U.S.S. Spica
AK-16
1940
(Saratoga Model Shipyard SMY-36)
- Class: Sirius - 4 cargo ships of 1919
- Displacement: 11,400 tons
- Dimensions: 401' x 54'2" x 24'5"
- Machinery: 1-shaft steam turbine, S.H.P. 2,500 = 11.5 knots
- Armament: 2-5"/51, 4-3"/50 A.A. guns (installed 1940)
- Complement: 197
- Builder: American International Shipbuilding Corp, Hog Island, PA
- Laid down: 15 Jun 1918
- Launched: 8 Aug 1918
- Acquired: 16 Nov 1921
- Commissioned: 1 Mar 1940
- Decommissioned: 18 Jan 1946
- Notes: Laid down and launched as SS Shannock, a United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corp Standard Type A Freighter built at Hog Island. After a short period of commercial service she was one of six Hog Islanders taken over by the Navy in 1921, four of which received an AK designation. Renamed USS Spica, she was immediately laid up in the Reserve Fleet at New York, later Charleston, and then Philadelphia, from Jan 1927 to Feb 1940, before finally being commissioned in 1940. Spent most of WWII running supplies from the west coast to Alaska, with a few trips to Hawaii and the South Pacific. Received one battle star for participation in occupation of Attu.
Postwar she was bought by Compania Navemar, S.A. (Argentina) and renamed Pleamar, serving until scrapped in 1967.
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