Collision With USS Lenawee
In mid-August 1957, Wantuck got underway from San Diego for Hawaii on the first leg of a voyage to Japan. She was about 180 nautical miles (333 kilometers) from San Diego on a moonless and starless night when at 0318 hours on 15 August 1957 the attack transport USS Lenawee (APA-195) rammed her on the port side between the No.1 boiler room and No. 1 engine room, almost tearing Wantuck in half, the impact being powerful enough to bring her forward momentum to an immediate stop and shove her laterally to starboard. Wantuck suffered two men killed—one who drowned in the flooding engine room and another scalded by high-pressure steam -- and five injured, all burned. The submarine rescue ship USS Florikan (ASR-9) and fleet ocean tug USS Cree (ATF-84) came to Wantuck's aid, while Lenawee took some of Wantuck's injured men aboard and proceeded to Pearl Harbor.
Wantuck arrived in San Diego under tow on the evening of 16 August 1957.
Read more about this topic: USS Wantuck (APD-125)
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