USNS Albert J. Myer
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{{Infobox ship image |Ship image=USNS Albert J. Myer (T-ARC-6) underway c1984.JPEG |image alt= |Ship caption= }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country=United States |Ship flag={{USN flag|1994}} |Ship name=Albert J. Myer |Ship namesake=Brig. Gen. Albert J. Myer |Ship owner= |Ship operator= |Ship registry= |Ship route= |Ship ordered= |Ship awarded= |Ship builder=Pusey & Jones Corp. |Ship original cost= |Ship yard number=*MC hull 2558
|Ship way number= |Ship laid down=14 April 1945 |Ship launched=7 November 1945 |Ship sponsor= |Ship christened= |Ship completed= |Ship acquired= |Ship commissioned= |Ship recommissioned= |Ship decommissioned= |Ship maiden voyage= |Ship in service=*7 February 1952 — 13 May 1966 Army
|Ship out of service= |Ship renamed= |Ship reclassified= |Ship refit= |Ship struck=7 November 1994 |Ship reinstated= |Ship homeport= |Ship identification={{IMO Number|8832552}} |Ship motto= |Ship nickname= |Ship honours= |Ship honors=Meritorious Unit Commendation (1974), four Navy "E" Ribbons (1981, 1982, 1984, and 1985) |Ship captured= |Ship fate=Recycled in late 2005 |Ship notes=Ship underwent modifications as USNS Albert J. Myer and a major modernization in 1982 with resulting changes in specifications. |Ship badge= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Ship class=Neptune |Ship type= S3-S2-BP1; Army cable ship, later USN Cable Repair Ship (ARC) |Ship tonnage= |Ship displacement=7815 tons |Ship length={{cvt|334|ft|m|1|abbr=on}} |Ship beam={{cvt|47.1|ft|m|1|abbr=on}} |Ship height= |Ship draught= |Ship draft={{cvt|25.75|ft|m|1|abbr=on}} |Ship depth= |Ship hold depth= |Ship decks= |Ship deck clearance= |Ship ramps= |Ship ice class= |Ship power= |Ship propulsion=2 Skinner Uniflow Reciprocating Steam Engines; changed to diesel-electric in 1980; twin shafts |Ship sail plan= |Ship speed=14 knots |Ship range= |Ship endurance= |Ship test depth= |Ship boats= |Ship capacity= |Ship troops= |Ship complement=71 civilians, 6 Navy, 25 cable/survey party |Ship crew= |Ship time to activate= |Ship sensors= |Ship EW= |Ship armament=none |Ship armour= |Ship armor= |Ship aircraft= |Ship aircraft facilities= |Ship notes= }} |
USNS Albert J. Myer (T-ARC-6) was the second of only two Maritime Commission type S3-S2-BP1 ships built for the US Army near the end of World War II intended to support Army Signal Corps communications cables. She is named for Brig. Gen. Albert J. Myer, the founder of the Signal Corps. The other ship was the William H. G. Bullard, later USS Neptune, which Myer later joined in naval service.
The new ship was laid up in 1946 until reactivated by the Army in 1952 for service out of Seattle, Washington maintaining the Alaska Communications System that served civilian as well as military needs. USACS Albert J. Myer also saw service on other defense and civilian cables and supported the Navy's Project Caesar, the unclassified name for building and maintaining the Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) that tracked Soviet submarines.
The ship was transferred on 13 June 1966 to the Navy for service as USNS Albert J. Myer (T-ARC-6) assigned to Project Caesar, though supporting other military systems on occasion. Albert J. Myer, along with sister ship Neptune, were the only ships in the Navy designed and built as cable ships. Unlike Neptune, which had been commissioned by the Navy, Albert J. Myer was never commissioned serving entirely as a civil service crewed ship under the Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS)/Military Sealift Command (MSC).USACS William H. G. Bullard had also been laid up shortly after launch but was not activated by the Army. The Navy designated that ship for Project Caesar support in 1952 and withdrew the ship from reserve 17 February 1953. The Navy intended the ship for commissioned service renaming it Neptune designated ARC-2. {{ship|USS|Portunus|ARC-1|}} was the first designated Navy cable repair ship. Both underwent modifications and a major rebuild in the early 1980s. Albert J. Myer was deactivated in 1994.
Construction
Maritime Commission hull 2558 was laid down on 14 April 1945 by Pusey & Jones Corp. of Wilmington, Delaware as the yard's hull number 1109.{{cite DANFS |title=Albert J. Myer |author=Naval History And Heritage Command |date=15 June 2015 |work=Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships |publisher=Naval History And Heritage Command |url=https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/a/albert-j-myer.html |access-date=2 March 2020}}{{cite web |url=http://www.shipbuildinghistory.com/history/shipyards/2large/inactive/pusey.htm |title=Pusey & Jones, Wilmington DE |first=Tim |last=Colton |date=10 July 2012 |website=Shipbuilding History |access-date=25 December 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131225204518/http://www.shipbuildinghistory.com/history/shipyards/2large/inactive/pusey.htm |archive-date=25 December 2013 }}Shipbuilding History has the erroneous spelling "Meyer" found in a few references. Albert J. Myer was launched on 7 November 1945, and sponsored by Mrs. Grace Salisbury Ingles, the wife of Major General Harry C. Ingles, commanding officer of the Army Signal Corps.
Function
The ship's assignments were typically to transport, deploy, retrieve and repair submarine cables. In later Naval service functions specified were towing a cable plow, a large devices used to bury cable in coastal areas to protect it from damage from trawls and other hazards. Additional functions not directly related to cable work were towing acoustic projectors and conducting acoustic, hydrographic, and bathymetric surveys.{{cite report |year=1987 |title=Cable Repair Ships |magazine=Navy Fact File |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=Department of the Navy, Office of Information |volume=8 |page=IR-37 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9cQgYbIEryYC&pg=SL252-PA37 |access-date=21 February 2020}}
Career
=U.S. Army=
Since World War II ended some eight months before her completion, the Albert J. Myer was delivered to the Maritime Commission on 17 May 1946 and placed in the National Defense Reserve Fleet, James River Group, Lee Hall, Virginia. The ship was again taken in by the US Army on 7 February 1952.{{cite web |url=https://vesselhistory.marad.dot.gov/ShipHistory/Detail/99 |title=ALBERT J. MYER (T-ARC-6) |author=Maritime Administration |work=Ship History Vessel Status Card |publisher=U.S. Department of Transportation, Maritime Administration |access-date=1 March 2020}} The ship was reactivated at Baltimore, Maryland with a crew recruited from Seattle, Washington where the ship would be based and put into service as USACS Albert J. Myer operated by the U.S. Army Transportation Corps for the U.S. Army Signal Corps.{{cite magazine |date=November 1953 |title=Albert J. Myer — Army's Newest, Biggest Cable Ship |magazine=The Log |volume=48 |issue=12 |pages=62–63 |publisher=Miller Freeman Publications, Inc. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cp0-AQAAIAAJ&pg=RA5-PA62 |access-date=1 March 2020}}{{cite web |url=http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/27/2706.htm |title=USNS Albert J. Myer (T-ARC-6) ex USACS Albert J. Myer (1952–1966) |website=NavSource Online |access-date=10 February 2019}}
Albert J. Myer's primary mission at the time was maintenance of the Alaska Communications System which handled both military and commercial traffic to Alaska. Two cables linking Port Angeles, Washington and Ketchikan, Alaska with forty-eight circuits were laid in 1956.{{cite web |title=Link To the North (text & film) |publisher=AT&T Archives and History Center |year=1957 |url=https://techchannel.att.com/playvideo/2011/04/27/AT%26T-Archives-Link-To-the-North |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210614114427/https://techchannel.att.com/playvideo/2011/04/27/AT%26T-Archives-Link-To-the-North |archive-date=2021-06-14 |url-status=dead |access-date=19 November 2021 }} The ship also worked on projects for the Air Force and the Navy, including substantial assignment to Project Caesar in support of the Sound Surveillance System.{{cite web |title=Integrated Undersea Surveillance System (IUSS) History 1950 - 2010 |publisher=IUSS*CAESAR Alumni Association |url=http://www.iusscaa.org/history.htm |access-date=1 February 2020}} During 1957 the ship laid cable for the U.S. Air Force between Thule, Greenland and Baffin Island with a landing at Cape Dyer. The Cape Dyer landing, subject to damage by gounding icebergs, was bypassed by the ship in 1964.{{cite web |url=http://www.atlantic-cable.com/CableCos/USMilitary/index.htm |title=U.S. Armed Forces Cables |last=Glover |first=Bill |website=History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications |access-date=10 February 2019}}{{cite web |url=https://atlantic-cable.com/Cables/CableTimeLine/index1951.htm |title=Cable Timeline: 1951-2000 |last=Glover |first=Bill |website=History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications |access-date=13 January 2020}}
In 1961 the ship laid communications cable connecting the Pacific islands of Kwajalein, Ennylabegan (one of the islands in the Kwajalein atoll), Gugeegue, Eniwetok and Roi-Namur supporting the Army's then Kwajalein Missile Range, now the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site for Nike Zeus tests. The first phase was laying thirty miles Submarine cable is usually measured in nautical miles, but the source does not specify and is for public consumption. of entrenched cable connecting the islands in the Kwajalein group and then another fifty-five miles of coaxial ocean cable connecting Eniwetok and Roi-Namur to the Kwajalein network. The entrenched cable path had to be first cleared of World War II era ordinance and the trench prepared by Navy underwater demolition team.{{cite web |last=Lang |first=Sharon Watkins |title=SMDC History: USACS Albert J. Myer to Connect Kwajalein Test Facilities in February 1961 |publisher=U.S. Army (U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command Historian) |date=2 February 2017 |url=https://www.army.mil/article/181683/smdc_history_usacs_albert_j_myer_to_connect_kwajalein_test_facilities_in_february_1961 |access-date=1 March 2020}}
To preserve communications the ship was also available for emergency repairs to commercial cables. For example, the cable ship repaired a break in the Cable and Wireless cable between Fanning Island and Bamfield, Vancouver Island, British Columbia that was a British around the world link. The only other cable ship available in the northwest Pacific was also an Army ship. Albert J. Myer laid the shore ends of the Hampden, Newfoundland terminus of CANTAT-1 (CANadian TransAtlantic Telephone cable).{{cite web |url=https://atlantic-cable.com/Cableships/AlbertJMyer/index.htm |title=CS Albert J. Myer |last=Glover |first=Bill |website=History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications |access-date=1 March 2020}}
During March and April 1964 the ship conducted an extensive, detailed magnetic survey for the U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office northeast of Hispanola.{{cite report |year=1964 |title=Annual Report for Fiscal 1964 |page=9 |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kc9HAQAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PA9 |access-date=15 March 2020}}{{cite journal |last1=Hadden |first1=Robert Lee |last2=Minson |first2=Steven G. |date=July 2010 |title=The Geology of Haiti: An Annotated Bibliography of Haiti's Geology, Geography and Earth Science |pages=178–179 |location=Alexandria, Virginia |publisher=U.S. Army Geospatial Center |url=https://archive.org/details/DTIC_ADA528274/page/n180/mode/2up/ |access-date=15 March 2020}}
=U.S. Navy=
The cable layer was returned to the Maritime Administration (MARAD), 13 June 1966, and simultaneously transferred to the Navy where she served as the cable repair ship operated by the Military Sea Transportation Service as USNS Albert J. Myer (T-ARC-6) permanently assigned to Project Caesar.
Only two of the four cable ships available for Project Caesar had been designed and built as cable ships, the others being conversions and lacking some critical features needed for cable operations. The larger {{ship|USS|Aeolus|ARC-3|2}} and {{ship|USS|Thor||2}} were not suitable for modernization while Albert J. Myer and Neptune had cable ship features, including deeper draft than the larger ships, that made them suitable candidates for modernization.{{cite book |last=Committee on Armed Services (U.S. Senate) |year=1978 |title=Department of Defense Authorization for Appropriations for Fiscal Year 1979 |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=Government Printing Office |pages=4244–4246 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=grmENiGabHEC&pg=PA4244 |access-date=22 February 2020}} Albert J. Myer and Neptune were extensively modernized in 1980 by Bethlehem Steel in Baltimore, Maryland. This included new turbo-electric engines replacing two Skinner Uniflow Reciprocating Steam Engines and modern cable machinery. The two ships had been the last ships in the Navy to operate using reciprocating steam engines.
The ship performed cable repair duties all over the world until 1994, when she'd been in active service for nearly 42 years. During her career, she received a Meritorious Unit Commendation (1974), and four Navy E ribbons (1981, 1982, 1984, and 1985).{{cite web |title=OPNAV Notice 1650 |publisher=Chief of Naval Operations |date=18 September 2002 |url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/92071549/1650 |access-date=2 March 2020}}
Albert J. Myer was deactivated in 1994 entering the James River Reserve Fleet at Lee Hall, Virginia on 31 March 1994. On 1 April 1998 the Navy transferred title to the Maritime Administration for disposal.{{cite web |title=Non Active Vessels "A" |publisher=U.S. Navy, Naval Vessel Register |url=https://www.nvr.navy.mil/QUICKFIND/SHIPSDETAIL_INACTIVE_A.HTML |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160924230449/http://www.nvr.navy.mil/QUICKFIND/SHIPSDETAIL_INACTIVE_A.HTML |url-status=dead |archive-date=24 September 2016 |access-date=2 March 2020}} The ship was dismantled and recycled by International Shipbreaking Ltd of Brownsville, TX in 2005.{{cite web |title=ALBERT J MYER (ARC 6) |date=16 February 2011 |publisher=U.S. Navy, Naval Vessel Register |url=https://www.nvr.navy.mil/SHIPDETAILS/SHIPSDETAIL_ARC_6.HTML |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161025133015/http://www.nvr.navy.mil/SHIPDETAILS/SHIPSDETAIL_ARC_6.HTML |url-status=dead |archive-date=25 October 2016 |access-date=2 March 2020}}
Footnotes
{{reflist|group=note}}
References
{{Reflist}}
- {{DANFS}}
- The Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet, Norman Polmar, Naval Institute Press, 13th edition, 1984.
External links
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nq93WNt9gxc AT&T Tech Channel Archives: Link To the North - U.S. Army Cable Ship Albert J. Myer laying Alaska cable] (video)
- [https://digital.hagley.org/72350_5639d Twin screw cable ship, Albert J. Myer, built for U.S. Maritime Commission, on ways before launching]
- [https://digital.hagley.org/vid_2002254_ID02 Launch of Cape Race, William H. G. Bullard and Albert J. Myer (video)] Launchings are early in video.
- [https://digital.hagley.org/72350_5639c?solr_nav%5Bid%5D=53f0d7cc1f8c36e503cf&solr_nav%5Bpage%5D=0&solr_nav%5Boffset%5D=5 Launching of Albert J. Myer]
- [https://digital.hagley.org/72350_5672d?solr_nav%5Bid%5D=53f0d7cc1f8c36e503cf&solr_nav%5Bpage%5D=0&solr_nav%5Boffset%5D=8 Trial trip of the cable ship, Albert J. Myer]
- {{cite web |url=http://patriot.net/~eastlnd2/Myer.htm |archive-url=https://archive.today/20151222174615/http://patriot.net/~eastlnd2/Myer.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=22 December 2015 |title=USNS Albert J. Myer (T-ARC 6) (photos) |last=Jackson |first=Ramon |date=24 September 2005 |website=Eastlnd2}}
{{Neptune class cable ships}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Albert J. Myer (ARC-6)}}
Category:Type S3-S2-BP ships of the United States Army
Category:Cold War auxiliary ships of the United States