USS Orvetta (IX-157)

For other ships of the same name, see USS Orvetta.

Career
Name:	USS Orvetta
Builder:	Oscar Daniels Company Tampa, Florida
Yard number:	9
Laid down:	12 June 1919 as Tampa
Completed:	February 1920
Acquired:	4 April 1944
Commissioned:	7 June 1944
Decommissioned:	End of 1946
Struck:	10 June 1947
Fate:	Sold for scrap, 1949
General characteristics
Type:	Design 1027 ship
Displacement:	12,940 long tons (13,148 t) full
Length:	418 ft (127 m)
Beam:	54 ft (16 m)
Draft:	28 ft (8.5 m)
Speed:	9.5 knots (17.6 km/h; 10.9 mph)
Armament:	• 1 × 3"/50 caliber gun • 1 × 40 mm gun

USS Orvetta (IX-157) was a transport military ship of the United States Navy used during World War II. Her mission was to provide a variety of services to the U.S. Pacific Fleet, including serving as barracks, bank, and a motion picture exchange.

Early operations

Built by the Oscar Daniels Company, in Tampa, Florida, for the Emergency Fleet Corporation and launched in 1920 as the MS Tampa, she was too late to see service in World War I. Later she was converted to a motor vessel and served the purpose of proving American-made Diesels practical for large seagoing vessels. As the Motor Vessel Tampa, she was well-known in the Orient, making many voyages in round-the-world trade for the American Pioneer Line.

During the early part of World War II, she was used to bring vital raw products from South America to East-Coast ports of the United States, running the gauntlet of submarines in the shark-infested waters of the Caribbean Sea with little protection.

World War II missions

She was acquired by the United States Navy on bareboat charter basis from the Maritime Commission on 4 April 1944, named Orvetta and converted by the Matson Navigation Company, in San Francisco, California, and commissioned on 7 June 1944, with Lieutenant Commander G. L. Armstrong in command.

By 18 June the barracks ship Orvetta had reported for duty with Service Force, Pacific. She operated first with ServRon 8, headquartered at Pearl Harbor. Then, as the war moved west and north from the South Pacific, she shifted to ServRon 10 to provide housing facilities at advanced bases.

Barracks

The Orvetta maintained a fleet personnel replacement center. This office served as a distributing point for men newly arrived from the United States and Pearl Harbor. These men were to serve as replacements for casualties and men of the fleet with long tours of duty at sea.

Later in the war, on the China coast, she carried out the extremely important work of starting Naval personnel back on the road to civilian life. The Orvetta, acting as a receiving ship, accomplished this by berthing the men eligible for discharge during the short intervals between the sailings of transports for the United States.

Fleet motion picture exchange

The Orvetta, as fleet motion picture exchange, served an important part in maintaining the morale of the fighting men of the Navy. She maintained and repaired a stock of hundreds of the newest movies, which enabled all ships to have a daily change of program. These movies brought Hollywood's glamour out to the men in the faraway Pacific.

Fleet disbursing office

The fleet disbursing office aboard the Orvetta served as a bank for the fleet, through which many millions of dollars flowed for payrolls. She also supplied American invasion currency for the landings on Okinawa.

Water taxi service

The Orvetta was the living quarters for the men of the vast water taxi service, called the boat pool, which was so essential in servicing and provisioning the many large and small fighting ships of the fleet which brought defeat to the Imperial Japanese Navy.

The Orvetta performed many more services for the fleet. Among these were a fleet freight office, a legal office, an insurance office, and a mail sorting room. An ugly duckling became the glamour girl of the fleet. Her charms, though only celluloid and paper, daily drew hundreds of boats from all ships of the fleet to her as a candle draws moths.

After World War II

By the end of the war, she was in the Philippines, anchored in San Pedro Bay. Following the signing of the official surrender documents, Orvetta steamed north to Okinawa, thence to Shanghai, arriving there on 30 September. She remained at Shanghai until 10 May 1946 when she was taken in tow by USS Serrano (ATF-112) for return to the Philippines. On the first or second night out, a storm caused the tow cable to break, resulting in the destruction of the Orvetta's forward winch. With much difficulty, the engines were started just as the ship's roll was only two degrees short of capsizing. The Orvetta completed the journey under her own power. Arriving at Subic Bay on 18 May 1946, she continued to serve as a barracks ship until decommissioned at the end of the year.

Struck from the Naval Register on 10 June 1947, she was returned to the Maritime Commission, at Subic Bay, on 26 January 1948. Four months later she departed for the United States and was sold for scrap in early 1949.

Though not a sleek combat vessel, in WWII the USS Orvetta (IX-157) performed vital services to her fleet and her country. The lack of glamour associated with her assigned duties in no way diminished the dedication and pride of her crew.

References

• This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
• Photo gallery of USS Orvetta at NavSource Naval History
• USS Orvetta