Construction and U.S. Navy Service
Rockaway began life as the United States Navy Barnegat-class seaplane tender USS Rockaway (AVP-29). She was laid down on 30 June 1941 by Associated Shipbuilders, Inc. at Seattle, Washington, launched on 14 February 1942, and commissioned into the U.S. Navy on 6 January 1943. She operated primarily in the Atlantic Ocean during World War II. She began conversion to a press information ship, redesignated AG-123, in July 1945 in anticipation of the invasion of Japan scheduled for 1945-1946, but this was cancelled and she was converted back into a seaplane tender when the war ended without the invasion being necessary. She was decommissioned on 21 March 1946 and placed in reserve in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet at Orange, Texas.
Read more about this topic: USCGC Rockaway (WAVP-377)
Famous quotes containing the words construction, navy and/or service:
“No construction stiff working overtime takes more stress and straining than we did just to stay high.”
—Gus Van Sant, U.S. screenwriter and director, and Dan Yost. Bob Hughes (Matt Dillon)
“I call to mind the navy great
That the Greeks brought to Troye town,
And how the boistous winds did beat
Their ships, and rent their sails adown;
Till Agamemnon’s daughter’s blood
Appeased the gods that them withstood.”
—Henry Howard, Earl Of Surrey (1517?–1547)
“We too are ashes as we watch and hear
The psalm, the sorrow, and the simple praise
Of one whose promised thoughts of other days
Were such as ours, but now wholly destroyed,
The service record of his youth wiped out,
His dream dispersed by shot, must disappear.”
—Karl Shapiro (b. 1913)