USS ABSD-5

USS ABSD-5, later redesignated as AFDB-5, was a nine-section, non-self-propelled, large auxiliary floating drydock of the US Navy. Advance Base Sectional Dock-5 (Auxiliary Floating Dock Big-5) was constructed in sections during 1943 and 1944 by the Chicago Bridge & Iron Company in Morgan City, Louisiana for World War 2. With all nine sections joined, she was 825 feet long, 28 feet tall (keel to welldeck), and with an inside clear width of 133 feet 7 inches. ABSD-5 had two traveling 15-ton capacity crane with an 85-foot radius and two or more support barges. The two side walls were folded down under tow to reduce wind resistance and lower the center of gravity. ABSD-5 had 6 capstans for pulling, each rated at 24,000 lbf (110,000 N) at 30 ft/min (0.15 m/s), 4 of the capstans were reversible. There were also 4 ballast compartments in each section.[1][2]

USS ABSD-5
ABSD-5 at Manicani Island, Philippines repairing the USS Mississippi in July of 1945
History
United States
Name: USS AFDB-5- ABSD-5
Owner: US Navy
Operator: US Navy
Builder: Chicago Bridge & Iron Company in Morgan City, Louisiana
Laid down: 1943 and 1944
Sponsored by: Mrs. John P. Millon
Completed: 1944
Commissioned: 15 June 1944
Recommissioned: 1946 to AFDB-5
Out of service: May 1946
Stricken: 15 April 1989
Honors and
awards:

American Campaign Medal Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal

World War II Victory Medal
Fate: Scrapped in 1997
General characteristics
Displacement: 30,800 (in nine sections, (A-G)
Length: 825 ft (251 m) (in nine sections)
Beam: 256 ft 0 in (78.03 m)
Height: 9 ft (2.7 m) floated, 78 ft (24 m) flooded
Propulsion: none
Capacity: 90,000 tons lift
Complement: 690 officers and men
Armament:
  • 14 × 40 mm (1.6 in) guns
  • 14 × 20 mm (0.79 in) guns
One Advance Base Sectional Dock (ABSD) section under tow with float wings up in 1944
USS Artisan (ABSD-1), USS ABSD-5 sisiter ship, with USS Antelope (IX-109) and LST-120 in the dock at Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides Islands, 8 January 1945, before moving to Manicani Island

World War II

In May 1945 ABSD-5 started repairing ships in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater of war. ABSD-5 was stationed at Manicani Island, a small island in the Leyte Gulf of the Philippines, near Guiuan, Samar. ABSD-5 departed New Orleans, Louisiana on 18 November 1944, arriving at the Panama Canal on 29 November 1944. One section was towed with War Shipping Administration's ocean tugboat St. Simon and another section was towed by the USS Undaunted (ATA-199). After crossing the Pacific Ocean in convoys the nine sections arrive in Leyte on 24 February 1945, with assembling completed in May 1945. Naval Construction Battalion Detachment 1055 and 1053 assembled ABSD-5.[3][4][5] USS ABSD-5 repaired the large ships in the US Navy and United Kingdom's Royal Navy during World War II. Able to lift 90,000, tons ABSD-5 could raise large ships, like aircraft carriers, battleships, cruisers, and large auxiliary ships, out the water for repair below the ship's waterline. She was also used to repair multiple smaller ships at the same time. Ships in continuous use during war need repair both from wear and from war damage from naval mine and torpedoes. Rudders and propellers are best serviced on dry docks. Without ABSD-5 and her sister ships, at remote locations months could be lost in a ships returning to a home port for repair. ABSD-5 had provisions for the repair crew, such bunk beds, meals, and laundry. ABSD-4 had power stations, ballast pumps, repair shops, machine shops, and mess halls to be self-sustaining. ABSD-2 had two rail track moveable cranes able to lift tons of material and parts for removing damage parts and install new parts. The USS Audubon (APA-149) a Haskell-class attack transport repaired in August 1945 is one of the many ships repaired in ABSD-5. The USS Mississippi (BB-41) was repair in ABSD-5. Due to the Mississippi's 30 ft (9.1 m) draft with a full load, the battleship had to unload much of her ammunition and fuel oil before entering AFDB-5. The USS Mount Olympus a Mount McKinley-class amphibious force command ship was repaired in August 1945. The cargo help USS Alcona was repaired in November 1945. USS Indianapolis (CA-35) repaired August 1945. On 15 October 1945 the USS Ashland' (LSD-1) entered AFDB-5 for repairs. For the crew to live in the Navy had barracks ships called APL, that dock next to AFDB-5. In September 1945 the USS Artisan (ABSD-1), which had been operating at Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides, started repairing ships at Manicani Island with ABSD-5. The sections of USS Artisan (ABSD-1) had started arriving at Manicani Island in July 1945.[6][1][7][8][2][9][10] [11]

Post-war

After the war, ABSD-5 was reclassified AFDB-5, in April 1946 AFDB-5 was disassembled and towed to Sabine River at the Naval Air Station, Port Arthur, Texas,near Orange, Texas in 1984. AFDB-5 was struck from the Naval Register on 12 January 1984. AFDB-5 was scrapped in 1997.[12][1][13]

Commanding Officer
  • Commander John P. Millon from 15 June 1944 to 15 May 1946

[2]

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See also

References
  1. Building the Navy's Bases in World War II, History of the Bureau of Yards and Docks and the Civil Engineer Corps 1940-1946 Chapter IX, Floating Drydocks
  2. navsource, AFDB-5, ex USS ABSD-5 Sections, A through G
  3. Naval Construction Battalion Detachment 1055, Dec. 1945
  4. Construction Battalion Detachment 1053, Dec. 1945
  5. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships: V. 7, T-V, By United States. Naval History Division, page 402
  6. USS ABSD-1 [1943-1946]
  7. US Navy 80-G-354318 Naval Amphibious Base, Manus, Admiralty Islands
  8. US Navy Department, Manual of Advanced Base Development and Maintenance, April 1945
  9. Untold Stories, By Cap'n Dee
  10. historycentral.com, USS Alcona
  11. ussashland.org, USS Ashland (LSD-1)
  12. "Floating Dry-Docks (AFDB, AFDM, AFDL, ARD, ARDM, YFD)". shipbuildinghistory.com. 30 April 2015. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  13. Sabine Pass, Port Arthur, Texas, United States Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility, by Howard C. Williams
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