USS Yancey (AKA-93)

USS Yancey (AKA-93)



USS Yancey (AKA-93) in 1965
Career (US)
Name: USS Yancey
Namesake: Yancey County, North Carolina
Builder: Moore Dry Dock Company, Oakland, California
Yard number: 280
Laid down: 22 May 1944
Launched: 8 July 1944
Sponsored by: Miss Beverly Bartlett
Commissioned: 11 October 1944
Decommissioned: March 1958
Recommissioned: 17 November 1961
Decommissioned: 20 January 1971
Struck: 1 January 1977
Homeport: 1946: San Francisco, California
1961: Norfolk, Virginia
Honors and
awards:

5 battle stars

  • World War II (2)
  • Korean War (3)
Fate: sunk as an artificial reef off Morehead City, NC, 1990. Laying on her starboard side at a depth of 160 ft (49 m)
General characteristics
Class & type: Andromeda-class attack cargo ship
Type: C2-S-B1
Displacement: 13,910 long tons (14,130 t) (fully loaded)
Length: 459 ft 3 in (139.98 m) (length overall)
435 ft 0 in (132.59 m) (lpp)
Beam: 63 ft (19 m)
Draft: 26 ft 4 in (8.03 m)
Propulsion: 1 × steam turbine
Speed: 16.5 knots (30.6 km/h)
Boats & landing
craft carried:
  • 8 × LCMs
  • 1 × LCP(L)
  • 15 × LCVPs
Capacity: 4,450 long tons deadweight (DWT)
Complement: 368
Armament: 1 × 5 in (130 mm)/38 caliber dual purpose gun mount
4 × twin 40 mm (1.6 in) gun mounts,
16 × 20 mm (0.79 in) gun mounts

USS Yancey (AKA-93/LKA-93) was an Andromeda-class attack cargo ship built by the Moore Dry Dock Company of Oakland, California for the United States Navy during World War II. The ship was named in honor of Yancey County, North Carolina.

Yancey's keel was laid in May 1944, and the ship was launched in July, and commissioned in October. The ship operated in the Pacific during the war and was a participant in the amphibious landings at Iwo Jima in February 1945 and Okinawa in April. After Japan's surrender in August, Yancey was in Tokyo Bay during the signing of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender on 2 September. The ship made voyages delivering troops for the occupation of Japan before returning to the United States in January 1946. After spending most of the next year on the east coast, Yancey was ordered back into the Pacific in November, and took part in Operation Highjump, a Navy expedition to Antarctica in January 1947; Yancey Glacier was named in the ship's honor.

After spending most of the next decade in duties in the Western Pacific, Yancey was decommissioned in March 1958 and placed in reserve at Olympia, Washington. Yancey was reactivated in the aftermath of the Berlin Crisis of 1961 and recommissioned in November. During the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis she sailed in support of the U.S. blockade of Cuba, and during the April 1965 U.S. intervention in the Dominican Republic she carried almost a quarter of all of the evacuees from Santo Domingo. In January 1970, Yancey was blown by a storm into the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel which closed the structure for several weeks.

The ship was decommissioned for the final time in January 1971, and struck from the Naval Vessel Register in January 1977. After being striped of salvageable materials, the ship was sunk as an artificial reef off the North Carolina coast in 1990. The ship is intact and rests on her starboard side at a depth of 160 feet (49 m).

Read more about USS Yancey (AKA-93):  Design and Construction, World War II, Post War, Operation Highjump, Korean War, Recommissioning, Cuban Missile Crisis and Dominican Republic Operations, Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel Incident