AFDM-1-class floating drydock, on it side for Panama Canal passage
History
United States
Name	YDS-4
Operator	Todd Shipyards at New Orleans
Builder	Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding Company, Mobile
Cost	$2,760,300 (1942)
Laid down	January 1943
Commissioned	1 October 1943
Reclassified	AFDM-2, 1945
Honors and awards	See Awards
Fate	Sold to Gulf Copper & Manufacturing Corp., 11 February 1999
Status	Operational in Port Arthur, Texas
General characteristics
Class and type	AFDM-1-class floating drydock
Displacement	6,360 t (6,260 long tons)
Length	616 ft (187.8 m)
Beam	116 ft (35.4 m)
Draft	6 ft (1.8 m), empty
Capacity	9,000 t (8,858 long tons), lift
Complement	4 officers, 146 enlisted
Armament	2 × Bofors 40 mm guns 4 × Oerlikon 20 mm cannons
Notes	2 × service cranes

USS AFDM-2, (former YFD-4), is an AFDM-3-class medium auxiliary floating drydock built in Mobile, Alabama by the Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding Company for the U.S. Navy. Originally named USS YFD-4, Yard Floating Dock-4, she operated by Todd Shipyards at New Orleans, Louisiana for the repair of US ships during World War II. YFD-4 was renamed an Auxiliary Floating Dock Medium AFDM-2 in 1945 after the war.

Design

AFDM-2 was 37 feet (11.3 m) tall, 116 feet (35.4 m) wide, length of 614 feet (187.1 m) (all three section connected), and has a displacement of 6,360 tons. AFDM-2 could lift capacity 9,000 tons and had two service cranes to lift material and parts for removing damage parts and the installation of new parts. The floating drydock can repair ships up to a beam of 90 feet (27.4 m), as she is 90 feet wide between the wing walls. Ballast pontoons tanks are flooded with water to submerge or pumped dry to raise the ship. Submerged she can load a ship with a draft up to 20 feet (6.1 m).^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

History

It was built by Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding Company in Mobile, Alabama. she was laid down in January 1942 and commissioned on 1 October 1943, right after her delivery to the Navy.

Hurricane Betsy, Category 4, sank and damaged AFDM-2 on 9 September 1965. USS AFDM-2 was at Todd Shipyards on the west side of the Mississippi River in Algiers, New Orleans. AFDM-2 had the water pumped out of her pontoon tanks and was raised for repair. The salvage ships MS Cable and USS Curb and USS Salinan, an Achomawi-class fleet ocean tug, helped in the recovery of AFDM-2. Due to the large size of AFDM-2 two rescue and salvage ships, USS Salvager and USS Windlass arrived with three special support barges to help in the salvage. Land-based winches were also used in the recovery. On 25 August 1966 tugs returned AFDM-2 to Todd Shipyards, eleven months after her sinking. Repairs where completed and she was put back in service. Divers had to repair more than 100 holes in AFDM-2 to float her again.^[6]

On 16 May 1995 she was laid up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet, Beaumont, Texas. On 11 February 1999 she was reactivated and transferred to the Government of the Dominican Republic. She was later sold to Gulf Copper & Manufacturing Corporation at Port Arthur, Texas and renamed Mr. Morris.^[7] In 2013 USS LST-325, a landing ship, tank, now a museum ship, was repaired in AFDM-2.^[8] On 17 December 2021, USS Orleck (DD-886) arrived in Port Arthur to be repaired in AFDM-2.^[9]

Awards

• American Campaign Medal
• Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal
• World War II Victory Medal