USS MERRIMACK (AO-37)

USS ''Merrimack'' (AO-37)
Career	USN Jack
Ordered:
Laid down:
Launched:
Commissioned:	4 February 1942
Decommissioned:	n/a
Fate:	Unknown
General Characteristics
Displacement:	6,013 tons light; 21,077 tons full
Length:	501 ft 5 in(153 m)
Beam:	68 ft (21 m)
Draft:	30 ft 2 in (9 m)
Speed:	16.5 knots (31 km/h)
Complement:	214
Armament:	one single 5"/38 dual-purpose gun mount; four single 3"/50 dual-purpose gun mounts; four twin 40mm gun mounts; four twin 20mm gun mounts
Capacity:	9 tanks, total 5,930,000 U.S. gallons (22,460,000 liters; 141,000 barrels); 430m³ (15,200 cubic feet) dry cargo[1]

'USS ''Merrimack'' (AO-37)' was one of five ''Kennebec''-class fleet oilers (also known as a type T2 tanker) built during World War II for service in the United States Navy, named after the Merrimack River.

Contents

History

References

History

The "Mack" unfurled her commission pennant on 4 February 1942 under the command of Captain William E. Hilbert, USN, and completed conversion at Staten Island, New York from the Esso tanker 'SS Caddo' on the fourteenth. A trial run to Norfolk, Virginia revealed only minor troubles, which were quickly overcome. A few weeks later she arrived at Bermuda for her debut as a fleet oiler. The coming out was a success and inaugurated a grand tour of the Atlantic Ocean, one that was to go as far north as NS Argentia, Newfoundland and Greenock, Scotland; south to Montevideo, Uruguay and Freetown, Sierra Leone; east to Gibraltar and Casablanca; and west to Trinidad and Rio de Janeiro with side trips into the Mediterranean and Caribbean Seas.
The equator was crossed for the first of eight times in May of that first year, but was quickly forgotten for the open armed welcome in Bahia and Recife, the State Department Fourth of July party, the Cariocas' friendliness in Rio and the thanks of a fuel-hungry Montevideo. Finally at the end of July, the Post Office Department discovered ''Merrimack'' was not the Army transport ''Merrimack'' (which had been sunk) and the first mail was received at Trinidad. Two more trips were made to a Brazil now at war with the Axis, a stop at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and finally back home in late September. The ship had been away nearly five and a half months which was a long time away from home in the Atlantic of the early War days. Then came a period for installing special equipment.
When this was completed the ship was ready for the North African Campaign with Task Group 34.10.2 and on that morning unloaded two aircraft rescue boats from her cargo deck in total darkness at Safi, French Morocco, later tying up there when the city had been secured. This trip to Africa was the most spectacular crossing, but was followed in the next year and a half by five Casablanca and three Oran trips which were more important, each brining four-and-a-half million U.S. gallons (18 million liters) of oil to support the North African and Italian Campaigns. It was on one of the Casablanca trips, in June 1943, ''Merrimack'' along with the corvette ''Pilot'' participated in the rescue and transport of one hundred and thirteen survivors of the French Naval Auxiliary Oiler ''Lot'', which was torpedoed while in the same convoy. For this service to France, the French Navy bestowed a plaque on ''Merrimack'' which read:
:Au U. S. S. ''MERRIMACK'' La MARINE FRANCAISE
:En souvenir de I'aide fraternelle apportee aux Officers et Marines du Ravitailleur
:d'Escadre LOT torpille dans l'Atlantique le 22 Juin 1943 au cours d'une mission de guerre effectuee en commun.
The plaque was presented in a ceremony at Norfolk by Vice-Admiral Alexander Sharp with a letter of commendation from Vice Admiral F. Michelier, Commander of the French Maritime and Aeronautical Forces which read in part:
:All the officers and men of the ''Lot'' are unanimous in praising the devotion of the American crews during the life saving operations and the cordiality with which they were received aboard these two ships. On board the ''Pilot'' the men threw themselves in the water to help the tired survivors—on board the ''Merrimack'' the crew did everything to give our men the maximum comfort and to make them forget in a thousand delicate ways, the bad times they had just experienced, I wish to express my thanks for the conduct of the ''Pilot'' and the ''Merrimack''. I shall be pleased if you will congratulate these ships and inform them of the gratitude of the sailors whom they succored.
On the return trip, a German submarine was sunk by a plane operating from the convoy and three survivors were carried as prisoners aboard this ship. The German-speakers of the crew now had their time at bat just as the French-speakers had theirs a few weeks before. However, nothing of military value was gleaned from these conversations except a boost in morale to the ship's crew to observe the humbled "supermen". On September 27, 1943 Commander Robert A. MacKerracher, USN, stepped up from executive officer to replace Captain Hilbert as skipper. Three months later, the Norfolk to Casablanca schedule was interrupted by a different type of Atlantic crossing—this time to Greenock, Scotland, Scotland. Carrying oil seemed to be only a side issue on this trip. Any old-timer will tell the boot complaining of rough seas and foul weather, "''This is nothing; you should have been with us on the Scotland trip.''" Certainly the fueling-at-sea was the roughest encountered before or since. New Year's Day was celebrated by the loss of two booms, two 8-inch tow lines, and six lengths of hose. After returning and making a short trip to Texas and one to Bermuda for fueling exercises, she went into the Norfolk Navy Yard for long-awaited extensive overhaul and post-repair trials. After this came three trips to Oran which were to terminate this ship's service in the Atlantic Fleet. On these trips there were no diversions such as those offered by the French survivors and German prisoners, There was little to be seen that hadn't already been noticed in Casablanca—mainly Arabs.
The enemy was definitely active as evidenced by air reconnaissance and the torpedoing and sinking of a destroyer escort on the first trip. General quarters came infrequently and the spring and summer weather of the mid-Atlantic and Mediterranean was enjoyed to the fullest. During these trips and on the previous Casablanca runs the ship acted as convoy oiler which meant two days out of seventeen spent fueling the escort ships. On one of these trips an Atlantic record was established when thirteen destroyers and destroyer escorts were fueled in five hours and under standard test conditions. This ship also held and broke twice the record for fueling a single ship in the shortest time. On these trips, "Mack" also acted as a general catch-all for personnel and material. PT boats, patrol craft, and airplanes were ferried across the Atlantic; passengers and mail brought back. The medical department could always count on receiving at least one patient from the merchant ships in the convoy. This practice resulted in the only death recorded aboard ''Merrimack''. A German prisoner being carried to the States for internment was transferred for a throat operation but he was already too far gone for effective aid. His death the following day led to a military burial at sea.
On 24 September 1944 Captain MacKerracher was relieved by Captain Vaughn Bailey, USN (Retired), while the ship was in her final yard period at Norfolk. The Pacific camouflage had been applied, additional guns installed, all other essential repairs made, and last good-byes said, for this time it was felt the ship was going into the thick of the War. October 14 saw the last of the States for nearly fifteen months. The ship proceeded through the West Indies to Aruba for a load of oil, then two diversionary days in Panama which were unanimously popular, and the first trip through the Canal for most of the crew. Two more weeks and Pearl Harbor afforded the last sight of civilization for nearly a year. While at Pearl the ship was called on to fuel a hunter-killer group searching for a Japanese submarine between Hawaii and California in order the group might stay at the task and get the submarine. During this operation, "Mack" completed her four hundredth fueling-at-sea. The return to Pearl Harbor brought last minute stores and information and then the trip into the unknown. Eniwetok showed the crew the devastation of an actual battlefield, but Ulithi, reached on December 1, was a new and untouched (except by human hands) base, which was to be "home-port" for the next nine months.
A new phase of fueling was now begun. Formerly, the majority of fuelings had been to convoy escort vessels. Now the ship was part of fuel task groups which sailed to designated areas and cruised around waiting for the one or two big days of a fortnight when the task forces of the Third or Fifth Fleets would replenish their oil reserves—the one item which could not be loaded at a base to meet all cruising needs of a month or more. During this period, ''Merrimack'' fueled nearly every type of seagoing ship the Navy has and even tried a couple of British ships for size. While operations were quite likely to carry close to enemy-threatened areas, the ship never fired a shot in anger and while action has been imminent on several occasions, there has always been the satisfying feeling of having ample support for any scrap.
Because of her proximity to the battle areas and close support of ships in action, "Mack"'s Pacific crew were entitled to wear five Battle Stars on their area ribbons for operations during the invasions of Leyte, Luzon, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa, and during the great air and sea attacks on Japan just prior to her surrender. The men also earned the Philippine Liberation Medal for support in the Leyte invasion and occupation. In addition Captain Bailey, the senior tanker captain of the Pacific Fleet, was awarded a Navy Unit Commendation for his work as commanding officer of ''Merrimack'' during her Pacific service when he was frequently head of a task unit as well. ''Merrimack'' herself received eight Battle Stars for her World War II service, along with American Campaign Medal, the Europe-Africa-Middle East Campaign Medal (three times) the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (eight times), the World War II Victory Medal, the Navy Occupation Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, and the Philippine Liberation Medal.
The monotony of long days of cruising at sea was scarcely broken by the days spent at the Ulithi anchorage which to most of the crew was completely barren of any attraction. The occasional let-up in the work of war was provided by the fueling days and by the hours spent near land of appreciable size—Leyte and Okinawa. Whenever ''Merrimack'' left Ulithi to rendezvous with the fleet, she usually acted as a clearing house for business to be done, carrying mail, passengers, fleet replacements, cargo, freight, and provisions—anything, or anybody, needing a lift. Her cargo deck has held everything from plane spares to milk wagons and she was the first ship to participate in a transfer of airplane engines, propellers, and wings at sea—and, she hoped, the last. After a month in Tokyo Bay, she put to sea for the last fueling-at-sea operation. Later duty was assigned in Nagoya and then Kure where she passed through one of war's ironies by fueling Japanese destroyers and escort vessels now operating in their country's repatriation service. The crew also had a chance to go on a sightless sight-seeing tour of Hiroshima and adjacent areas.
The good news came in December when "Mack" was given orders to return home for Navy Yard overhaul and alteration at Terminal Island. After fueling over 800 ships, 629 at sea (seldom attempted before the War), ''Merrimack'' abandoned her role as a fleet oiler with its multitude of extra services and start the long Pacific haul in the Navy Transport Services. ''Merrimack'' was decommissioned 8 February 1950 and entered the Atlantic Reserve Fleet at Orange, Texas. When Communist Forces invaded South Korea, ''Merrimack'' was recommissioned on 6 December 1950. Assigned to MSTS, the fleet oiler served the Atlantic Fleet, making periodic deployments to the Mediterranean until decommissioned 20 December 1954 and placed in the Pacific Reserve Fleet at San Diego, California.
In October 1957, while on a voyage to the Middle East, ''Merrimack'' lost all propulsion power. Her SOS was answered by USNS ''Mission Soledad'', who rushed to the scene and rendered assistance until USS ''Pecos'' (AO-65) arrived and towed the stricken ship into Bombay, India. She was stricken from the 'Navy List' on 4 February 1959, transferred to the Maritime Administration, and placed in the National Defense Reserve Fleet at Beaumont, Texas.
The ship's final disposition is unknown.

References

This article includes text plagiarised from the public domain ''Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships''.

★ USS ''Merrimack''

★ AO-37 ''Merrimack''