Atlas departing the San Francisco Bay Area, after a yard availability, February 1953.
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History | |
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United States | |
Name | USS Atlas |
Builder | Chicago Bridge & Iron Company, Seneca, Illinois |
Laid down | 3 June 1943, as LST-231 |
Launched | 19 October 1943 |
Commissioned | 15 November 1943 |
Decommissioned | 13 September 1946 |
Reclassified | ARL-7, 3 November 1943 |
Recommissioned | 1 June 1951 |
Decommissioned | 13 April 1956 |
Stricken | 1 June 1972 |
Fate | Sold for scrapping, 18 September 1973 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Achelous class repair ship |
Displacement | 1,781 long tons (1,810 t) light, 3,960 long tons (4,024 t) full |
Length | 328 ft (100 m) |
Beam | 50 ft (15 m) |
Draft | 11 ft 2 in (3.40 m) |
Propulsion | 2 × General Motors 12-567 diesel engines, two shafts, twin rudders |
Speed | 12 knots (14 mph; 22 km/h) |
Complement | 255 officers and enlisted men |
Armament | 12 × Bofors 40 mm guns (2x4, 2x2), 12 × Oerlikon 20 mm cannons (6x2) |
Service record | |
Operations: | World War II, Invasion of Normandy, Korean War |
Awards: | 1 Battle star (WWII) |
USS Atlas (ARL-7) was one of 39 Achelous-class landing craft repair ships built for the United States Navy during World War II. Named for Atlas (in Greek mythology, the son of the Titan Iapetus and Clymene and the brother of Prometheus), she was the second U.S. Naval vessel to bear the name.
Originally laid down as LST-231 on 3 June 1943 at Seneca, Illinois by the Chicago Bridge & Iron Company; launched on 19 October 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Nettie Singer; named Atlas and redesignated a landing craft repair ship ARL-7 on 3 November 1943; and commissioned on 15 November 1943 for the voyage to the conversion yard. She arrived in Baltimore, Maryland on 14 December 1943; entered the Bethlehem Steel Key Highway Shipyard; and was placed out of commission for her conversion to a landing craft repair ship. Her modifications completed early in February, 1944 Atlas was recommissioned at Baltimore on 8 February 1944.