Update: 27 November 2007
Army FP/FS Vessels
FP-343 reclassified as FS-343
Naval Historical Center Photo Collection, Photo # NH 74691 titled:
"U.S. Army ship FP-343 underway, 1944"
Why an FS page?
I had not planned to get into specific Army ship types beyond those tying directly to the ships I knew later as cable ships. Both of those groups, the Coast Artillery Corps Mine Planters and Signal Corps cable ships, sources of later Navy cable ships are limited in number. I have a fairly good handle on those ships. The vast fleet of cargo, troop ships and other auxiliaries are another matter entirely. Now I'm making an exception. There are three reasons.
First, they have somehow sort of grown on me as ships. Maybe it is that in that "other life" of daydreams I can see one of these small ships being a home to roam the world. I'm not mad about "yachts" and would prefer one of these little working vessels if given the nearly unlimited funds necessary to keep such a toy. Turn a cargo hold into real living quarters and an FS becomes a really nicely sized seagoing home with an attractive figure as well.
Then Ken Elslip, who served as radio operator aboard FS-291 in the Korean War supporting special operations, sent me photos that showed something new. Most shots are from off the bow or beam. Ken sent one showing the stern. As soon as I viewed the photo I could see myself with a tall cool one sitting on that "back porch" anchored off just about any nice place. I've become mildly hooked on these little vessels.
Army FS-525 and FS-291, Korea (photo from Ken Elslip)
Second, the only mention of the FS in my ship pages is on one fairly obscure page that is a transcription of a list I found at National Archives: Harbor Boat Designations with explanatory Notes. At the bottom I have extracts from the first e-mails in response to the simple mention of the FP/FS classification. They were the first of a number. Second only to USS Neptune people, the ex-Army FP/FS people are the most frequent in contacting me. A number have followed with information and photographs. As a result I have enough real information to do something with these interesting vessels.
Lastly, for the most part these vessels were neither famous nor memorialized. They are hardly even listed. Even though there were hundreds, there is no "FS Memorial." As far as I know there is and has never been an FS candidate for a preserved ship or memorial. They just faded away like MacArthur's old soldier. Now the last of them are vanishing from the world.
Many of the Army's FS vessels were operated by Coast Guard crews during the war and only the Coast Guard has put an effort into recording them in detail. Others were operated by Army Transportation Corps civilian employees and some by Army military personnel. A few, possible FS variants built or acquired in Australia apparently had at least some crew of Australian civilians under contract to the Army (See Forgotten Fleet for information on Bill Lunney and Frank Finch's book on this topic.). The Army was not in particular awe of ships, they were just cargo vehicles for really wet places so it kept no treasured ship histories, even for its great transports, as does Navy.
The Coast Guard has Navy like feelings for ships. As a result the best readily available FS reference may now be found at the U.S. Coast Guard Historian's site: "World War II Coast Guard-Manned U.S. Army Freight and Supply Ship Histories." This is as close as one will come to finding an equivalent to Navy's Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS) for these ships. That list forms the foundation for a table I am trying to fill with any mention of FS vessels. I've added a very few, mostly thanks to people sending e-mail as a result of that one mention at this web site.
Background
The Army had a number of small oceangoing vessels generally classed as "Freight and Passenger Boat" (FP), redesignated during the war to "FS" for "Freight and Supply." To confuse the issue, the designation was purely functional. It was applied to many small vessels of widely different designs and to converted merchant vessels with no similarity at all to the "standard" designs. There are also a number of small Army vessels with similar function, different designations and designs:
Freight & Passenger Boat 115'" (FT)
Cargo Vessel 99' Steel (F)
Cargo Vessel (Air Corps) (FA) also 99' with a different appearance
Freight & Passenger Vessel 65' (T) the somewhat famous "T Boat" still sometimes seen as a party fishing boat
Freight & Passenger Vessel (Sm. - under 100') (TP or TH)
Tanker - 176' (Y) that were very similar to the FS vessels, appearing to have the same basic hull design and superstructure configuration.
FP-107 was a product of Minneford Yacht Yard, Inc. of City Island, New York
The museum has a collection of photos dealing with construction of wartime vessels here.
Among the vessels eventually bearing the FS designation the variances can be generally grouped by whether they are wood or steel and tonnage. Based on several sources I believe the following breakdown is reasonably accurate:
FS-1 to FS-18, wood, 180gt
FS-29 to FS-47 and FS-56, wood, 270gt
FS-48 to FS-55, steel, 180gt
FS-73 to FS-79, FS-91 to FS-96, FS-116 to FS-122 & FS-126 to FS-130, steel, 180gt
FS-102 to FS-109 and FS-111 to FS-114, wood, 450gt
FS-135 to FS-161, steel, 512gt
FS-162 to FS-234, steel, 573gt
FS-238 to FS-252, wood, 540gt
FS-253 to FS-293, FS-309 to FS-319, FS-343 to FS-356, FS-361 to FS-374, FS-383 to FS-400, FS-404 to FS-411, FS-524 to FS-529, FS-546 to FS-550 and FS-552 to FS-554, steel, 560gt
The gaps are explained by numbers not used, being converted merchant vessels or other reasons. I have detected several differences in lists and conflicts with individual records and lists so that I do not consider this breakdown absolutely accurate.
To add to confusion vessels of this designation were built locally and operated in the Southwest Pacific (SWPA) by the Army, often using Australians under contract and wearing ATS uniforms. My review of Forgotten Fleet and links from there gives some indication of this relationship. The book lists a number of FP/FS vessels constructed in Australia as well as mention of some included in the numbers above.
"World War II Coast Guard-Manned U.S. Army Freight and Supply Ship Histories" states that FS-140 through FS-234 were 'Design 330,' and the rest were 'Design 381'" with the numbers seemingly limited to the CG crewed vessels. Those numbers span tonnage differences in other listings. Based on photos I have or have seen I believe this probably refers to a basic deck configuration change. The photo at the top of this page shows the cargo booms in the middle of the main deck. Photos of hull numbers in the group for "Design 330" show the boom just forward of the wheel house. The following photo of FS-177, as seen on the Coast Guard site, shows this clearly.
FS-177-U.S. Coast Guard's "World War II Coast Guard-Manned U.S. Army Freight and Supply Ship Histories"
I am going to concentrate on the vessels of greater than 500 tons. Of those, the best known are the steel hulled types shown above and at the top of the page. A few of the very large fleet of this type became the Navy's Camano Class Light Cargo Ship (AKL) Displacement 515 t.(lt), 935 t.(fl); Length 177'; Beam 33': Draft 10'; Speed 13kts propelled by two 500hp diesel engines and twin screws.
Many web and some other references indicate the engines were GE; however, John Hazlet noted they were GM6-278A diesels. Ken Chappelle sent an illustration from a manual showing "General Motors Model 6-278A" serial "15901 to 16451 inclusive, manufactured on U.S. Army Contract W-2789-tc-1262" as the FS power plant. The engine illustrated is a V6. The evidence seems to be that these were GM, not GE engines as shown in many web references.
I am interested in the origin of the GE engine information and whether some FS vessels were powered by GE plants. Wartime licenses for manufacturing by other companies were fairly common. Were some engines GE? Were ships selected for transfer to Navy as AKLs variants? We are in the process of trying to find out.
For information on most of these FS vessels transferred to Navy see the NavSource AKL index. At least two of these got some fame, though one is best known by her movie star alias, USS Reluctant.
Touches of Fame
The USS Hewell (AKL 14) starred as the fictitious USS Reluctant in the movie Mr. Roberts. Previously she had been the Army FS-391, built in 1944. Carl Friberg, former MSC ship Captain, has done an analysis of the modifications made to Hewell for the movie in his A Movie Mystery That Bugged Me. It is interesting to see how a ship was turned into a stage set with some modifications that would not work at sea. These little Army vessels, supplying the forces among the islands and along coasts, are probably more realistic models for the life portrayed in the movie than most naval auxiliaries were. By the way, there has been a flurry of e-mail "corrections" to the ship that was used in the film. Before wasting your time with such a "correction," see a discussion below. There is sound evidence for Hewell.
The other famous member of this group is the USS Pueblo (AGER-2) that was captured by North Korea in 1968. She had previously been classed as an AKL-44 before being converted to a Banner Class Environmental Research Ship, actually an electronic surveillance vessel. Before being acquired by Navy she had been Army FP/FS-344. USS Banner (AGER-1), the Navy class leader, was formerly AKL-25 and before that was Army FS-345. The third of these electronic ships was the USS Palm Beach (AGER-3), ex AKL-45 , ex Army FS-217.
Recent Finds
Perhaps most pleasant has been the occasional find of what happened to one of these ships, whose fate is largely unknown, in recent years. I know more than a few remained in the islands of the Pacific. After all, that is an area ideally suited to a small cargo vessel. I expect many finished their days, some may even still make a living, as undocumented tramps hauling small cargos about the islands. At least two were recently listed in Jane's serving officially in the Philippines as buoy tenders.
Two others have come to light in the last year:
Every now and then I "Google" the web for ships. During a routine search on various combinations that might turn up FS vessels I got a hit. A web site noted:
I checked my list and saw that FS-553 had "family" as the son of her wartime First Engineer had been in contact and had sent photographs. Ken Chappelle had written:
He then followed up with a number of photographs from his father's album.
Center: Tom Chappelle, 1st Engineer of FS-553, ca. 1944-45
Right: Typhoon.
Photos: Tom Chappelle via his son Ken.
Ken and his father were surprised and happy to find FS-553 after all these years. We have been in contact with the people involved and have confirmed the information. It would be nice to have even more proof, but agree that there is no reason for anyone to have created a phony trail for the people preparing the ship as a reef to find and conclude this was FS-553. We are hoping to find something about the ship's past. Known previous names are Lady Laura and Tauros. She had been so heavily modified that her original profile was gone entirely. Certain key characteristics of an FS' bow and stern were definitive. During our correspondence on FS-553 Ken noted that a "bit of interesting FS-553 Trivia. The Skipper of the FS-553 was Capt. Halliburton of oil company fame" accompanied by a photograph.
Then I heard from another "Ken." Ken Liddane sent mail and photos that ties the FP-47 into my interest in Signal Corps vessels and the Southwest Pacific Area (SWPA). This vessel is one of the variants. It is wooden hulled with a profile nothing like the steel version seen above. As far as I can determine it was one of the wooden 270 ton vessels and built by Martinolich Repair of San Francisco, California in 1943. One of his photographs appears on my Signal Corps ships page along with more description of the vessel and its function.
FP-47 Photos from Ken Liddane with a group photo of the Signals detachment
I highly recommend the pages at AboutWW2.com for a better understanding of the function of this vessel and others like it. That site is based on the papers of Lt. Colonel O. Howard ("Dave") Davidsmeyer who was a senior Signals officer in SWPA.
Jack DeWeese provided some further information on FP-47 in telling of FS-175:
* * * *
Then come the FS stories and observations. My personal favorite has been over on the page that started all of this. It illustrates both manning of these vessels and an innovative way of getting home at war's end when transport was so short:
I have always gotten a little grin of appreciation for this. Getting home was a real problem despite Operation Magic Carpet that pressed even combatants into troop lift. Life on the troop transports from the viewpoint of the "passenger" is fairly well covered in all its misery. John ingeniously got on his way home more quickly and much more interestingly than he might have.
John's problem leads to an aside. We hear so much today about how the WW II veteran got the hero's welcome and the "Magic Carpet" treatment. I was watching that great movie, Best Years of Our Lives, a short time ago. I've seen it before, but this time I was hit by one small part of the introduction. There is the Army Air Forces Capt., the hero, returning home. At the airport counter he is told there is no room and he will have a long wait or an expensive ticket. He is told to stand aside as a fat businessman with golf clubs checks in. He then trudges over to the dismal little terminal where he may be lucky enough to catch a military hop. We've built a comfortable myth about how well the WW II veteran was treated on arrival home. It wasn't so smooth at all. The "grateful nation" too often treated these men and women as intruders with a problem.
David Briggs, who is writing about the World War II Army vessels, observes something about the Army FS to Navy AKL switch. Navy has always been noted for massive crews living squished together. In the days of wooden ships and iron men that was necessary. Sailing took lots of muscle as did manning those guns. A crew could expect heavy casualties as the balls and, worse, the splinters flew. One needed those hundreds of men to hope to survive battle and disease with a working crew. The tradition lingers, perhaps for less reason. Anyway, David wrote Carl about the fact the complement for an AKL was fifty two people. This again reveals the Army's crewing of these ships.
The book mentioned is, FS's, the Little Ships that Could: a history of the campaigns in the Pacific and the personal experiences of the author on the U.S. Army FS-268 (George P. Alton).
I am really taken by these little ships and am continuing to look into their history. Any readers with corrections, help, stories are urged to contact me. I intend to revise and add to this page as information is located.
FS reference links:
World War II Coast Guard-Manned U.S. Army Freight and Supply Ship Histories lists the FS vessels by number with a brief history of each. A great number of wartime FS vessels had Coast Guard crews. This is the best single reference to the FS vessels and as close an equivalent to the Navy's Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Vessels (DANFS) as can be found.
Coast Guard-manned U.S. Army FS-184; Pacific Theater, World War II is the story of U.S. Army FS-184.
John H. MathisYacht Building Co., under the heading "World War II Coast Guard-Manned U.S. Army Freight and Supply Ship Histories" is a bit on the Army's design types for the FS.
WWII Construction Records U.S. Army Cargo Ships (FS) This appears to be a good record; however, there also seem to be a few discrepancies with other information.
NavSource's Light Cargo Ship (AKL) Index
Naval Historical Center's SHIPS of the UNITED STATES ARMY
The Complete Library of Jack's Joint, "An Unofficial Coast Guard Library and More" contains:
Hard Copy: Williwaw (1946) was Gore Vidal's first novel. It was republished as Dangerous Voyage and takes place on an FS in the Aleutians. It is based on his experience aboard FS-35 during the war. See American Masters, Gore Vidal for more background.
Not the USS Hewell (AKL 14) in the movie? Think again.
Now and then someone sends e-mail with a "correction" on the ship used as a stage set to film Mr. Roberts. Evidence, with one exception, points clearly to the USS Hewell (FS-391/AG-145/AKL-14).
These "corrections" almost always contend the Army's FS-289 that became the Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS) USNS T-AKL-17 was used for the film. That ship later acquired the name USNS New Bedford (T-AKL 17) after operating out of New Bedford servicing Air Force Texas Towers in the Atlantic. That ship later was placed "out of service" in 1963, meaning MSTS no longer had a requirement and picked up for "station" duty as New Bedford (IX-308). As such the vessel was not an oceanic transport, but was a specialized asset of the torpedo test station at Keyport, Washington and carried on the register in the same way naval yard craft are carried and tied to a particular local command. The ship was retired at Keyport and sold into commercial service to became the fishing vessel Sea Bird.
More than once I've been on a ship and heard such tales about an incident in the ship's history. The trouble was that I knew that incident because I'd been abroad the actual ship involved at the time and it was a completely different ship! As crews come and go the legends get passed about until they become "fact."
The exceptional "evidence" for this claim is found in a local publication of the Keyport torpedo test station. The latest dealt with the retirement of IX-308 and states it had been the vessel used in the film. That claim is countered by considerable evidence to the contrary. Local publications are great at writing up awards won, personalities on the job and even station history. More than one has gone aground when trying to do "history" for things outside the station itself. This is often the case with ships that often come with lore and legend in the form of what naval types often term "scuttlebutt" and "sea stories." These may be accurate, a bit accurate or just "full of it." After careful review of all the evidence I am convinced the local public affairs organ at the torpedo station picked up one of these legends.
Here is just part of the contrary evidence. For simplicity I will tend to use the AKL numbers; AKL-14 for Hewell and T-AKL-17 for New Bedford:
First, The Naval Historical Center, that does not make such changes in the official histories of the ships lightly or without evidence, updated the authoratitive Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, commonly known as DANFS entry for Hewell on 19 June 2007 with:
T-AKL-17 was part of the mass transfer of vessels from the Army directly to MSTS March 1, 1950. I have the hard copy list, but you can see this at the USMM site by jumping to Ships transferred to Military Sea Transport Service from Army Transportation Service,
March 1, 1950
AKL-14 was transferred from Army to Navy before the mass transfer. By the time that happened the USS Hewell (AKL-14) had been in the Western Pacific for some time and began operating in the Japan/Korea area during the Korean War. This vessel was always commissioned with a military crew. The official DANFS history notes: "With the end of hostilities in Korea in August 1953, Hewell continued to make frequent supply voyages from Japan to occupying troops until June 1954, when she made a final swing through the Pacific island bases. Hewell departed Hawaii for home in mid-October 1954, remaining at Astoria, Oreg., until she decommissioned there 15 March 1955 and joined the Pacific Reserve Fleet." [Emphasis added]
Thus USS Hewell, the military crewed vessel made a documented swing through the filming location in the Hawaiian Island chain at the time the film was being shot. Billy Levy's John Ford: A Bio-Bibliography on page 176 states: "Filmed September-November 1954. Location shooting off Midway Island in the Pacific and Keneoke [sic] Bay, Honolulu in Hawaii aboard the U.S.S. Hewell" thus making another link to the Hewell.
Carl Friberg has done a great job of describing the interesting modifications required to make an AKL became a movie set. Remember, none of the interior shots were on a ship. Anyone familiar with ships, particularly small ones, will immediately see the director/cameraman nightmare of tight spaces. All the interior shots were shot on sound stages. To pin down the Hewell more firmly, he has a first person account on his page A Movie Seastory That Bugged Me. There Waylon Smithey recalls the filming with details matching the official DANFS history.
Here I have to make a major update and revision of what I thought was evidence against New Bedford, but was not. Photos of T-AKL-17 show an entirely different FS design than that seen in the movie. USS Hewell (AKL-14) was definitely a Design 381 with mast amid ships between cargo hatches. Photos of T-AKL-17 show the configuration of a Design 330D with the mast back against the superstructure. Did the Navy go to the very expensive and non trivial expense of gutting the cargo area down to the seat of the mast and associated machinery to accomplish this?
I thought it doubtful, but finally found evidence the Navy did just that. Even earlier photos show New Bedford with the center masts, in no way a 330D configuration. The Navy apparently made this radical ship alteration to convert the ship into a very robust Texas Tower support vessel that had plenty of open deck for large cargos to be lifted by the tower's crane and at least some "tanker" capability as photos clearly show fueling hoses from New Bedford snaking up to the tower. When I consider other ship alts, to make a cargo ship into a cable ship and such, I suppose it makes sense and is cost effective to gut the cargo areas of a fine little cargo ship to reset the mast and make room for special tanks while retaining all her other fine qualities.
Finally, anyone making the "not USS Hewell" argument to me can just save keystrokes unless they have something much more than one naval test station's in-house public affairs pamphlet written decades after the filming as "proof" to outweigh the evidence we do have for Hewell. It just does not fly, float or whatever and fits in with "just scuttlebutt" that got into a publication.
Page and text Copyright©Ramon Jackson 2004-2007. Photos copyright held by original donors.
U. S. Government official photographs are public domain.