USS Albemarle (AV-5)

USS Albemarle (AV-5), 30 July 1943, in Measure 21 (Navy blue/haze gray) camouflage.
History
United States
Name	USS Albemarle 1939–1960 USNS Corpus Christi Bay, 1963–1974
Namesake	Albemarle Sound in North Carolina / Albemarle County, Virginia Corpus Christi Bay in Texas
Builder	New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Camden, New Jersey
Laid down	12 June 1939
Launched	13 July 1940
Commissioned	20 December 1940
Decommissioned	14 August 1950
Recommissioned	21 October 1957
Decommissioned	21 October 1960
In service	January 1966
Out of service	1973
Stricken	31 December 1974
Fate	Sold for scrapping, 17 July 1975
General characteristics
Class and type	Curtiss class seaplane tender
Displacement	8,671 long tons (8,810 t)
Length	527 ft 4 in (160.73 m)
Beam	69 ft 3 in (21.11 m)
Draft	21 ft 1 in (6.43 m)
Installed power	4 × turbo-drive 500 kW 450 V A.C. service generators
Propulsion	2 × New York Shipbuilding Parsons-type geared turbines, 12,000 shp (8,948 kW)[1] 4 × Babcock & Wilcox boilers Double De Laval main reduction gears 2 × propellers
Speed	20 kn (23 mph; 37 km/h)
Complement	1,195 officers and enlisted men (AV) 128 civilians, 308 Army technicians (ARVH)
Armament	4 × 5"/38 dual-purpose gun mounts 16 × 40 mm AA guns (4x4) (AV, "as-built") 2 × dual 40 mm AA gun mounts 12 × 20 mm AA gun mounts (AV, added during World War II) No armament as ARVH

USS Albemarle (AV-5) was one of only two Curtiss-class seaplane tenders built for the United States Navy just prior to the United States' entry into World War II. Named for Albemarle Sound on the North Carolina coast, she was the third U.S. Naval vessel to bear the name. Albemarle was laid down on 12 June 1939 at Camden, New Jersey, by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation, and launched on 13 July 1940, sponsored by Mrs. Beatrice C. Compton, the wife of the Honorable Lewis Compton, Assistant Secretary of the Navy. She was commissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 20 December 1940, with Commander Henry M. Mullinnix in command. She was transferred to the Maritime Administration (MARAD) James River Fleet at Fort Eustis, Virginia. Placed in the custodial care of MARAD, Albemarle was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 September 1962.

On 27 March 1965, the ship was reinstated on the Navy Vessel Register and received a new name and classification as USNS Corpus Christi Bay (T-ARVH-1), named for Corpus Christi Bay in the southern Texas Coastal Bend; the ship was transferred to the Military Sealift Command (MSC) on 11 January 1966. Converted at the Charleston Naval Shipyard to an Aircraft Repair Ship, Helicopter, the conversion project was nicknamed Operation Flat Top. The seaplane ramp was replaced by a superstructure topped with a helicopter landing pad. The ship was fitted out with dozens of shops and equipment necessary to repair and maintain helicopters. During the Vietnam War Corpus Christi Bay participated in several campaigns from 1966 to 1969. Last anchored off Vung Tau, the ship left for the US in late 1972, stopping at Guam and Hawaii before transiting the Panama Canal and returning to its home base at Corpus Christi, Texas, arriving in December 1972. The ship was once again struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 31 December 1974. On 17 July 1975, the ship was sold to Brownsville (Texas) Steel and Salvage, Inc. for scrapping.