USS Sphinx (ARL-24)
USS Sphinx (ARL-24) was one of 39 Achelous-class landing craft repair ships built for the United States Navy during World War II. Named for the Sphinx (a mythical monster formed by joining the body of a lion and the head of a human), she was the only U.S. Naval vessel to bear the name.
Originally authorized as LST-963, the ship was redesignated as a landing craft repair ship (ARL) on 11 September 1944; laid down 20 October 1944 by the Bethlehem Steel Company of Hingham, Massachusetts; named Sphinx and redesignated ARL-24 on 11 September 1944; launched on 18 November 1944; converted into a landing craft repair ship at the Merrill Stevens Drydock, Jacksonville, Florida; and commissioned on 10 May 1945. Sphinx completed fitting out and proceeded to Norfolk, Virginia for sea trials and shakedown in Chesapeake Bay.
Read more about USS Sphinx (ARL-24): Museum Ship
Famous quotes containing the word sphinx:
“On the grey rock of Cashel I suddenly saw
A Sphinx with woman breast and lion paw,
A Buddha, hand at rest,
Hand lifted up that blest;
And right between these two a girl at play
That, it may be, had danced her life away....”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)