USS Sheldrake (AM-62) - Survey Ship

Survey Ship

Sheldrake recommissioned at San Diego, California, on 14 April 1952 and sailed to New York City for conversion to an oceanographic survey ship. Over the next 16 years, she plied the waters of the western Atlantic and the Caribbean, from Newfoundland to Cuba, conducting over 25 separate surveys. On three occasions, Sheldrake left her normal area of operations to conduct surveys. Two of these cruises were to the Mediterranean, February to April 1958 and November 1965 to March 1966. The third departure from normal Atlantic Ocean operations came in July 1966 when she changed homeports, from New York City to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Departing Bayonne, New Jersey, on 7 July, she laid over at Norfolk, Virginia, until 12 July; then got underway with Towhee for the Panama Canal. They transited the canal on the 19th, visited Mazatlán, Mexico, on the 29th, and arrived at Pearl Harbor on 12 August. After almost three months in Hawaii, Sheldrake deployed to the western Pacific on 9 November. For almost a year and one-half, she, Tanner and Towhee surveyed in the western Pacific, in the Philippines, and along the Southeast Asian coast. On 9 April, she returned to Pearl Harbor.

She remained in Hawaii until struck from the Navy List on 30 June 1968 and decommissioned on 1 August. She was turned over to the Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility at Pearl Harbor until sold to Flynn-Learner of Honolulu on 2 November 1971 for scrapping.