World War II Pacific Service and Fate
On 15 July 1943, Beaver sailed for the United States and, after an uneventful passage, arrived in New York later that month. Needed to support the growing American submarine offensive in the Pacific, the tender got underway 10 days later for San Diego, via the Panama Canal. After a brief overhaul in San Diego, she sailed for Alaska on 20 September. Assigned to SubRon 45 at Dutch Harbor, Beaver furnished tender services to North Pacific Force submarines when they returned from patrols in the northern Kurils and the Sea of Okhotsk. Her crew also helped establish and run a submarine base at Attu.
On 12 February 1944, the tender returned to San Diego, where her crew set up a submarine training school in conjunction with the Navy's West Coast Sound School. Beaver remained at San Diego — tending S-boats during training operations — until late June 1945. Ordered into drydock for conversion to an internal combustion engine repair ship, she was redesignated ARG-19 on 25 June 1945. Following two months of repair and conversion, she departed San Diego on 28 August for duty with the service force in occupied Japan. The ship remained in Japanese waters — tending the multitude of small craft in use by the Navy — until May 1946, when she returned to the west coast.
Beaver was decommissioned on 17 July 1946 and turned over to the War Shipping Administration for disposal on 5 August. Her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 15 August, and she was sold to the Boston Metals Corp. for scrapping on 28 August 1950.
Read more about this topic: USS Beaver (AS-5)
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