An ammunition ship is a warship

Warship

A warship is a ship that is built and primarily intended for combat. Warships are usually built in a completely different way from merchant ships. As well as being armed, warships are designed to withstand damage and are usually faster and more maneuvrable than merchant ships...

 specially configured to carry ammunition

Ammunition

Ammunition is a generic term derived from the French language la munition which embraced all material used for war , but which in time came to refer specifically to gunpowder and artillery. The collective term for all types of ammunition is munitions...

, usually for Navy ships and aircraft. Their cargo handling systems, designed with extreme safety in mind, include ammunition hoists with airlocks between decks, and mechanisms for flooding entire compartments with sea water in case of emergencies. They most often deliver their cargo to other ships using underway replenishment

Underway replenishment

Underway replenishment or replenishment at sea is a method of transferring fuel, munitions, and stores from one ship to another while under way.-History:...

, using both connected replenishment and vertical replenishment. To a lesser extent, they transport ammunition from one shore-based weapons station to another.

United States Navy ammunition ships

U.S. Navy ammunition ships are frequently named for volcanos. During World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, U.S. Navy ammunition ships were converted from merchant ships or specially built on merchant ship hulls, often of type C2

Type C2 ship

Type C2 ships were designed by the United States Maritime Commission in 1937-38. They were all-purpose cargo ships with five holds, and U.S. shipyards built 173 of them from 1939-1945. Compared to ships built before 1939, the C2s were remarkable for their speed and fuel economy. Their design speed...

. They were armed, and were manned by Navy crews. Several of them were destroyed in spectacular explosions during the war. Notable among them was USS Mount Hood

USS Mount Hood (AE-11)

USS Mount Hood was the lead ship of her class of ammunition ships for the United States Navy in World War II. She was the first ship named after Mount Hood, a volcano in the Cascade Range in Oregon...

, which exploded in the Admiralty Islands

Admiralty Islands

The Admiralty Islands are a group of eighteen islands in the Bismarck Archipelago, to the north of New Guinea in the south Pacific Ocean. These are also sometimes called the Manus Islands, after the largest island. These rainforest-covered islands form part of Manus Province, the smallest and...

 on November 10, 1944.

Contemporary U.S. ammunition ships of the Kilauea class

Kilauea class ammunition ship

The Kilauea class ammunition ship is a class of eight United States Navy cargo vessels designed for underway replenishment of naval warships. The ships were constructed 1968–72 and were initially commissioned naval ships, carrying a crew of naval personnel...

 are specially designed for their mission, which also includes carrying dry and refrigerated cargo. They are unarmed and are manned by civilian crews.

These ships are being replaced by the Lewis and Clark class dry cargo ship

Lewis and Clark class dry cargo ship

The Lewis and Clark class of dry cargo ship is the next class of Combat Logistics Force underway replenishment vessels to be constructed for the United States Navy's Military Sealift Command. Lewis and Clark-class ships will replace the existing fifteen Mars- and Sirius-class combat store ships...

s.