USS Sperry (AS-12)
Encyclopedia
USS Sperry (AS-12) was a in the United States Navy
. She was named for Elmer Sperry
.
Sperry was laid down on 1 February 1941 at the Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, California
; launched on 17 December 1941, just 10 days after the Japan
ese attack on Pearl Harbor
; sponsored by Mrs. Helen Sperry Lea, daughter of Elmer Ambrose Sperry; and commissioned on 1 May 1942, Captain
Robert H. Smith
in command.
for almost three months, refitting seven submarines and making voyage repairs to four others.
On 26 October, she weighed anchor and headed for Australia
. After cautiously skirting the Solomon Islands
and making a three-day stopover at Noumea
, New Caledonia
, the submarine tender reached Brisbane
on 13 November. During her two-month stay "down under," Sperry refitted seven submarine
s and made a voyage repair on one.
On 17 January 1943, she sailed for Pearl Harbor, where she arrived on the 31st. After 10 refits, 10 voyage repairs, and over four months at Pearl Harbor, Sperry got underway on 8 June.
Steaming in company with tanker
and Coast Guard cutter
, she reached Midway Island
on 12 June. Her stay there was probably the busiest period in her career. During five months, she serviced 70 submarines, refitting 17 and making voyage repairs to 53.
She joined submarine rescue ship
in a voyage back to Pearl Harbor from 12-16 November. She refitted eight submarines and accomplished voyage repairs on seven others from 15 November 1943-9 March 1944, then headed west once again.
Sperry's tour of duty at Majuro Atoll lasted from 15 March-19 September. During her stay, the submarine tender accomplished 19 refits and two voyage repairs. In addition, her crew erected Camp Myrna, the first recuperation camp for submarine crews in the central Pacific area, on Myrna Island.
On 19 September, she exited the lagoon with destroyer
and headed for Pearl Harbor again. They reached Oahu on the 24th, but Sperry was underway again by 8 October as part of an 11-ship convoy. At Eniwetok, she parted company with the convoy; and, with destroyer escort
, she continued on to the Marianas Islands. The two ships arrived at Guam
on 20 October to begin a four-month tour of duty during which she serviced 20 boats, 14 for refit and six for voyage repairs. Again, her crew constructed a submarine recuperation facility, Camp Dealey.
On 13 February 1945, Sperry and left Guam to return to the United States. The two ships reached Pearl Harbor on 22 February. Southard remained at Pearl Harbor but Sperry continued eastward on 1 March. The submarine tender entered Mare Island Naval Shipyard on 7 March and commenced an overhaul which lasted until 30 April. By 10 May, Sperry was back at Pearl Harbor where she completed one refit and three voyage repairs before sailing on 30 June for the Marianas.
and Manus Island
in the Admiralty Islands
before returning to Apra Harbor
10 days before Christmas.
Eleven days into the new year, Sperry weighed anchor at Apra and headed for Long Beach, California
. She arrived at Terminal Island
on 20 February and began an extensive overhaul which was completed in July 1947. Unlike many of her sister ships, Sperry remained an active unit of the fleet, operating out of San Diego, California
. She earned the coveted battle efficiency "E" three years in a row in 1948, 1949, and 1950. In 1949, she participated in Operation Miki, a war game which simulated the recapture of an enemy-occupied Oahu; and, while returning to San Diego, she operated in support of the first publicized firings of missiles from submarines. From 1950-1953, she serviced and supplied many of the submarines recommissioned for the Korean War
. In 1952, she made her only voyage to the western Pacific, sailing sailed via Pearl Harbor, where she stayed from 6 August-21 September, and serving at Chi Chi Jima in the Benin Islands from 2-9 October. She returned to the west coast of the United States on 25 October.
In December 1951, the battle lines in Korea were more or less stabilized along the 38th parallel, and hostilities slowly decreased over the next two years; Sperry gradually returned to her peacetime routine. Over the next 10 years, she continued to operate out of San Diego, spending most of her time in port servicing the submarines of the fleet, but occasionally getting underway for training cruises along the west coast. Her area of operation extended from Mexico
north to Canada
.
Sperry serviced submarines out of San Diego for another twenty years, until finally decommissioned there on 30 September 1982 and struck from the Naval Vessel Register
that same day. The old tender was transferred to the Maritime Administration on 1 February 1999, and remains available for possible use as a museum ship as of late 2005.
As of 2006, no other ship in the United States Navy has been named Sperry.
As of September 28, 2011 the Sperry entered a dry dock at Mare island "where it will be cleaned of marine growth and loose exterior paint. The ship will then be towed for recycling at ESCO Marine, in Brownsville, Texas.".
On Oct. 17, 2011 the Sperry departed Mare Island in tow behind the tug Rachel enroute to the Panama Canal.
On Nov. 17, 2011 the Sperry transited the Panama Canal towed by the tug Rachel enroute to Brownsville, Texas for dismantling.
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
. She was named for Elmer Sperry
Elmer Ambrose Sperry
Elmer Ambrose Sperry was a prolific inventor and entrepreneur, most famous as co-inventor, with Herman Anschütz-Kaempfe of the gyrocompass.Sperry was born at Cincinnatus, New York, United States of America...
.
Sperry was laid down on 1 February 1941 at the Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, California
Vallejo, California
Vallejo is the largest city in Solano County, California, United States. The population was 115,942 at the 2010 census. It is located in the San Francisco Bay Area on the northeastern shore of San Pablo Bay...
; launched on 17 December 1941, just 10 days after the Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese attack on Pearl Harbor
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
; sponsored by Mrs. Helen Sperry Lea, daughter of Elmer Ambrose Sperry; and commissioned on 1 May 1942, Captain
Captain (naval)
Captain is the name most often given in English-speaking navies to the rank corresponding to command of the largest ships. The NATO rank code is OF-5, equivalent to an army full colonel....
Robert H. Smith
Robert H. Smith (naval officer)
Robert Holmes Smith was an officer in the United States Navy during World War II.Born in Harrellsville, North Carolina, Smith graduated from the Naval Academy on 6 June 1919. After duty in various surface ships, he served with the Submarine Service for 17 years...
in command.
World War II
Sperry completed trials and shakedown training, and on 2 August 1942, she reported for duty to the Commander, Submarines, Pacific, at Pearl Harbor. She remained at OahuOahu
Oahu or Oahu , known as "The Gathering Place", is the third largest of the Hawaiian Islands and most populous of the islands in the U.S. state of Hawaii. The state capital Honolulu is located on the southeast coast...
for almost three months, refitting seven submarines and making voyage repairs to four others.
On 26 October, she weighed anchor and headed for Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. After cautiously skirting the Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal...
and making a three-day stopover at Noumea
Nouméa
Nouméa is the capital city of the French territory of New Caledonia. It is situated on a peninsula in the south of New Caledonia's main island, Grande Terre, and is home to the majority of the island's European, Polynesian , Indonesian, and Vietnamese populations, as well as many Melanesians,...
, New Caledonia
New Caledonia
New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, east of Australia and about from Metropolitan France. The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of...
, the submarine tender reached Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
on 13 November. During her two-month stay "down under," Sperry refitted seven submarine
Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
s and made a voyage repair on one.
On 17 January 1943, she sailed for Pearl Harbor, where she arrived on the 31st. After 10 refits, 10 voyage repairs, and over four months at Pearl Harbor, Sperry got underway on 8 June.
Steaming in company with tanker
Tank ship
A tanker is a ship designed to transport liquids in bulk. Major types of tankship include the oil tanker, the chemical tanker, and the liquefied natural gas carrier.-Background:...
and Coast Guard cutter
United States Coast Guard Cutter
Cutter is the term used by the United States Coast Guard for its commissioned vessels. A Cutter is or greater in length, has a permanently assigned crew, and has accommodations for the crew to live aboard...
, she reached Midway Island
Midway Atoll
Midway Atoll is a atoll in the North Pacific Ocean, near the northwestern end of the Hawaiian archipelago, about one-third of the way between Honolulu, Hawaii, and Tokyo, Japan. Unique among the Hawaiian islands, Midway observes UTC-11 , eleven hours behind Coordinated Universal Time and one hour...
on 12 June. Her stay there was probably the busiest period in her career. During five months, she serviced 70 submarines, refitting 17 and making voyage repairs to 53.
She joined submarine rescue ship
Submarine rescue ship
A Submarine rescue ship serves as a surface support ship for submarine rescue and deep-sea salvage operations. Methods employed are the McCann Rescue Chamber, Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicles and deep sea diving operations....
in a voyage back to Pearl Harbor from 12-16 November. She refitted eight submarines and accomplished voyage repairs on seven others from 15 November 1943-9 March 1944, then headed west once again.
Sperry's tour of duty at Majuro Atoll lasted from 15 March-19 September. During her stay, the submarine tender accomplished 19 refits and two voyage repairs. In addition, her crew erected Camp Myrna, the first recuperation camp for submarine crews in the central Pacific area, on Myrna Island.
On 19 September, she exited the lagoon with destroyer
Destroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called torpedo-boat destroyers in 1892, evolved from...
and headed for Pearl Harbor again. They reached Oahu on the 24th, but Sperry was underway again by 8 October as part of an 11-ship convoy. At Eniwetok, she parted company with the convoy; and, with destroyer escort
Destroyer escort
A destroyer escort is the classification for a smaller, lightly armed warship designed to be used to escort convoys of merchant marine ships, primarily of the United States Merchant Marine in World War II. It is employed primarily for anti-submarine warfare, but also provides some protection...
, she continued on to the Marianas Islands. The two ships arrived at Guam
Guam
Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United...
on 20 October to begin a four-month tour of duty during which she serviced 20 boats, 14 for refit and six for voyage repairs. Again, her crew constructed a submarine recuperation facility, Camp Dealey.
On 13 February 1945, Sperry and left Guam to return to the United States. The two ships reached Pearl Harbor on 22 February. Southard remained at Pearl Harbor but Sperry continued eastward on 1 March. The submarine tender entered Mare Island Naval Shipyard on 7 March and commenced an overhaul which lasted until 30 April. By 10 May, Sperry was back at Pearl Harbor where she completed one refit and three voyage repairs before sailing on 30 June for the Marianas.
1945-1960
She was stationed at Guam from 11 July 1945-11 January 1946. During those six months, her stay in the Marianas was interrupted only once, in late November and early December, when she joined submarines , , , , , , and in a training cruise. They visited Ulithi Atoll in the Caroline IslandsCaroline Islands
The Caroline Islands are a widely scattered archipelago of tiny islands in the western Pacific Ocean, to the north of New Guinea. Politically they are divided between the Federated States of Micronesia in the eastern part of the group, and Palau at the extreme western end...
and Manus Island
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...
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...
before returning to Apra Harbor
Apra Harbor
Apra Harbor is a deep-water port on the western side of Guam in the Mariana Islands. The harbor is formed by Orote Peninsula in the south and Cabras Island in the north. To the south, the harbor narrows and then widens again to form an inner harbor. The southern end of the harbor is the location...
10 days before Christmas.
Eleven days into the new year, Sperry weighed anchor at Apra and headed for Long Beach, California
Long Beach, California
Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...
. She arrived at Terminal Island
Terminal Island
Terminal Island is an island located in Los Angeles County, California between Los Angeles Harbor and Long Beach Harbor. Originally a mudflat known to the Spanish as Isla Raza de Buena Gente, and later called Rattlesnake Island, it has officially been Terminal Island since 1918...
on 20 February and began an extensive overhaul which was completed in July 1947. Unlike many of her sister ships, Sperry remained an active unit of the fleet, operating out of San Diego, California
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
. She earned the coveted battle efficiency "E" three years in a row in 1948, 1949, and 1950. In 1949, she participated in Operation Miki, a war game which simulated the recapture of an enemy-occupied Oahu; and, while returning to San Diego, she operated in support of the first publicized firings of missiles from submarines. From 1950-1953, she serviced and supplied many of the submarines recommissioned for the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
. In 1952, she made her only voyage to the western Pacific, sailing sailed via Pearl Harbor, where she stayed from 6 August-21 September, and serving at Chi Chi Jima in the Benin Islands from 2-9 October. She returned to the west coast of the United States on 25 October.
In December 1951, the battle lines in Korea were more or less stabilized along the 38th parallel, and hostilities slowly decreased over the next two years; Sperry gradually returned to her peacetime routine. Over the next 10 years, she continued to operate out of San Diego, spending most of her time in port servicing the submarines of the fleet, but occasionally getting underway for training cruises along the west coast. Her area of operation extended from Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
north to Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
1961-2011
From April-September, 1961 Sperry was at Long Beach Naval Shipyard being brought up to date by a Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization overhaul. In mid-September, she returned to her duties as submarine tender at San Diego, though now with the capability to service ballistic missile submarines.Sperry serviced submarines out of San Diego for another twenty years, until finally decommissioned there on 30 September 1982 and struck from the Naval Vessel Register
Naval Vessel Register
The Naval Vessel Register is the official inventory of ships and service craft in custody of or titled by the United States Navy. It contains information on ships and service craft that make up the official inventory of the Navy from the time a vessel is authorized through its life cycle and...
that same day. The old tender was transferred to the Maritime Administration on 1 February 1999, and remains available for possible use as a museum ship as of late 2005.
As of 2006, no other ship in the United States Navy has been named Sperry.
As of September 28, 2011 the Sperry entered a dry dock at Mare island "where it will be cleaned of marine growth and loose exterior paint. The ship will then be towed for recycling at ESCO Marine, in Brownsville, Texas.".
On Oct. 17, 2011 the Sperry departed Mare Island in tow behind the tug Rachel enroute to the Panama Canal.
On Nov. 17, 2011 the Sperry transited the Panama Canal towed by the tug Rachel enroute to Brownsville, Texas for dismantling.
External links
- USS Sperry page on TenderTale