USS Protector (AGR-11)

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Name: USS Protector
Namesake: A guard or guardian
Ordered: as type (Z-EC2-S-C5) hull, MCE hull 2346
Builder: J. A. Jones Construction Co. Inc., Panama City, Florida
Laid down: 31 January 1945, as Liberty ship SS Warren P. Marks
Launched: 15 March 1945
Sponsored by: Mrs. E. M. Hinson
Acquired: by the U.S. Navy in 1957
Commissioned: 20 February 1957 as USS Protector (YAGR-11)
Decommissioned: 28 July 1965, at Bayonne, New Jersey
Reclassified: AGR-11, 28 October 1958
Refit: converted to a Radar Picket Ship at Charleston Naval Shipyard, Charleston, South Carolina
Struck: date unknown
Homeport: Newport, Rhode Island
Honours and
awards:
Navy Expeditionary Medal (2-Cuba)
Fate: scrapped, 30 November 2005
General characteristics
Type: Guardian-class radar picket ship
Tons burthen: 11,365 tons
Length: 441'
Beam: 59'
Draft: 22'
Installed power: two electric generators
Propulsion: Two 220 PSI boilers; Filer & Stowell Co., of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, three cylinder triple-expansion reciprocating engine; Single 4 blade, 18' 6" propeller; Shaft Horsepower, 2,500
Speed: 11 knots (20 km/h)
Capacity: Fuel Oil, 443,646 gals; Diesel, 68,267 gals; Fresh Water, 15,082 gals; Ballast, 1,326,657 gals fresh water
Complement: 13 officers, 138 enlisted
Armament: two 3"/50 guns

USS Protector (AGR-11/YAGR-11) was a Guardian-class radar picket ship acquired by the U.S. Navy in 1957 from the “mothballed” reserve fleet. She was reconfigured as a radar picket ship and assigned to radar picket duty in the North Atlantic Ocean as part of the Distant Early Warning Line.

Liberty ship built in Florida

The third ship to be so named by the Navy, Protector (YAGR–11) wag laid down by J. A. Jones Construction Co., Wainwright Yards, Panama City, Florida, as Liberty ship SS Warren P. Marks (MCE hull 2346) 31 January 1945 ; launched 15 March 1945; sponsored by Mrs. E. M. Hinson; and placed in service 29 March 1945.

Conversion to radar picket

Operated by the Shepard Steamship Co. from 1945 to 1957, Warren P. Marks was converted at the Charleston Naval Shipyard, and commissioned Protector (YAGR–11) 20 February 1957, Lt. Comdr. Glen G. Heller in command.

Radar picket duty

After shakedown off Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Protector, homeported at Newport, Rhode Island, reported to Commandant, 1st Naval District for administrative control and to Commander YAGR Division 21 for duty and was assigned as an Ocean Station Radar Picket Ship in the seaward extension of the Eastern Continental Air Defense Command Contiguous Radar Coverage System.

Continuing her duties off the U.S. East Coast, Protector was redesignated an AGR on 28 October 1958. She continued her radar picket duty until 1965. During the Cuban invasion in the spring of 1962 and the Cuban Missile Crisis in the fall, Protector operated in the Florida Straits and established a new radar picket station.

On 10 February 1965, Protector terminated picket duty as the last picket ship to man Radar Picket Station No. 15 of NORAD Contiguous Radar Coverage System.

Decommissioning

On 28 July 1965 she decommissioned at Bayonne, New Jersey, Stricken on 01 September 1965 and was placed in the U.S. Maritime Administration Reserve Fleet, Hudson River, New York, as an Emergency Relocation Center Ship, where she remained until she was towed to the Norfolk Naval Shipyard where her engine was removed. In 1971 she was transferred to the James River Reserve Fleet, where she rermained until 25 July 2003 when she was sold to Able UK, Teeside, but owner never took possession so she was again sold to All Star Metals Brownsville, Texas for $ 569.930.00 on 13 September 2004, And she was removed on 29 November 2004. With scrapping completed 30 November 2005.

Honors and awards

Protector personnel qualified for the following medals:

See also

References