Castor (AKS 1) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 11 text:

Section one is the men who sail the WESTPAC CANNONBALL. In each Division are shown our leaders and those whom We lead. 2 Section three shows our ports of call for the past year, . ,The strange and exotic cities of Southeast Asia. Section five covers activities and special events. . .The things we do for amusement and relaxation. . .The events that break up routine and give us things to Write cruise- books about. Section two is the UNREP story. Shown is the complete story of how We peform our primary mission of mobile logistic support to the Seventh Fleet. Section four covers our overhaul and re- fresher training. We renovated our ship and retrained our crew.

Page 10 text:

This cruisebook is a record ofthe past year aboard the WESTPAC CANNONBALL. . . . those who served aboard her, the ports visited, and the things that happened. . ,, . - ,rc 2 mr' mf . Z -md ,, f ,.,. , sw i

Page 12 text:

HISTORY OF THE USS CASTOR iAKS-ll Her keel was laid as the first of a new breed, the C-2 cargo vessels for the U.S. Maritime commission. Designed by the Federal Ship- building and Drydock Company, she was chris- tened S.S. Challenge and launched at Kearney, New Jersey on May 20, 1939. Challenge sailed for the Cuba Mail Line until purchased by the Navy in October of 1940. Converted for the Navy at Brewer's Ship- yard, Staten Island, she became the first of another breed, a Stores Issue Ship. Designated AKS-1 and renamed USSCASTOR, she has been ichi-ban C'number one l since her com- missioning in March 1941. The CASTOR'S mission was to carry gen- eral stores, ship's store stock,clothing, small stores, and medical and dental supplies: over eleven thousand different items, to forward operating areas for fleet issue. She was to provide logistic support to fleet units, in port or underway, in areas where advance bases were not available. She received her initial load in April 1941 from Naval Supply Depot, Norfolk, and the following month arrived in San Diego to begin her career in the Pacific. After only a few months of Navy service she added Marines to her load, along with their field gear and artillery. With the USMC First Defense Battalion aboard,CAS-- TOR headed west, and on November 2, 1941, she landed two hundred men at Wake Island. These men formed nearly half of the island's defense force when the Imperial Japanese Navy struck thirty-six days later. Returning immediately to Mare Island, California, CASTOR took on another load re- flecting the tension of the times: ammunition and high explosives. With this hot cargo she arrived at Pearl Harbor on December 4, 1941. Most of it was still aboard three days later when the Japanese attacked, but an obscure berth at Merry's Point protected her from a direct hit. The vessel was strafed but returned to the States, this time to Alameda with a load of pineapples which were used primarily for ballast. For the rest of the war CASTOR con- tinued to make her supply runs to the central and southwest Pacific with cargos of troops, ammunition, and general stores. Wherever the fleet was, there was CASTOR. By the war's end, she had made twenty major supply runs, steaming nearly 250,000 miles. On June 30, 1947 as part of the post war cut back, CASTOR was decommissioned and placed in the San Francisco Group, Pacific Reserve Fleet. There she remained for nearly four years. As a result of the Korean conflict, she was reactivated in late 1950, and.for the next fourteen months carried vital supplies to United Nations forces. Inchon, Pusan, Sasebo, and Yokosuka were her main ports of call, Sailing for San Francisco in March 1952, CASTOR was caught in atyphoon as trouble de- veloped in her main reduction gears. All en- gines were stopped and the ship lay dead in the water for twenty-two hours while the storm raged about her. After sustaining considerable damage, she was taken under tow and returned to Yokosuka for repairs. By April she was back on the line, this time operating in the Philippine area. More runs brought a variety of duties. In 1954 she was in Indochina, issuing supplies to the ships evacuating refugees. In January 1956 CASTOR returned to the States to the Triple A and Todd Shipyard for five months of overhaul and conversion. She emerged in June as the most advanced supply ship in the U.S. Navy. She was the first to add technical spares to her cargo of general stores. Her new profile included petroleum products, electrical, electronic, ordnace, and machinery repair parts. In August 1956 she sailed west again and her home port became Sasebo. In October it was changed to Yokosuka. About that same time she picked up an SCS from the Philippine mer- chant ship SS LEPUS, caught in a typhoon and sinking off Cagayan Philippines. With the assistance of aircraft from Clark Air Force Base, CASTOR located and picked up the 11 survivors. For this she received acitation and plaque from Ramon Magsaysay, thenpresident of the Philippine Republic. In peacetime or at war CASTOR has always been number one . In 1961 she earned the battle efficiency E award for the Service Force Pacific Fleet. In 1963 she made a clean sweep of cargo transfer records for AKStypes. Her speed of transfer to aircraft carrier, cruiser, and destroyer type ships were more than double the old rates. In August 1964, CASTOR'S home port was changed to Sasebo, where this past winter she underwent overhaul. Along with extensive ma- chinery repairs, galley and laundry equipment was replaced and a new communication center was added. On the fantail ahelocopter deck was constructed, giving her a capability for ver- tical replenishment, one of the most advanced means of cargo transfer. At the end of over- haul, on 12 March 1966, the grey lady cele- brated her silver anniversary of commissioned service. She has not returned to the United States since 1956, and for more than 14 of her 25 years she has steamed in far eastern waters. Ichi Ban Maru is a familiar sight inthe orient. T J '1 r l Q 1 P D I 4 I 4 ,