USS Basilan (AG-68)

USS Basilan (AG-68)



USS Basilan (AG-68) underway in San Francisco Bay, 27 March 1945, after overhaul.
Career (USA)
Name: USS Basilan
Namesake: The largest of the Basilan islands in the southern Philippines
Ordered: as Internal Combustion Engine Repair Ship (ARG-12)
Builder: Delta Shipbuilding Corporation, New Orleans, Louisiana
Laid down: 5 February 1944, as SS Jacques Phillipe Villere
Launched: 21 March 1944
Acquired: by the Navy, 21 April 1944
Commissioned: 10 October 1944 as USS Basilan (AG-68)
Decommissioned: 22 April 1946, at Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii
Reclassified: AG-68, date unknown
Refit: Waterman Steamship Company, Mobile, Alabama
Struck: 28 May 1947
Fate: sold, 12 June 1972, for scrapping
Notes: type (EC-2-S-C1) hull, MCE hull 2460
General characteristics
Type: Basilan-class miscellaneous auxiliary
Displacement: 5,371 tons
Tons burthen: 14,200 tons
Length: 442'
Beam: 57'
Draft: 23'
Propulsion: reciprocating steam engine, single shaft, 1,950hp
Speed: 13 knots
Complement: 181 officers and enlisted
Armament: one single 5"/38 dual purpose gun mount; four 40mm AA gun mounts; twelve single 20mm AA gun mounts

USS Basilan (AG-68/ARG-12) was a Basilan-class miscellaneous auxiliary acquired by the U.S. Navy during World War II. The ship was designed as a combined barracks-stores-water distillation ship, but was later converted to an electronics repair ship. She spent her Navy career in the Pacific Ocean theatre of operations.

Read more about USS Basilan (AG-68):  Liberty Ship Built in Louisiana, Post-war Decommissioning