USS Arctic (AF-7) - World War II

World War II

For the first five months of 1942, a time punctuated with yard periods at the Mare Island Navy Yard, Arctic operated between Pearl Harbor and San Francisco. She then deployed briefly to Alaskan waters, to supply the ships of Task Force 8 (TF 8) and shore facilities at Kodiak from 3–13 July. Returning thence to the west coast, she arrived at San Francisco on 24 July and soon thereafter sailed for the South Pacific. After touching en route at Pearl Harbor and at Tongatapu, Arctic commenced a routine of supplying ships and shore stations at New Caledonia and in the New Hebrides. Before 1942 was over, the storeship visited Noumea twice and Espiritu Santo once. During the following year, 1943, she voyaged twice to Nouméa, thrice to Espiritu Santo, and once to Efate, usually stopping at Samoa en route from the Hawaiian Islands. An overhaul at Alameda, California and at Oakland from 4 July-27 September broke this period of operations. Following her third call at Espiritu Santo from 23 October-5 November, Arctic returned again to the U.S. West Coast for engine repairs, reaching San Francisco on 29 November and remaining there into the following year.

Departing the west coast on 29 January 1944, the storeship arrived at Pearl Harbor on 8 February. Assigned thence to Service Squadron 8 (ServRon 8) over the next six months, Arctic made five round-trip voyages to the Marshall Islands, provisioning ships at Majuro, Kwajalein, and Eniwetok. Shifting to Seeadler Harbor — at Manus — on 20 September, the auxiliary ship spent the next month issuing supplies to various units afloat before she proceeded to Ulithi on 24 October.

Remaining at Ulithi, temporarily attached to ServRon 10, until a week before Christmas, 1944, Arctic provided working parties for various merchant ships and took on board supplies for issue to the fleet until she commenced a series of round-trip voyages from Ulithi to the Palau Islands; she conducted four such voyages from 18 December 1944-1 April 1945 to provision ships and shore installations at Kossol Roads, Peleliu, and Angaur. Touching at Saipan on 5 April, Arctic proceeded to Iwo Jima, where — from 9–12 April — she provisioned island forces, various units of the Pacific Fleet, and small craft.

Returning to Guam on 15 April, the "beef boat" then sailed for the United States. A severe tropical storm enlivened her passage home before she arrived at San Francisco on 12 May. Sailing for the west again on 2 July, Arctic arrived at Ulithi on the 26th before she proceeded, in convoy UOK-43, for Okinawa, where — from 5–21 August — she issued fresh, frozen and dry provisions to fleet units. After Japan capitulated, she returned to Pearl Harbor on 11 September for repairs and reloading, before sailing for Japanese waters on 24 October. While en route to Tokyo, she sank a mine with gunfire on 12 November.

From 21 November-13 December, Arctic provisioned fleet units off Yokosuka before she returned to Hawaiian waters — again sinking a mine en route — on 20 December. She departed Pearl Harbor on 2 January 1946 and arrived at San Diego on the 16th, where she remained for a little over a month. She left the west coast of the United States for the last time on 18 February, bound for the Gulf of Mexico. Material defects having rendered continued operation of the venerable Arctic "impracticable," the veteran "beef boat" was on her last voyage. Transiting the Panama Canal on 7 March, Arctic arrived at New Orleans, Louisiana on the 15th. There, at Pendleton Shipyards, she was decommissioned on 3 April. Her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 May. Transferred to the Maritime Commission for disposition on 3 July, the ship was then sold on 19 August 1947 to the Southern Shipwrecking Corp. and met her end under the scrapper's torch.