USS Arethusa (IX-135) began life as Gargoyle—a tanker built in 1921 at Oakland, Calif., by the Moore Shipbuilding Co. and was renamed Arethusa by the Navy and designated IX-135 on 3 November 1943; acquired by the Navy on 23 March 1944 from the War Shipping Administration

War Shipping Administration

The War Shipping Administration was a World War II emergency war agency of the US Government, tasked to purchase and operate the civilian shipping tonnage the US needed for fighting the war....

 on a bareboat basis for use as a mobile floating storage tanker; and placed in commission on that same day at Majuro Atoll, Marshall Islands

Marshall Islands

The Republic of the Marshall Islands , , is a Micronesian nation of atolls and islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, just west of the International Date Line and just north of the Equator. As of July 2011 the population was 67,182...

, Lt. Walter J. Tross in command.

Arethusa remained at Majuro through early June providing fuel to various ships of the Fleet. She got underway on 8 June and proceeded to Eniwetok, where she resumed her fueling operations. The tanker sailed on 19 August for 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...

, reached Manus

Manus Island

Manus Island is part of Manus Province in northern Papua New Guinea and is the largest island of the Admiralty Islands. It is the fifth largest island in Papua New Guinea with an area of 2,100 km², measuring around 100 km × 30 km. According to the 2000 census, Manus Island had a...

 on 28 August, and once again dispensed fuel to Allied ships. The tanker headed for the Philippine Islands on 12 October to support Fleet units about to begin the reconquest of that archipelago. She reached Leyte Gulf

Leyte Gulf

Leyte Gulf is a body of water immediately east of the island of Leyte in the Philippines, adjoining the Philippine Sea of the Pacific Ocean, at . The Gulf is bounded on the north by the island of Samar, which is separated from Leyte on the west by the narrow San Juanico Strait, and on the south by...

 on 20 October and commenced fueling operations.

Arethusa shaped a course back to Manus in early January 1945 and operated there through 5 May, when she got underway for the Western Caroline Islands. The vessel reached Ulithi

Ulithi

Ulithi is an atoll in the Caroline Islands of the western Pacific Ocean, about 191 km east of Yap. It consists of 40 islets totalling , surrounding a lagoon about long and up to wide—at one of the largest in the world. It is administered by the state of Yap in the Federated States of...

 four days later and resumed fueling services. The ship weighed anchor once again on 22 June and set a course for Kerama Retto

Kerama Retto

The are a group of 22 islands located southwest of Okinawa Island in Japan. Four of the islands are inhabited:,., and. The islands are within Shimajiri District. The Kerama-shotō coral reef is a Ramsar Site....

 in the Ryukyus. She was stationed at Okinawa when the Japanese surrendered in mid-August 1945 and continued operations at that island until mid-December.

Arethusa then moved to Subic Bay

Subic Bay

Subic Bay is a bay forming part of Luzon Sea on the west coast of the island of Luzon in Zambales, Philippines, about 100 kilometers northwest of Manila Bay. Its shores were formerly the site of a major United States Navy facility named U.S...

, Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

. She provided fuel to fleet ships at that port through 3 March 1946, when the vessel got underway for home. She reached Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...

, Hawaii

Hawaii

Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

, on 28 March and remained there for a short period of voyage repairs. The ship left Hawaiian waters on 5 April and steamed into San Francisco Bay

San Francisco Bay

San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...

 on 15 April. She was decommissioned at San Francisco on 16 May 1946 and returned to the War Shipping Administration on that same day. Her name was struck from the Navy list on 5 June 1946. The vessel was sold to Kaiser Co., Inc., on 8 December 1947, and was subsequently scrapped.

Arethusa won two battle stars for her 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...

service.