| USS Montauk (LSV-6) | |
|---|---|
 USS Montauk (LSV-6) underway off New York soon after completion of her LSV conversion in October 1944 | |
| Career |  |
| Name: | USS Montauk |
| Builder: | Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, Mississippi |
| Laid down: | 14 April 1942, as AN-2 (Net laying ship) |
| Launched: | 14 April 1943 |
| Commissioned: | 6 October 1944 |
| Decommissioned: | July 1947 |
| Renamed: | USS Galilea, 1 October 1946 |
| Reclassified: |
AP-161 (Transport), 2 August 1943 LSV-6 (Landing Ship Vehicle), 21 April 1944 AKN-6 (Net Cargo Ship), 1 October 1946 |
| Struck: | 1 September 1961 |
| Honours and awards: | 1 battle star (World War II) |
| Fate: | Sold for scrapping, June 1972 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type: | Osage-class vehicle landing ship |
| Displacement: |
4,626 long tons (4,700 t) light 9,040 long tons (9,185 t) full |
| Length: | 458 ft (140 m) |
| Beam: | 60 ft 2 in (18.34 m) |
| Draft: | 20 ft (6.1 m) |
| Propulsion: |
4 × Combustion Engineering 2-drum boilers 2 × General Electric geared turbines 2 shafts |
| Speed: | 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph) |
| Capacity: | 19 × LVTs or 29 × DUKWs |
| Troops: | 122 officers, 1236 enlisted men |
| Complement: | 458 officers and enlisted men |
| Armament: |
• 2 × single 5"/38 caliber gun mounts (forward) • 1 × twin 5"/38 caliber gun mount (aft) • 4 × twin 40 mm guns • 20 × single 20 mm guns |
USS Montauk (LSV-6/AN-2/AP-161/AKN-6) was an Osage-class vehicle landing ship built for the United States Navy during World War II. She was named after USS Montauk (1862) and was the fourth U.S. Naval vessel to bear the name.
Originally laid down under Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 1) as AN-2 on 14 April 1942 by the Ingalls Shipbuilding Corporation of Pascagoula, Mississippi; launched 14 April 1943; sponsored by Mrs. G. C. Whiting; reclassified AP-161 2 August 1943; reclassified LSV-6 21 April 1944; and commissioned 6 October 1944 at Brooklyn, New York with Commander Alfred R. Boileau in command.
Service history[]
Pacific, 1944–1945[]
After shakedown in Chesapeake Bay, Montauk joined TU 29.6.11 on 7 November 1944 and sailed for the west coast for assignment with Amphibious Forces, Pacific Fleet. Arriving at San Francisco on the 23rd, she loaded DUKWs and LCVPs and headed for Hawaii on the 25th on her first vehicular cargo run. During the next few months, the delivery of similar cargoes took her to Guadalcanal, Tulagi, Eniwetok, and Guam as well as to Hawaii. On 2 March she took on Army troops and equipment, sailing on the 5th for Saipan. Then, as Allied forces in the Pacific gathered for the next campaign, she sailed west toward Okinawa..
Battle of Okinawa, 1945[]
By 1 April she stood off the "demonstration" beach on the southeast coast of that largest of the Ryukyu Islands. There she participated in the diversionary feint to draw the enemy's attention from the Hagushi beaches, receiving within hours her first taste of Japanese kamikaze aerial resistance tactics, At 0704, she proceeded to Transport Area Easy off the west coast of Okinawa, rendezvousing with the Eldorado (AGC-11), Vice Admiral Turner's flagship, at 1109, and commencing the employment of her boats in the shuttling of Army staff personnel to and from Eldorado. Her passengers and cargo, assigned to reinforcement roles, remained on board, intact, until 9 April. Emptied by the 15th, she set a course back to Saipan on the 16th. From Saipan, she made one run to the Palaus, and then headed back to San Francisco, whence she conducted amphibious supply runs to Hawaii, Eniwetok, Guam, and Ulithi through the remaining months of the war.
End of the war, 1945[]
Following VJ Day, Montauk transported occupation troops to Okinawa and then sailed, 30 September, for Tientsin, China, with Marine Corps personnel and equipment. Departing 10 October she returned to the Ryukyus and then steamed on to Guam, where she embarked personnel of the 6th Marine Division for transportation to China, disembarking them at Tsingtao, 28 November. At the end of the month, she proceeded to Sasebo, Japan and sailed from there on the 13th for Okinawa en route to San Diego.
Decommissioning and sale, 1945–1972[]
Montauk returned to the United States 29 December and was reassigned to the Atlantic Fleet, homeported at Charleston, South Carolina. Renamed Galilea and redesignated AKN-6 on 1 October 1946 she began inactivation in December 1946. Decommissioned in July 1947 she entered the Atlantic Reserve Fleet at Charleston. She remained there as a unit of the 16th Fleet until placed in the custody of the Maritime Administration in August 1960. On 1 September 1961 she was struck from the Naval Vessel Register. The following year, she was formally transferred to the Commerce Department and was laid up in the James River as a unit of the National Defense Reserve Fleet. Galilea was sold for scrapping in June 1972.
Montauk received one battle star for her World War II service.
References[]
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.
USS Galilea (AKN-6) at the Charleston Naval Shipyard, 17 February 1947. The yard is preparing the ship for inactivation following cancellation of her conversion to a net cargo ship in December 1946. There is little evidence of the conversion in this photo as most of the alterations were at the stern or inside the ship.
- "Montauk". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/m14/montauk-iv.htm. Retrieved 29 April 2007.
- "AN-2 / AP-161 / LSV-6 Montauk & AKN-6 Galilea". Amphibious Photo Archive. http://www.navsource.org/archives/10/17/1706.htm. Retrieved 29 April 2007.
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The original article can be found at USS Montauk (LSV-6) and the edit history here.