USS Glacier (AK-183)

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Career (USA) Union Navy Jack
Name: Glacier
Namesake: A field or body of ice formed in a region where snowfall exceeds melting; it moves slowly down a mountainside or valley.
Ordered: as type (C1-M-AV1) hull, MC 2114
Builder: Port Houston Iron Works for Walter Butler Shipbuilders, Inc., Superior, Wisconsin
Laid down: date unknown
Launched: 22 April 1944
Sponsored by: Miss Agnes Kennedy
Acquired: by the U.S. Navy, 29 March 1945
Commissioned: 14 April 1945 as USS Glacier (AK-183)
Decommissioned: 19 February 1946, at Norfolk, Virginia
Struck: 12 March 1946
Fate: returned to the U.S. Maritime Commission 22 February 1946
Notes: sold for scrapping in July 1970 at Hsinkang, China
General characteristics
Type: Alamosa-class cargo ship
Tonnage: 2,382 tons
Tons burthen: 7,435 tons
Length: 388' 8"
Beam: 50'
Draft: 21' 1"
Propulsion: Diesel, single screw, 1,700shp
Speed: 11.5 knots
Complement: 85 officers and enlisted
Armament: one 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount; six 20mm guns

USS Glacier (AK-183) was an Alamosa-class cargo ship acquired by the U.S. Navy during the final months of World War II. She served the Pacific Ocean theatre of operations for a short period of time before being decommissioned and returned to the U.S. Maritime Administration for dispositioning.

Built in Superior, Wisconsin

The third ship to be so named by the Navy, Glacier (AK-183) was launched 22 April 1944 under a Maritime Commission contract by Walter Butler Shipbuilding, Inc., Superior, Wisconsin; sponsored by Miss Agnes Kennedy; acquired 29 March 1945 and commissioned 14 April 1945, Lt. C. L. Hitchcock, USNR, in command.

World War II-related service

Following shakedown off Galveston, Texas, Glacier loaded lumber and metal drums at New Orleans, Louisiana, and sailed 18 May 1945 for Pearl Harbor, where she put in 12 June to off-load her cargo.

Underway 29 June with building supplies for Kwajalein, she returned via Eniwetok to San Francisco, California, 5 August. Subsequently, a 5-month voyage out of San Francisco brought general cargo to Pearl Harbor, Tarawa, Majuro, Eniwetok, Guam, and Saipan before Glacier moored at Norfolk, Virginia, 1 February 1946, her missions accomplished.

Post-war decommissioning

Decommissioned there 19 February 1946, she was returned to the Maritime Commission 3 days later and stricken from the Navy List 12 March 1946.

Honors and awards

Qualified Glacier personnel were eligible for the following:


References