USS Trapper (ACM-9)

Career
Name: USS Trapper (ACM-9)
Builder: Marietta Manufacturing Company, Point Pleasant, West Virginia
Laid down: 1942 as USAMP Maj. Gen. Arthur Murray for the U.S. Army
Launched: 1942
Acquired: 2 January 1945
Decommissioned: 20 June 1946
Struck: 19 July 1946
Fate: Transferred to the Coast Guard, 20 June 1946
USCGC Yamacraw (WARC-333) from Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
Career
Name: USCGC Yamacraw (WARC-333)
Acquired: 20 June 1946
Fate: Transferred to the US Navy, 17 April 1959
Career
Name: USS Yamacraw (ARC-5)
Acquired: 17 April 1959
Struck: 2 July 1965
Fate: Transferred to the Maritime Administration, 2 July 1965
General characteristics
Class and type:Chimo-class minelayer
Displacement:1,320 long tons (1,341 t)
Length:188 ft 2 in (57.35 m)
Beam:37 ft (11 m)
Draft:12 ft 6 in (3.81 m)
Speed:12.5 knots (23.2 km/h; 14.4 mph)
Complement:69
Armament:1 × 40 mm gun

USS Trapper (ACM-9) was a Chimo-class minelayer in the United States Navy in World War II.

Trapper was built 1942[1] for the United States Army as U.S. Army Mine Planter (USAMP) Maj. Gen. Arthur Murray at Point Pleasant, West Virginia, by the Marietta Manufacturing Co.; acquired by the U.S. Navy on 2 January 1945; converted into an auxiliary minelayer by the Charleston Navy Yard, in South Carolina; and commissioned on 15 March 1945, Lt. Richard E. Lewis, USNR, in command. The ship later became U.S. Coast Guard cable ship USCGC Yamacraw (WARC-333) then, after being reacquired by Navy, the Cable Repair Ship USS Yamacraw (ARC-5).

The ship's namesake as an Army mine planter, MG Arthur Murray, USA, was the first Chief of Coast Artillery 1 July 1908-14 March 1911. The Army Mine Planter Service was part of the Coast Artillery Corps.

Service history

Pacific Theatre operations

After shakedown training in the Chesapeake Bay area during April, Trapper got underway on 11 June and proceeded – via Manzanillo, Cuba, the Panama Canal, and San Diego — to the Pacific Ocean war zone. In mid-August, while the minelayer was en route to Hawaii, Japan capitulated. The ship arrived at Pearl Harbor on 21 August and was routed westward, via Eniwetok, Saipan, and Okinawa, to Japan.

Trapper arrived at Kobe on 25 November 1945 and operated out of that port repairing minesweeping gear until 1 February 1946 when she shifted her base of operations to Wakayama for a month. On 11 March, the minelayer got underway for the United States. En route, she called at Saipan, Eniwetok, Kwajalein, Johnston Island, and Hawaii before arriving at San Francisco, on 2 May.

Transfer to the U.S. Coast Guard

Trapper was decommissioned and transferred to the United States Coast Guard on 20 June 1946 and struck from the Navy list on 19 July 1946. The former auxiliary minelayer served with the Coast Guard until early 1959 as the USCGC Yamacraw (WARC-333).[2]

During 1957 and 1958 the ship was leased to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for geophysical research.[3]

Before being transferred back to the U.S. Navy the Yamacraw was the buoy tender used in the Andy Griffith motion picture "Onionhead".[4]

Reacquisition by the U.S. Navy

She was reacquired by the United States Navy on 17 April 1959 and commissioned at New York on 30 April as ARC-5, a cable repair ship.

Yamacraw was assigned to the 3rd Naval District for the next six years. She operated from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to Bermuda and spent much of her at-sea time conducting research projects for the Office of Naval Research and for the Bell Telephone Laboratories.

Final decommissioning

On 2 July 1965, Yamacraw was decommissioned, transferred to the permanent custody of the Maritime Administration, and struck from the Navy List.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "U.S. Army Mine Craft". Shipbuilding History. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
  2. ↑ Naval History & Heritage Command. "Trapper". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. U.S. Navy. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
  3. ↑ "ARC-1, Yamacraw (ARC-5) & Nashawena (AG-142)". Retrieved 10 November 2011.
  4. ↑ NavSource. "USS Yamacraw (ARC 5)ex-USCGC Yamacraw (WARC 333)ex-USS Trapper (ACM 9)ex-USAMP Major General Arthur Murray". NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive. Retrieved 10 November 2011.

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

External links