Mauna Loa (AE 8) - Naval Cruise Book

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United States Ship MA UNA LOA Two Decades of Ammo Trades USS MAUNA LOA is a Lassen Class AE, built as an ammunition ship from modified maritime com- mission C-2 plans. Named after the largest volcano on the island of Hawaii, she is 459 feet in overall length, with a 63 feet beam width, and a 13,876 ton full load displacement. She is a single screw ship of 6220 shaft horsepower and is powered by two 9 cylinder Nordberg Diesel Engines. April 1943 witnessed the launching of MAUNA LOA from the ways of the Tampa Shipbuilding Com- pany, Tampa, Florida under the sponsorship of Mrs. Robert E. Friend, wife of the President of the Nord- berg Manufacturing Company. The ammunition ship was placed into commissioned service 27 October 1943 at the command of George D. Martin, Comman- der, U.S.N, who was the first a list that now totals 14 Commanding officers. After completing shakedown exercises in the Chesapeake Bay, MAUNA LOA pulled into Naval Operating Base at Norfolk, Virginia and took aboard her first cargo of ammunition. Her holds full and her crew eager for the open sea, MAUNA LOA set sail for the West Coast and ultimately Pearl Harbor. On 1 February, 1944, MAUNA LOA departed Pearl Harbor for the Marshall Islands, and her first mission into enemy waters. In the space of a few days she was able to replenish the COLORADO, TENNESSEE, PENNSYLVANIA, NEW MEXICO, IDAHO, MISSISSIPPI, PENSACOLA, INDIANAPOLIS , SALT LAKE CITY, LOUISVILLE, CHESTER, PHELPS, BILOXI, THRATEN, and several others. A few days later a near disaster almost terminated the MAUNA LOA ' s career as well as that of the cruiser INDIANAPOLIS and the battleship PENN- SYLVANIA. ThePENNSYLVANL was taking aboard fourteen inch powder from MAUNA LOA ' s No. 3 hold; at 1653 one of the many powder cans stacked on deck exploded and started to burn showering grains of burning powder over the ammunition stacked deck and into the open No. 3 hold of the nearby MAUNA LOA. Without a moments hesitation Chief Boats- wain F.B. Wilson grabbed a fire hose and played it on the burning can, checking the progress of the fire and enabling one of the PENNSYLVANIA ' S men to throw it overboard. MAUNA LOA ' s second mission into enemy wa- ters Started on 10 April when she set sail from San Francisco bound for Espiritu Santo in the New Hebri- des. She was there for a month and then proceeded to Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands where she supplied the fleet with ammunition for the Marianas operation. August found MAUNA LOA in San Francisco for what proved to be her last wartime visit to the United States. On 28 August 1944, she passed under the Golden Gate enroute to Manus Islands. On arri- val there she was ordered to proceed to the Palau Group in company with SHASTA (AE-6) and the de- stroyer escort MCCOY REYNOLDS. Upon entering the Kossol Passage on 18 September she anchored and immediately started rearming the cruisers USS HONOLULU and USS PORTLAND on a round the clock basis. The anchorage was less than 6 miles