USS Unimak (AVP-31) in Seattle on 31 January 1944
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History | |
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United States | |
Name | USS Unimak (AVP-31) |
Namesake | Unimak Bay on the southern side of Unimak Island, Alaska |
Builder | Associated Shipbuilders, Inc., Seattle |
Laid down | 15 February 1942 |
Launched | 27 May 1942 |
Sponsored by | Mrs. H. B. Berry |
Commissioned | 31 December 1943 |
Decommissioned | 25 January 1946 |
Fate |
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Acquired | Transferred from U.S. Coast Guard 1988 |
Fate | Scuttled 1988 to form an artificial reef |
United States | |
Name | USCGC Unimak (WAVP-379) |
Namesake | Unimak Bay on the coast of Unimak Island in Alaska (previous name retained) |
Acquired |
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Commissioned | 3 January 1949 |
Reclassified |
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Decommissioned | 31 May 1975 |
Recommissioned | 22 August 1977 |
Reclassified | High endurance cutter, WHEC-379, 22 August 1977 |
Decommissioned | 29 April 1988 |
Fate | Transferred to U.S. Navy 1988 |
Notes | Radio callsign NBVG |
General characteristics (seaplane tender) | |
Class and type | Barnegat-class small seaplane tender |
Displacement |
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Length | 310 ft 9 in (94.7 m) |
Beam | 41 ft 2 in (12.55 m) |
Draft | 13 ft 6 in (4.1 m) |
Installed power | 6,000 horsepower (4.48 megawatts) |
Propulsion | Diesel engines, two shafts |
Speed | 18.2 knots (33.7 km/h) |
Complement |
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Sensors and processing systems | Radar; sonar |
Armament |
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Aviation facilities | Supplies, spare parts, repairs, and berthing for one seaplane squadron; 80,000 US gallons (300,000 L) aviation fuel |
General characteristics (Coast Guard cutter) | |
Class and type | Casco-class cutter |
Displacement | 2,498 long tons (2,538 t) full load in 1966 |
Length | 311 ft 7¾ in (95.0 m) overall; 300 ft 0 in (91.4 m) between perpendiculars |
Beam | 41 ft (12.5 m) maximum |
Draft | 12 ft 7 in (3.8 m) full load, aft, maximum, in 1966 |
Installed power | 6,080 bhp (4,530 kW) |
Propulsion | Four Fairbanks-Morse 10-cylinder direct-reversing diesel engines in two engine rooms; two shafts |
Speed | 17.3 knots (32 km/h) sustained maximum in 1966>br/> 10.0 knots (19 km/h) economic in 1966 |
Range |
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Capacity | 166,430 US gallons (630,000 L) (630.0 kiloliters) diesel fuel |
Complement | 89 (10 officers, 2 warrant officers, 77 enlisted personnel) in 1966 |
Sensors and processing systems | |
Armament |
USS Unimak (AVP-31) was a United States Navy Barnegat-class small seaplane tender in commission from 1943 to 1946 that saw service in World War II. After the war, she was in commission in the United States Coast Guard as the cutter USCGC Unimak (WAVP-379), later WHEC-379, WTR-379, and again WHEC-379, from 1949 to 1975 and from 1977 to 1988.
Construction began on Unimak on 15 February 1942 at Harbor Island, Seattle by Associated Shipbuilders, Inc. She was launched on 27 May 1942, sponsored by Mrs. H. B. Berry, the wife of Captain H. B. Berry, the personnel officer of the 13th Naval District, and commissioned on 31 December 1943.
Barnegat-class ships were very reliable and seaworthy and had good habitability. The Coast Guard viewed them as ideal for ocean station duty, in which they would perform weather reporting and search and rescue tasks. They were modified by having a balloon shelter, oceanographic equipment, an oceanographic winch, and a hydrographic winch installed. After World War II, the U.S. Navy transferred 18 of the ships to the Coast Guard, in which they were known as the Casco-class cutters.
The Navy loaned Unimak to the United States Coast Guard on 14 September 1948. After undergoing conversion for Coast Guard use, she was commissioned into the Coast Guard on 3 January 1949 as USCGC Unimak (WAVP-379).
Unimak was home-ported in Boston, Massachusetts, from 3 January 1949 to 1 September 1956. Her primary duty during her Coast Guard service was to serve on ocean stations to gather meteorological data. While on duty in one of these stations, she was required to patrol a 210-square-mile (544-square-kilometer) area for three weeks at a time, leaving the area only when physically relieved by another Coast Guard cutter or in the case of a dire emergency. While on station, she acted as an aircraft check point at the point of no return, a relay point for messages from ships and aircraft, as a source of the latest weather information for passing aircraft, as a floating oceanographic laboratory, and as a search-and-rescue ship for downed aircraft and vessels in distress. She also engaged in law enforcement operations.
In June 1956, Unimak patrolled the Newport, Rhode Island-to-Bermuda race.
Unimak was stationed at Cape May, New Jersey, from 1 September 1956 to 7 August 1972 and used primarily for training United States Coast Guard Reserve personnel, including training cruises to Brazil and Nova Scotia. She took part in the United States Coast Guard Academy cadet cruise of August 1965.
Unimak was reclassified as a high endurance cutter and redesignated WHEC-379 on 1 May 1966. Her loan period from the Navy came to an end on 26 September 1966, when she was transferred permanently from the Navy to the Coast Guard.
On 7 March 1967, Unimak rescued six Cuban refugees in the Yucatán Channel. On 10 March 1967 she rescued survivors from the fishing vessel Bunkie III in Florida waters. On 15 March 1967, she rescued 12 Cuban refugees who were stranded on an island. On 29 May 1969, she towed the fishing vessel Sirocco–which was disabled 35 nautical miles (65 km) east of Fort Pierce, Florida–to safety.
Unimak was reclassified as a training ship and again redesignated, this time as WTR-379, on 28 November 1969. On 3 April 1970, she stood by the grounded merchant ship Vassiliki near Mayaguana Island until a commercial tugboat arrived to assist Vassiliki.
From 7 August 1972 to 31 May 1975, Unimak was stationed at Yorktown, Virginia, and was again used to train Coast Guard reservists.
The Coast Guard decommissioned Unimak on 31 May 1975 and placed her in reserve at the Coast Guard Yard at Curtis Bay, Maryland.
On 22 August 1977, the Coast Guard recommissioned Unimak, reclassifying her as a high-endurance cutter and returning her to the designation WHEC-379. She was home-ported at New Bedford, Massachusetts, for the rest of her Coast Guard career. During this stint in commission, she was used primarily for fisheries patrol in the Atlantic, law enforcement operations in the Caribbean and as a weather ship for the United States International Weather Patrol.
Unimak also interdicted the trafficking of illegal drugs. On 6 October 1980, she seized the merchant ship Janeth 340 nautical miles (630 km) southeast of Miami; Janeth was carrying 500 bales of marijuana. On 14 October 1980, she seized the pleasure craft Rescue, which was carrying approximately 500 bales of marijuana, and the pleasure craft Snail, with two tons of marijuana on board, in the Gulf of Mexico. On 17 October 1980, she seized the merchant vessel Amalaka southwest of Key West, Florida; Amalaka was carrying 1,000 bales of marijuana. On 19 October 1980, she seized the fishing vessel Wright's Pride southwest of Key West; the ship had 30 tons of marijuana aboard. In March 1981, while on an Officer Candidate School training cruise, she intercepted the merchant ship Mayo with 40 tons of marijuana on board.
On 9 October 1982,[a] Unimak towed the disabled fishing vessel Sacred Heart away from Daid Banks, 45 nautical miles (83 km; 52 mi) east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in 30-foot (9.1 m) seas.[1]
Between 28 January 1983 and 9 March 1983, Unimak again deployed to the Caribbean for a law-enforcement patrol. On 27 and 28 February 1983, she towed the dismasted sailing vessel Wandering Star to Matthew Town on Great Inagua in the Bahamas. On 3 March 1983, she towed the disabled merchant vessel Yadrina to Matthew Town.
On 30 November 1984, Unimak seized the sailboat Lola 100 nautical miles (190 km; 120 mi) north of Barranquilla; Lola had 1.5 tons of marijuana on board. Another drug seizure occurred on 2 November 1985, when Unimak seized the tug Zeus 3 and a barge 200 nautical miles (370 km; 230 mi) south of the Dominican Republic; the two vessels were carrying 40 tons of marijuana.
Unimak was the last of the 35 Barnegat-class ships and the last of the 18 Casco-class cutters in service in the United States when the Coast Guard decommissioned her on 29 April 1988 and transferred her to the U.S. Navy. She was then sunk that year as an artificial reef off the Virginia coast in 150 feet (46 meters)[2] of water.