USS Carpellotti (APD-136)

For other ships of the same name, see USS Carpellotti.
Career
Name: USS Carpellotti
Namesake: Louis J. Carpellotti
Ordered: 1942
Builder: Defoe Shipbuilding Company, Bay City, Michigan
Laid down: 31 October 1944
Launched: 10 March 1945
Commissioned: 30 July 1945
Decommissioned: 21 April 1958
Struck: 1 December 1959
Fate: Sold for scrap, 1966
General characteristics
Class and type:Crosley-class high speed transport
Displacement:1,450 long tons (1,473 t)
Length:306 ft (93 m)
Beam:36 ft 10 in (11.23 m)
Draft:13 ft 6 in (4.11 m)
Propulsion:2 × Combustion Engineering DR boilers
Turbo-electric drive with 2 × General Electric steam turbines
2 × solid manganese-bronze 3600 lb. 3-bladed propellers, 8 ft 6 in (2.59 m), 7 ft 7 in (2.31 m) pitch
12,000 hp (8.9 MW)
2 rudders
359 tons fuel oil
Speed:23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph)
Range:3,700 nmi (6,900 km) at 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph)
6,000 nmi (11,000 km) at 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Boats and landing
craft carried:		4 × LCVPs
Troops:162 troops
Complement:204 (12 officers, 192 enlisted)
Armament:• 1 × 5"/38 caliber gun
• 3 × twin 40 mm guns
• 6 × single 20 mm guns
• 2 × depth charge tracks

USS Carpellotti (APD-136) was a Crosley-class high speed transport, the second ship of the United States Navy to be assigned the name Carpellotti, after Marine Private First Class Louis J. Carpellotti (1918–1942), who was posthumously awarded the Silver Star for his actions on Tulagi, Solomon Islands, during the Battle of Guadalcanal.

Carpellotti, originally designated DE-720, a Rudderow-class destroyer escort, was re-designated as APD-136, a fast transport, on 17 July 1944, even before being laid down on 31 October 1944 at the Defoe Shipbuilding Company, in Bay City, Michigan. She was launched on 10 March 1945; sponsored by Mrs. S. Carpellotti. Builders trials before her pre-commissioning cruise were done in Lake Huron.

After completion, Carpellotti sailed from the builder's yard at Bay City to Chicago, Illinois. From there, they went through the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal and down the Chicago River to Joliet, Illinois, where pontoons were attached to the ship so it could be pushed down the Des Plaines River, Illinois River, and Mississippi River as part of a barge train. After arriving at the Todd Johnson Shipyard in Algiers, Louisiana, on the west bank of the Mississippi at New Orleans, the rest of the crew reported aboard, and Carpellotti was commissioned at New Orleans on 30 July 1945, with Lieutenant Commander J. V. Brown, USNR, in command.

Service history

As it was completed too late for active participation in World War II, Carpellotti remained on active duty with the Atlantic Fleet, based in Norfolk, Virginia. Following a midshipman's cruise to English and French ports from 24 June through 2 August 1947, she was immobilized with a skeleton crew at Yorktown, Virginia, until 3 February 1948.

Resuming active service, Carpellotti operated from Norfolk on amphibious assault exercises along the United States East Coast and in the Caribbean. In the summer, she made midshipman cruises to European ports, and in 1948 made a good-will tour to the Persian Gulf. She also took part in North Atlantic Treaty Organization exercises: in 1952 in the first NATO amphibious "Operation Mainbrace"; and in 1955 and 1957 during her tours with the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean.

Carpellotti was placed out of commission in reserve at Norfolk on 21 April 1958, and laid up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet. Carpellotti was stricken from the Naval Vessel Registry on 1 December 1959. She was sold 20 June 1960, for $141,474 to Diamond Manufacturing Company of Savannah, Georgia, and used in the construction of the Norfolk-Portsmouth, Virginia bridge and tunnel project. In 1966, she was sold by Diamond Manufacturing to Boston Metals Company, Baltimore, Maryland, for scrapping.

Awards

American Campaign Medal
World War II Victory Medal
National Defense Service Medal

References

External links