USS Bowditch

U.S.S. Bowditch

AGS-4

1944

(Saratoga Model Shipyard SMY-63)

Class: Bowditch - 1 survey ship of 1943
Displacement: 4,576 tons
Dimensions: 386 x 53 x 20 ft.
Machinery: two B&W diesels, twin screws, 3500 shp = 12 knots
Armament: 4-3"/50, 8-20mm A.A. guns
Crew: 406

Builder: Burmeister & Wain, Copenhagen, Denmark
Launched: 1929
Commissioned: 12 Mar 1940
Decommissioned: 31 Jan 1947

Service: Laid down as the passenger ship MV Santa Inez in 1929. Service New York -- Valparaiso. Purchased by the US Navy on 4 Mar 1940 and sent to the Norfolk Navy Yard for conversion to a surveying vessel as USS Bowditch. Initially commissioned as a Miscellaneous Auxiliary (AG-30); redesignated as a Survey Ship (AGS-4) on 11 Dec 1943. Made numerous geodetic surveys in places such as Little Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, Bermuda, the Bahamas, Jamaica, Cuba, and Haiti. Departing Norfolk 9 Jan 1942, she steamed south to conduct surveys of the waters between Panama and Colombia, off the Gal㎝agos Islands, and off the Cocos Islands in Costa Rica. Returning to Norfolk for repairs Nov 1942, she departed for the south again Feb 1943. After survey work in the Caribbean through May, she transited the Panama Canal to work along the coasts of Panama, Colombia, and Ecuador.
Assigned to Service Force, Pacific Fleet, she arrived at Pearl Harbor 6 Jan 1944. She served as a survey ship during the invasion of Kwajalein and Majuro Atolls (Feb - Apr 1944); occupation of Saipan (Jul - Oct); and the capture of Okinawa (Apr - Sep 1945). She remained off Okinawa until 3 Nov 1945 when she departed for the United States. On 17 Feb 1946 Bowditch sailed for Bikini Atoll to begin preliminary surveys for Operation Crossroads. She continued surveying at Bikini after the atomic bomb tests, returning to San Francisco 19 Oct 1946. She left San Francisco for Norfolk 23 Nov and was decommissioned there. She was transferred to the Maritime Commission 9 Jun 1948. Bowditch received three battle stars for her World War II service. Sister MV Santa Rita became USS William Ward Burroughs (AP-6).