Thursday, December 10, 2009

USS Pelias

Robert Coley's ship, the USS Pelias, was at Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941 working on submarines. I wrote about him in the previous entry.

It was launched November 14, 1939 as the SS Mormacyork and served as a passenger ship until acquired by US Navy in late 1940 and converted into a submarine tender. It was commissioned the USS Pelias (AS-14) in September 1941.

The next month, it sailed to the Pacific, arriving at Pearl Harbor November 21st. After six days, it began overhauling subs and was at the Submarine Base when the attack took place. The ship's guns shot down one Japanese plane and damaged another as they zoomed by down the main channel less than 100 yards off the Pelias' port side.

It served in the whole Pacific War. Between July 1942 and May 1944, the Pelias overhauled, repaired and refitted 59 ships in Submarine Squadrons 6, 12 and 16.

It was decommissioned in 1970 after many years as a reserve ship and scrapped.

Stats: 925 crew, 492 feet long, 69.5 beam, 2 guns and 4 machine guns.

Taking Care of Those Subs. --DaCoot

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