Here at LSOZI, we take a break every Wednesday to explore the old steam/diesel navies from 1833 to 1954, profiling a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.- Christopher Eger
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Warship Wednesday 7 October 2026: The Gunslinger of the ‘Unholy Four’
U.S. Navy photo via MARAD, No. 1137_051 (Declassed and in NARA’s RG-19 file).
Above we see, with 459 feet of hull being admirably pushed by a whopping 8,000shp, the attack transport USS Crescent City (APA-21), complete with a bone in her teeth.
If she looks rushed, there is a reason for that, as put the “attack” in attack transport, earning 10 battle stars and a Navy Unit Commendation for her WWII service, which took her from Guadalcanal to Okinawa– accounting for at least eight of the Emperor’s aircraft in the process while housing over 90,000 fighting men in her makeshift berths, many just prior to landing on very active enemy held beaches.
The saga of the APAs
As detailed in Troopships of World War II, written by Roland W. Charles, 76 “straight” troopships operated by the Naval Transportation Service performed the yeoman task of shuttling troops from port to port. He makes clear that these were different from the ships we will cover here.
The Navy troopships described herein are those which transported Army personnel on Army schedules. There were other Navy passenger transports for carrying Marines, Sea Bees, etc., and many attack transports (designated APA’s), but these are omitted as not being in harmony with the title.
In short, Troopships (AP) brought the men across the ocean to a safe harbor; Attack Transports (APA) landed troops directly onto the enemy’s beachhead.
With the ramp-up of the U.S. military in the late 1930s, and the obvious fact that said troops would need to be shipped and delivered overseas in great numbers, including onto remote ports and beaches with little or no local handling facilities, the Navy began rapidly acquiring and converting auxiliary transports (AP) as early as August 1940– just after the fall of France.
However, this muddies the water because the differences between what a “standard” AP would do and what an APA would do became very different in the next couple of years, a factor only more confusing as the Navy only established the APA designation on February 1, 1943, retroactively changing 58 then-APs to APAs.
APAs differed from APs in at least eight major ways:
Core Operational Differences
| Feature |
Standard Troopship (AP) |
Attack Transport (APA) |
| Primary Mission |
Long-distance point-to-point administrative transport |
Direct tactical delivery of troops in amphibious assaults |
| Destination |
Secure deep-water ports, piers, or controlled anchorages |
Unprotected beachheads and hostile shores |
| Landing Craft (LCVPs/LCMs) |
Minimal or none (1–4 administrative craft) |
Fully equipped (typically 20–26 LCVPs and 2–4 LCMs) |
| Boat Handling |
Standard cargo booms or stationary cranes |
Heavy-duty, fast-operating gravity davits and specialized booms |
| Troop Capacity |
High (2,000 to 10,000+ troops in up to “five-high” bunks) |
Moderate (1,000 to 1,600 combat-equipped troops) |
| Cargo Space |
Focused on personal gear and general logistics |
Pre-loaded with combat cargo: combat vehicles, artillery, ammo, and rations |
| Debarkation Method |
Gangways at piers or slow debarkation to pierside barges |
Over-the-side debarkation nets (Jacobs ladders) directly into landing craft |
| Command & Medical |
Basic shipboard sickbay and transport administrative space |
Dedicated Amphibious Task Force command facilities & expanded triage surgical suites |
| Defensive Armament |
Light (typically a few 3-inch or 5-inch guns, 20mm/40mm AA) |
Heavy AA suite (5-inch/38, dual 40mm Bofors, 20mm Oerlikons for shore defense) |
Bear with us as we go chronologically for a second, with the first runs of APs that would later be designated APA.
First were eight 21,000-ton, 535-foot “State”-class passenger liners built after WWI, dubbed the Harris class in service. This was quickly followed by two McCawley-class ships (the old passenger liners McCawley and Barnett), then five 14,000-ton Great War-era passenger liners (the Heywood class) in November 1940, and the old passenger liner Exochorda, which became USS Harry Lee before the year was over.
While owning zero APA types in July, by Christmas 1940 the Navy had 16.
Moving into 1941, the Navy began to take new Maritime Commission C3-style passenger-cargo hulls with seven President-class (President Jackson, President Adams, President Hayes, Thomas Stone, Thomas Jefferson, President Polk, and President Monroe) which began to enter service in November 1941; and the Crescent City class (Crescent City later joined by Charles Carroll, Monrovia, and Calvert).
The five-hold Maritime Commission C3-style passenger-cargo hulls ran 459 feet oal and had a 12,000 DWT displacement. They could make a relatively speedy 16.5 knots on either steam or diesel plants, depending on variant.
At least 465 C3s of all types were completed between 1940 and 1947, with many converted during the war to Navy use as not only APAs (President, Crescent City, Windsor, and Bayfield-class) but as Bogue-class escort carriers, Klondike-class destroyer tenders, submarine tenders, and seaplane tenders.
Crescent City and her class, which were C3-P&C type hulls, would be made to shoehorn 42 officers and 478 enlisted passengers in a modicum of style, a figure that could be pushed to as many as 1,800 if packed into all available space and little cargo was loaded. Otherwise, they had a useful cargo capacity of 2,700 tons. They could also carry a huge array of landing craft– many of which were still on the drawing board when they were built.
The profile plans for USS Bayfield (AP-78/APA-33). She was built on a Marcom Type C3-S-A2 hull and was very similar to our preceding Crescent City. She was well traveled and earned not only four battle stars for World War II service and four for Korean War service, but also two for the Vietnam War.
Berths on a Bayfield-class APA.
Boat capacity on a Bayfield-class APA. Note: This is from a 1966 sheet of plans, but it gives a pretty good idea of the space available.
The Capacity Plan for USS Cavalier (AP-82/APA-37), a Bayfield-class attack transport commissioned in 1944. She was built on a Marcom Type C3-S-A2 hull and was very similar to our preceding Crescent City.
The Ingalls-built Middleton class (MC Type C3-P&C hulled) USS Samuel Chase (APA-26) off the Southern France invasion beaches, after discharging her troops, circa August 15, 1944, during Operation Dragoon. Note boarding nets and LCVP alongside. NH 100077-KN
The Navy ended up with 238 Attack Transports (no kidding) across 17 distinct classes. APA-1 through APA-249. Of these, minus the one-offs taken up from transit, they fall into a few different types.
- Those built on C3-type hulls include the 34 Bayfields (C3-S-A2), the nine Windsors (C3-S-A3), the seven President-class ships (converted C3-Ps taken up from trade), the four converted Delo/Crescent City ships, the three Middletons, and the two Funstons.
- Those built on S4-SE2-BD1 hulls (the 32 Gilliam class APAs)
- The 117 Haskells built on simple VC2-S-AP5 Victory ship hulls.
- One-off conversions and ships taken up from trade.
This all brings us to…
Meet Crescent City
Our subject was an MC Type C3-P&C hull built as Yard No. 4338 (Order No. 239932) by the Bethlehem Steel Shipbuilding Division’s yard at Sparrows Point, Maryland.
She was sold to the Mississippi Shipping Company under the Act of 1936, which intended to operate her as the cargo and passenger liner SS Delorleans (sometimes seen as Del Orleans) for the company’s Delta Line.
She was laid down on 8 May 1939, launched on 17 February 1940 with Mrs. M. L. Pedrick as her sponsor, and delivered to the Delta Line on 23 August 1940.
Founded in 1919 and based in Seattle, the Delta Line specialized in the Gulf of Mexico-to-South America “coffee route,” hauling general cargo and passengers back and forth. The company liked “Del” names such as the above Ingalls-built “Del-Triplets” (SS Del Norte, Del Sud, and Del Mar) built, like Delorleans/Crescent City, on C-3 P&C hulls.
Delorleans’ Maritime Commission status card lists her at 8,988 DWT (7,987 gross) with a cargo capacity of 453,273 cu. ft (bale) or 495,512 if shipping grain and had eight deck cranes to handle her five cargo holds. Designed with 26 staterooms, she could accommodate 67 passengers in addition to cargo and had a small parlor, promenade deck, and dining room for their use.
A set of General Electric geared steam turbines, driven by a pair of Babcock & Wilcox header-type (450 psi, 750°) boilers that could send 8,000shp to her single prop, allowed her to make (and sustain) 17 knots with an impressive unrefueled range of 15,500nm at 15. Three turbo-drive 350 kW 120V/240V D.C. Ship’s Service Generators provided plenty of electricity.
In addition to Delorleans (our Crescent City), Bethlehem Sparrows also built her direct Delta Line Type C3 sisters SS Delbrasil and Delargentino, all delivered within six months of each other. The Navy would eventually take the latter out of service and use them as the troopships USS George F. Elliott (AP 105) and J. W. McAndrew (AP 47), respectively.
SS Delbrasil later USS George F. Elliott (AP 105) later African Endeavor
SS Deltargentino later USS J. W. McAndrew (AP 47) later African Enterprise
Speaking of which, after just a single South American voyage under the Delta house flag, Delorleans was taken over by the Navy on 9 June 1941, and, after a rushed conversion for military use at the Alabama Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Co. in Mobile, entered service as USS Crescent City (AP 40) on 10 October 1941.
Her first skipper was CDR Walter Carson Calhoun (USNA 1917), a surface warfare man who had witnessed the surrender of the Kaiser’s High Seas Fleet from the deck of the USS Florida in the Great War and would go on to command the new cruiser Baltimore by 1943. Chester Nimitz of the Bureau of Navigation signed Calhoun’s orders to Crescent City. Of interest, all seven of Crescent City’s Navy commanders were Annapolis grads, showing how important the service took the vessel.
As noted by her 32-page War History, “The original crew was organized around a small group of ‘regulars’ supplemented by men of the Naval Reserve units in Dallas, Pittsburgh, Columbus and Miami.”
Her dry cargo storage increased t o 813,300 cu. ft. grain (736,140 bale) while her onboard usable fuel oil spaces amounted to 456,900 gallons plus another 487,000 gallons of cargo oil with fresh water storage at 107,200 gallons.
She also was given some serious boat-carrying abilities, to include large Welland davits for as many as 22 36-foot LCVP Higgins boats, and room on deck for four 50-foot LCM(3)s, although she would later add LCPLs and LCPRs to that mix as those types came online along with the longer 56-foot LCM(6)s.
Her self-defense armament, initially, was a 5″/51 gun on the stern and a few light (.30 cal Lewis) machine guns, along with some limited mechanical minesweeping gear (paravanes).
This soon increased as the war went on, and by 1945 she was carrying a 5″/38 Mk 12, four 3″/50 Mk 20 DPs, six 40mm Bofors in two twin and two single mounts, and 22 20mm Oerlikons in a variety of twin and single mounts as well as an S-series radar.
A great series of photos was captured of the newly dubbed Crescent City in November 1941 with her war paint on at Charleston Navy Yard.
All of these are from the MARAD collection:
With Crescent City on the books, in 1942, three other Delta Lines ships ordered on Type C3-P hulls at Sparrows Point, ex-Del Uruguay and the 2nd ex-Del Argentina and ex-Del Orleans, were given a very similar conversion with only minor changes in internal layout and are traditionally lumped in with our subject as the “Crescent City” class.
Those three follow-ons would become USS Charles Carroll (AP 50/APA 28), Monrovia (AP 64/APA 31) and Calvert (AP 65/APA 32).
War!
Just a week after Pearl Harbor, Crescent City left Norfolk for points West, loaded with troops and equipment of the Army’s 301st Balloon Barrage Battalion and Navy Patrol Wing Three to reinforce the Canal Zone. She then crossed into the Pacific, picked up Navy and Marine passengers in San Diego, and took them to Pearl Harbor. After carrying civilian evacuees back to San Diego, she rushed workers and equipment back to Pearl.
Running men and equipment of the 4th Marine Defense Battalion and Marine Air Group 21 to Efate, New Hebrides, to establish a base there, she returned to San Diego on 22 April 1942. There, along the California coast for the next two months, Crescent City conducted 14 practice landings and embarkations of the 2nd Marine Regiment. Those lessons learned in sweat and toil off San Diego would turn into gold at the Amphibious Training School.
From her War History:
Her boats, armament, and loading as of March 1942:
Dated March 6, 1942, this confidential US Navy document shows the Crescent City’s characteristics and capabilities. Gift in Memory of Lawrence B. Dunlap, 2018.117, via the National WWII Museum.
Then came the orders to prepare to shift some 6,200nm Southwest to a place called Guadalcanal, where the Japanese were building a seaplane base in the occupied British Solomons.
Leaving San Diego on 1 July in a 15-ship convoy screened by the carrier USS Wasp, and after joining a larger force at Tongatabu in the Tongas and following a series of disastrous practice landings at Koro Island in the Fiji chain, the Guadalcanal campaign kicked off with a bang.
Ships of the invasion force steaming out of the Guadalcanal-Tulagi area during the afternoon of 9 August 1942. Photographed from USS Chicago (CA-29), the view looks westward, with Guadalcanal Island in the background. USS Crescent City (AP-40) is on the left. A Curtiss SOC Seagull floatplane is in the foreground, on Chicago’s starboard catapult. 80-G-231855
In defending against incoming waves of Japanese torpedo bombers, Crescent City was credited with downing at least four between 7 and 9 August, between landing men of the 1st Marine Division.
Crashed Japanese bomber burns on the water near USS Crescent City (AP-40), off Guadalcanal, 7-9 August 1942 (USMC Photo 21054763854, Frederick R. Findtner Collection).
Army and Marines on KuKum Beach, Guadalcanal, circa 1942. This scene of apparent confusion was the beginning of an era of close cooperation between the Army and Marine Corps to finish the “housecleaning” job on Guadalcanal. “Again off KuKum. Transport number forty. Which I believe is the Crescent City or the Jackson maybe.” From the Thayer Soule Collection (COLL/2266) at the Archives Branch, Marine Corps History Division.
In October 1942, Crescent City ran a load of drummed avgas and a Marine aviation maintenance unit to Funafuti Atoll in the Ellice chain, then returned to Guadalcanal, making six trips to the island where she brought 7,000 men of the U.S. Army’s 23rd (Americal) Infantry Division.
In was off Guadalcanal that Crescent City, with fellow C3-hulled attack transports USS President Jackson, President Adams, and President Hayes as Task Group 62.1.4, “were dubbed the ‘Unholy Four’ by fellow fleet members and ground forces. It was axiomatic that whenever the Unholy Four traveled together, there was bound to be trouble.”
It was during this “Operation Shoestring” off the Solomons that Crescent City’s second skipper, Capt. Ingolf Norman Kiland (USNA 1919) often found himself as commodore of the Unholy Four as they ran around the theater.
On one such Unholy Four run to take the Americals to the Kukum Beaches on 12 November for a fast drop and run before the Japanese knew the ships were there, “Pistol Pete,” a Japanese howitzer hidden in the hills, opened fire on Crescent City close enough to observe splashes, followed by a noontime attack by enemy torpedo planes, of which two were confirmed down by our fighting transport’s gun crews.
December saw Crescent City haul the 132nd U.S. Infantry and 247th Artillery from Noumena to Guadalcanal, then take off the beleaguered 1st Marines back to Australia, ending their time in the “Green Hell.”
Marines Debarking at Brisbane, First Marine Division Leaving Guadalcanal, circa late 1942. Tired and battered but happy, battle-toughened Marines, relieved from the Solomons, disembark under full pack from a U.S. Navy transport at an allied base in the South Pacific. After a short rest, this outfit trains for another offensive aimed at the heart of Tokyo. “On the dock at Brisbane when we were disembarked from Crescent City.” USMC Archives photo
On 17 February 1943, while off Malaita, the Unholy Four were on the way to take the 8th Marines off the ‘Canal along with the tanker Tallulah and six destroyers, when they ran into a wave of Japanese torpedo bombers.
From her War History:
One plane was observed approaching astern of the Crescent City and her 5″/51 gun opened fire at point-blank range. The projectile exploded directly at the plane, blowing it in two pieces. This is one of the few times during the war that the obsolete 5″/51 was effective as an anti-aircraft gun.
Sadly, that voyage marked the end of the Unholy Four, as the now 15 ‘phibs of the South Pacific Transport Group would typically move in smaller task units, and Crescent City was transferred to Transport Division Eight.
After moving men of the Third Marine Division from Samoa to New Zealand, where our subject spent several weeks in beach-landing drills, she settled into cargo and trooping runs inside the theatre.
On 13 August 1943, while unloading cargo at Lunga Point, enemy torpedo planes swept over the anchorage and sank the ‘phib USS John Penn (APA-23), a veteran of the Torch Landings that had only recently shifted to the Pacific. Crescent City was there, and her skipper ordered his small boats to help take off survivors. Even after a years-long campaign and being officially declared “secured” six months prior, the Canal was by no means a backwater.
Landing troops on unoccupied Vella Lavella on 14 August 1943 and bypassing the Japanese garrison at Kolombangara, Crescent City completed her 14th run to Guadalcanal, landing more than 17,000 men.
November saw the Treasury Island landings, with Crescent City delivering the 9th Regiment, Third Marines, then returning to Guadalcanal to pick up the 129th Infantry and bring them to the party. In December and the New Year, she did the same for the Americal Division and the 21st Regiment, Third Marines.
Spending the first part of 1944 in a series of training evolutions in and around New Zealand, by May Crescent City was taking part in the effort to liberate Guam, which had been under Japanese occupation since just after Pearl Harbor. For the next three campaigns, Crescent City was the flagship of TransDiv 8. Our APA directly delivered the 12th Regiment, Third Marines to the beaches.
After her Marines went ashore, a key change took place: the APA sent medical parties in directly after to stand by for casevac, effectively turning Crescent City into a stopgap hospital ship.
USS Crescent City (APA-21) taking wounded Marines aboard for evacuation, likely 1944
From her War History:
September 1944 brought Peleliu, with the 1st Marine Regiment, led by Chesty Puller, embarked on Crescent City for the landings. Afterward, she received 416 casualties while, for two days, her beach party was the sole contact between the Marines ashore on White Beach and the fleet.
In October 1944, still the flag of TransDiv 8, Crescent City gathered around her at Hollandia some 60 ships of the Seventh Amphibious Force. Packed with U.S. Sixth Army personnel– with Brig. Gen. Philip Guillou Blackmore, Gen. Krueger’s Ordnance officer, aboard– the objective was Leyte Gulf to begin the liberation of the Philippines.
Landing her troops on the 22nd, she narrowly escaped the Battle of the Surigao Strait as she was speeding back to Hollandia to bring up the 127th U.S. Infantry and Maj. Gen. William Gill, commander of the 32nd Infantry Division.
Shipping to Manus in the Admiralty Islands at the end of November, Crescent City would then head to the West Coast for a refit at Bethlehem’s San Francisco yard that saw more guns added, davits strengthened, engines and boilers worked over, additional radar and radios installed, and the signal bridge retrofitted in a nine-week overhaul over the new year. Likewise, many of her “old hands” were rotated off, replaced by men fresh from boot camp and A schools.
Leaving San Francisco on 25 February 1945, Crescent City stopped at Pearl Harbor, where she was converted to a hospital evacuation ship.
Her War History notes: “An additional operating room was installed in the sick bay area, quarters for stretcher patients were arranged in the Number Five hold, and auxiliary dressing stations were established throughout the ship. Additional doctors and pharmacist mates reported aboard for duty, and on 18 March the ship was ready to sail.”
She became instrumental as an evac transport at Okinawa.
Arriving off Kerama Retto on 6 April, a landing ship in her convoy (LST-447) was hit amidships by a kamikaze bomber and lost the next day, while two Victory ships (Logan Victory and Hobbs Victory) were sunk outright and two others damaged.
Shrugging it off and getting to work, Crescent City remained on station for the next two months, settling into a nightmarish routine of fighting off infiltrators, suicide boats, and kamikazes while receiving casualties from 96 Allied ships. Her history notes she handled 2,700 wounded men, administering 500 pints of plasma and 460 pints of whole blood in the process, the latter delivered via seaplane directly from the States.
“Altogether, the job of handling the crippled bodies was a thankless job for everyone.”
Meanwhile, she also doubled as a receiving ship, with 10,500 fresh bluejackets and officers arriving from the fleet to be fed into the force to fill holes popping up off Okinawa. Her troop holds housed these newcomers until they were “called up” and sent out by small boat, with officers and enlisted men berthing side by side on the pipe bunks.
A larger ship among smaller ones, she hosted religious services on Sundays, conducting as many as five of them to handle men coming over for the occasion. She also served as a floating brig, accepting disciplinary cases from cramped DDs and DEs. For part of this time (8 July-23 August), Crescent City’s skipper was designated SOPA in charge of the Naha-Hagushi anchorage, and his staff handled everything from managing tug and salvage operations to coordinating smoke and AAA plans to supply administration. This period also included dealing with two very large typhoons.
On 15 April, her gunners downed their eighth confirmed enemy aircraft of the war and fired on Japanese aircraft at least five times while off Okinawa.
However, all around her ships were not so lucky, with her crew watching helplessly as the cruiser USS Birmingham (CL-62) was hit by a speedy bomb-carrying Hayabusa kamikaze, causing 130 casualties and tearing a hole under the ship’s waterline. Another evacuation transport at Kerama Retto, USS Pinkney (APH-2), was struck by a kamikaze on 28 April, killing 18 crew and 16 patients. Even on the night that hopeful Japanese “peace feelers” were announced over the radio, 10 August, a merchant ship was torpedoed in the anchorage just off Crescent City.
By VJ Day, her crew had been called to General Quarters 215 times off Okinawa alone. However, amazingly, she suffered no casualties or damage attributed to enemy fire or contact not just in that campaign but in the war as a whole.
After the surrender, Crescent City served as Amphibious Force Flagship for almost a month, receiving extra signalmen and staff officers to manage the task. Transferring the role to the USS Blue Ridge on 22 September, she once more hauled the First Marines of Guadalcanal fame, this time to Taku, China. She then trooped men of the 13th and then the 8th Chinese Nationalist Army from Hong Kong to Chinwangtao and Tsingtao in North China to fight the Reds.
On 1 December, her war ended; she left for Seattle, packed with officers and men bound for Home.
Her 10 battle stars earned her a Navy Unit Commendation (NUC). As far as I can tell, no APA had a better record.
- Guadalcanal-Tulagi Landings, 7 to 9 August 1942
- Capture and defense of Guadalcanal, 12 November 1942
- Guadalcanal (Third Savo) 12 to 15 November 1942
- Consolidation of Southern Solomons, 17 February and 18 May 1943 (including Action off Malaita)
- Treasury Island landings, 1 and 18 November 1943
- Bismarck Archipelago operation (Admiralty Island landings), 11 to 12 April 1944
- Marianas, capture and occupation of Guam, 21 to 25 July 1944
- Capture and occupation of southern Palau (Caroline) Islands, 8 September to 14 October 1944
- Leyte landings, 16 to 27 October and 14 November 1944
- Assault and occupation of Okinawa Gunto, 6 April to 30 June 1945
Her September-December 1945 crew were also eligible for the Navy Occupation Service Medal and China Service Medal (extended).
Her wartime APA sisters, Charles Carroll, Monrovia, and Calvert, all survived the war, seeing almost as much action as Crescent City, picking up a very decent 23 battle stars between them.
USS Charles Carroll (APA-28), on December 11, 1945, Norfolk, wearing camouflage 32/6T. “Lucky Chuck” earned six battle stars from Torch to Sicily to Husky, Normandy, and Okinawa 19-LCM-APA28-1
USS Charles Carroll (APA-28) December 11 1945 Norfolk wearing camouflage 32/6T 19-LCM-APA28-2
USS Charles Carroll (APA-28) December 11 1945 Norfolk wearing camouflage 32/6T 19-LCM-APA28-3
As for her two pre-war Sparrows Point Delta Line sisters, SS Delbrasil/USS George F. Elliott (AP 105) and Delargentino/USS J. W. McAndrew (AP 47), both survived the war and, as they had no extensive APA conversions done to them, were soon back in the commercial trade as SS African Endeavor and African Enterprise, operated by the U.S. based Farrell Lines during the post-war era on passenger and trade routes between New York and South/East Africa. By the 1960s, they were laid up in the Reserve Fleet, then scrapped by 1972.
Cold War
Departing Seattle on 23 January 1946, Crescent City transited back to the East Coast for the first time since 1942, arriving at Norfolk on Valentine’s Day.
The ship was detached from the amphibious forces and was operating as a unit of the Naval Transportation Service (NTS). She operated from New York and Norfolk in the Caribbean for the next 20 months, typically carrying dependents back and forth to the myriad of new U.S. bases down south.
Crescent City at Brooklyn Navy Yard,15 May 1947. Gone are the landing craft, replaced by lifeboats under her davits, although she remains a fully armed and commissioned naval vessel. Other NTS ships also wore the broad black band around the top of the stack at this time. NARA, RG-19-LCM, Photo # 19-N-142584, NY3-142G.
Outboard and inboard profiles of USS Crescent City (APA-21) as a dependents’ transport in March 1947. Drawing from “U.S. Amphibious Ships” and Craft by Norman Friedman.
10 August 1947. Panama Canal Zone. A group of Marines who have finished their tour of duty in the various guard detachments throughout the Canal Zone board the USS Crescent City for the happy voyage back to the Good Old States USMC Photo 167170 via NARA 127-GR-49-167170
Sent back to the West Coast, she arrived at San Francisco on 1 November 1947.
Crescent City was placed out of commission in reserve 30 April 1948 and transferred to the Maritime Commission 3 September 1948. Sister Charles Carroll was laid up the same year.
Two other APA sisters remained in service until 1966 (Calvert) and 1968 (Monrovia), respectively, and were scrapped by 1977.
Crescent City C3 Delta class troopships, 1960 Janes
Crescent City was permanently transferred to the Navy Department’s Reserve Fleet at Suisun Bay on 3 September 1958, where she remained at a cost of $118 per month until 9 June 1970, when she was sent to WISCO for a hull survey in hopes she could be of further use.
It turned out that she would
Training Ship
The old Crescent City, aged 30, was transferred from MARAD on loan to the California Maritime Academy on the morning of 28 August 1970.
While I’m not an expert on the CMA’s operations, suffice it to say that Crescent City, disarmed and painted in a white-and-blue livery, sailed as TS Golden Bear II from May 1971 to July 1995, conducting 28 major ocean cruises.
California Maritime Academy training ship TS Golden Bear II passing under the Golden Gate Bridge inbound at San Francisco Bay circa 1993. Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum File name: APA 21 – GBII Circa 1993, via Navsource.
Artship
With the California Maritime Academy done with the 50-year-old APA, ex-Crescent City/Golden Bear was returned to MARAD in July 1995 for layup at the National Defense Reserve Fleet, Suisun Bay.
Four years later, President Clinton signed an order donating her to the Artship Foundation in Oakland in August 1999 after a six-year quest for a vessel to serve as a floating cultural warehouse. Renamed Artship, she was moored at the city’s Ninth Avenue Terminal until a city lawsuit forced the group to renounce the title in 2004, abandoning the social program.
She was sold for $200,000 scrap value to Esco Marine Inc. in Brownsville in February 2004.
A group called the Friends of the USS Crescent City tried to save her, citing that she was the last ship afloat from Guadalcanal, but their efforts fell flat.
Epilogue
Crescent City’s war diaries and war history are digitized in the National Archives and are superb.
Her Guadalcanal commander and commodore of the Unholy Four, Ingolf Kiland, earned a DSM, Navy Cross, and two Legions of Merit during the war. As a rear admiral, Kiland and his amphibious task group took Karama Retto in early 1945, routing out the suicide boat caves scattered on the island and ensuring it could be used as a support for the ensuing assault on Okinawa.
He later commanded all amphibious forces of the Pacific Fleet during the Korean War (COMPHIBPAC)– not bad for a man who started his career as an ensign navigation officer on the four-piper tin can USS Sterett (DD-27) during the Great War. Retiring as commandant of the Fifth Naval District in 1957, capping a 40-year career, VADM Kiland, son of Norwegian immigrants, passed in the warmth of Coronado in 1992 at age 96.
VADM Kiland is buried at Arlington, Section 1, Site 808.
While the Navy has not commissioned a second Crescent City, the fifth USS New Orleans (LPD-18) is a San Antonio-class amphib that joined the fleet in 2007. She is based in Japan, which is fitting.
The U.S. Navy (Pre-Commissioned Unit) San Antonio Class Amphibious Transport Dock Ship USS New Orleans (LPD 18) sails beneath the Huey P. Long Bridge as it moves on the Mississippi River towards New Orleans, La., on March 5, 2007, in preparation for its commissioning ceremony on March 10, 2007. MCS Kurt Eischen, USN.
Thanks for reading!
Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive
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