in Galveston, Texas

Galveston, Texas

Galveston is a coastal city located on Galveston Island in the U.S. state of Texas. , the city had a total population of 47,743 within an area of...

. Wildcat departed Galveston on 5 December, bound via the Panama Canal Zone

Panama Canal Zone

The Panama Canal Zone was a unorganized U.S. territory located within the Republic of Panama, consisting of the Panama Canal and an area generally extending 5 miles on each side of the centerline, but excluding Panama City and Colón, which otherwise would have been partly within the limits of...

 for the western Pacific. She transited the canal and at Balboa

Balboa, Panama

Balboa is a district of Panama City, located at the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal.- History :The town of Balboa, founded by the United States during the construction of the Panama Canal, was named after Vasco Núñez de Balboa, the Spanish conquistador credited with discovering the Pacific Ocean...

 underwent minor repairs from 11 to 21 December to her engineering plant before she got underway on the latter day for the Admiralty Islands

Admiralty Islands

The Admiralty Islands are a group of eighteen islands in the Bismarck Archipelago, to the north of New Guinea in the south Pacific Ocean. These are also sometimes called the Manus Islands, after the largest island. These rainforest-covered islands form part of Manus Province, the smallest and...

. She made port at Manus

Manus Island

Manus Island is part of Manus Province in northern Papua New Guinea and is the largest island of the Admiralty Islands. It is the fifth largest island in Papua New Guinea with an area of 2,100 km², measuring around 100 km × 30 km. According to the 2000 census, Manus Island had a...

 on 23 January 1945 and, two days later, shifted to Humboldt Bay, New Guinea

New Guinea

New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...

. Attached to Service Squadron 9, 7th Fleet

United States Seventh Fleet

The Seventh Fleet is the United States Navy's permanent forward projection force based in Yokosuka, Japan, with units positioned near Japan and South Korea. It is a component fleet force under the United States Pacific Fleet. At present, it is the largest of the forward-deployed U.S. fleets, with...

, Wildcat soon sailed in convoy for the Philippines and, on 6 February, dropped anchor in Leyte Gulf

Leyte Gulf

Leyte Gulf is a body of water immediately east of the island of Leyte in the Philippines, adjoining the Philippine Sea of the Pacific Ocean, at . The Gulf is bounded on the north by the island of Samar, which is separated from Leyte on the west by the narrow San Juanico Strait, and on the south by...

, off the municipality of Dulag

Dulag, Leyte

Dulag is a third-class municipality in the province of Leyte in Eastern Visayas in the Philippines. This coastal town covering 11,007 hectares of land is home to 44,143 residents...

, on the eastern coast of Leyte

Leyte Island

Leyte is an island in the Visayas group of the Philippines.The island measures about 180 km north-south and about 65 km at its widest point. In the north it nearly joins Samar, separated by the San Juanico Strait, which becomes as narrow as 2 km in some places...

. Two days later, the ship moved to San Pedro Bay

San Pedro Bay (Philippines)

San Pedro Bay is a bay in the Philippines, at the northwest end of Leyte Gulf, about 15 km east-west and 20 km north-south. The bay is bounded on the north and east by Samar and on the east by Leyte Island. It is connected by San Juanico Strait to Carigara Bay of the Samar Sea. The...

, Leyte, where she remained into April, distilling and issuing fresh potable water to small craft and merchant vessels.

She received a tender availability alongside the from 11 to 18 April before shifting to Calicoan Island

Calicoan Island

Calicoan Island is a Philippine island, and is part of the town of Guiuan, in the province of Eastern Samar. It lies east of Leyte Gulf, off the southeast point of Samar.The island can be reached from Tacloban City by a two-hour bus ride.-External links:*...

 to transfer her deck cargo to SS Ben Ruffin. Wildcat then returned to San Pedro Bay on 23 April to resume her water distilling and issuing duties there. Wildcat got underway for 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 the morning of 25 April, but grounded on a pinnacle near the approach channel to San Pedro Bay at 0855. After she was refloated, she proceeded to Manicani Island, Samar

Samar

Samar, formerly and also known as Western Samar, is a province in the Philippines located in the Eastern Visayas region. Its capital is Catbalogan City and covers the western portion of Samar as well as several islands in the Samar Sea located to the west of the mainland...

, where she was dry-docked in ABSD-5 on 31 May for repairs to her damaged hull. She remained there until 4 July, when she shifted to YFD-21 for the remainder of the repairs. Upon completion of that hull work, Wildcat undocked on 19 July, headed for Manila on 24 July, and arrived on 26 July to assume duties there as station ship.

Anchored in Manila Bay

Manila Bay

Manila Bay is a natural harbor which serves the Port of Manila , in the Philippines.The bay is considered to be one of the best natural harbors in Southeast Asia and one of the finest in the world...

 when news of Japan's final capitulation came on V-J Day

Victory over Japan Day

Victory over Japan Day is a name chosen for the day on which the Surrender of Japan occurred, effectively ending World War II, and subsequent anniversaries of that event...

 (15 August 1945), Wildcats sailors witnessed the "riotous celebrations, skyrockets and light displays" which accompanied that welcome news. Wildcat later moved to Subic Bay

Subic Bay

Subic Bay is a bay forming part of Luzon Sea on the west coast of the island of Luzon in Zambales, Philippines, about 100 kilometers northwest of Manila Bay. Its shores were formerly the site of a major United States Navy facility named U.S...

, Luzon

Luzon

Luzon is the largest island in the Philippines. It is located in the northernmost region of the archipelago, and is also the name for one of the three primary island groups in the country centered on the Island of Luzon...

, but returned to Manila on 5 September to resume distilling and distributing potable water to the various ships and small craft. The distilling ship remained in Philippine waters through the autumn of 1945 and headed home to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 in December. Wildcat was slated to be returned to the War Shipping Administration

War Shipping Administration

The War Shipping Administration was a World War II emergency war agency of the US Government, tasked to purchase and operate the civilian shipping tonnage the US needed for fighting the war....

 for disposal at Norfolk, Virginia

Norfolk, Virginia

Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....

, in mid-1946, but the ship was retained for use in Operation Crossroads

Operation Crossroads

Operation Crossroads was a series of nuclear weapon tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll in mid-1946. It was the first test of a nuclear weapon after the Trinity nuclear test in July 1945...

, the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll

Bikini Atoll

Bikini Atoll is an atoll, listed as a World Heritage Site, in the Micronesian Islands of the Pacific Ocean, part of Republic of the Marshall Islands....

. Wildcat subsequently performed support tasks with Joint Task Force 1 in the summer of 1946. Declared "radiologically cleared," (free from radioactive contamination

Radioactive contamination

Radioactive contamination, also called radiological contamination, is radioactive substances on surfaces, or within solids, liquids or gases , where their presence is unintended or undesirable, or the process giving rise to their presence in such places...

) the distilling ship was released from "Crossroads" on 11 September 1946.

Decommissioned at the 13th Naval District on 17 January 1947 and returned to the War Shipping Administration

War Shipping Administration

The War Shipping Administration was a World War II emergency war agency of the US Government, tasked to purchase and operate the civilian shipping tonnage the US needed for fighting the war....

 that day, the erstwhile water distilling ship was struck from the Naval Vessel Register

Naval Vessel Register

The Naval Vessel Register is the official inventory of ships and service craft in custody of or titled by the United States Navy. It contains information on ships and service craft that make up the official inventory of the Navy from the time a vessel is authorized through its life cycle and...

 on 10 June 1947. She was laid up at Olympia, Washington

Olympia, Washington

Olympia is the capital city of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat of Thurston County. It was incorporated on January 28, 1859. The population was 46,478 at the 2010 census...

, with the National Defense 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...

. Wildcat was eventually broken up for scrap sometime in the mid-1970s.