The supply ship Alchiba (AK-23) had already seen considerable service in the Pacific when on 25 November 1942 off Lunga Point, Guadalcanal, at least one torpedo slammed into her. The vessel survived the resulting fierce conflagration, as well as a second torpedo attack 12 days later, to earn a Presidential Unit Citation for her actions from August through December 1942.
Laid down by Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock at Chester, Pennsylvania, on 15 August 1938, U.S. Maritime Commission Type C-2 freighter Hull Number 21 was one of six sisters built for use by Moore- McCormack Lines, each powered by a single Sun-built, 6,000 brake horsepower, British-designed Doxford diesel. The U.S. Navy took over all of the vessels just prior to America’s entry into World War II for use as naval auxiliaries. Moore-McCormack had operated the Hull Number 21 as the Mormacdove until she was taken over by the Navy on 2 June 1941. Renamed the Alchiba for a bright star in the constellation Carvi, the ship was assigned cargo ship hull number AK-23 and commissioned on 15 June.
In November, the AIchiba’s first operational voyage was taking cargo to Reykjavik, Iceland, which had come under U.S. protection in July. After repairs, the ship departed for the Pacific’s Society Islands, via the Panama Canal, on 27 January 1942. She left Bora Bora on 14 March bound for Chile to collect a cargo of copper needed for the U.S. war production effort and delivered it to New York City, arriving on 19 April. After another repair period, the Alchiba departed for Wellington, New Zealand, arriving on 11 July.
The cargo ship joined Amphibious Force Pacific in a landing exercise at Kora Island in the Fijis later that month and, after taking on a cargo of U.S. Marines, drummed gasoline, and LCT amphibious tractors, arrived off Guadalcanal on 7 August 1942 for the area invasions. Two days later, she was involved in an unsuccessful attempt to take under tow the heavy cruiser Astoria (CA-34), which had been badly damaged at the Battle of Savo Island and subsequently sank. The cargo ship then left Ironbottom Sound for a round of supply deliveries at New Caledonia, American Samoa, Tonga, and Espiritu Santo. On 15 October, the vessel was on another dangerous supply mission, loaded with 2,000 barrels of gasoline and 500 500-pound bombs and towing a barge carrying Martson matting bound for Henderson Field on Guadalcanal. A Japanese air attack, however, forced the Alchiba and accompanying ships to turn back only 75 miles from their destination.
The Alchiba finally reached Guadalcanal, but on 25 November, while men were unloading her cargo of gasoline and ammunition at Lunga Point, disaster struck. At 0616, one or two torpedoes hit her in hold No. 2. The fish had been launched either by the Japanese submarine (and Pearl Harbor veteran) 1-16 or by midget submarine No. 10, which the larger boat carried. Flames from the ensuing conflagration went 150 feet into the air, and as the crew began to fight the fires, the Alchiba’s commanding officer, Commander James S. Freeman, quickly got her underway and ran her 150 feet up on the beach some two miles to the west. There, the crew fought the intense fires for four days, saving most of the cargo.
The Alchiba was again torpedoed at Lunga Point on 7 December 1942 while under salvage. She took a hit on the port side of the engine room and lost three of her crew.
Patched up, the ship departed for nearby Tulagi on 22 December and from there left for Espiritu Santo on 18 January 1943. After five months of repairs at that island base, she departed for Mare Island Navy Yard in California, where she underwent further repairs from June to August 1943.
On 1 February, the damaged ship had been reclassified as Attack Cargo Ship (AKA) 6, but the Mare Island sojourn did not include installation of the heavy lift equipment typical of AKA conversions. Nonetheless, as AKA-6, the Alchiba participated in the landings at Bougainville during November 1943 and made a series of supply runs in the Southwest Pacific Area until again departing for California for overhaul the following March. Although the refit, concluded during September 1944, fully equipped the ship for her amphibious warfare role, her diesel engine had become ever more unreliable and limited her usefulness to supply voyages between periods of further repairs for the remainder of the war. When the war ended in August 1945, she was unloading cargo at Ulithi.
Decommissioned at Portsmouth, Virginia, on 14 January 1946, the Alchiba was stricken on 25 February and returned to Maritime Commission control the following July. After repairs and a return to her prewar civilian cargo-carrying configuration, she was sold in 1948 for commercial service as the Tjipanas: renamed the Ton Jit by a new Asian owner in 1967, she was finally scrapped at Whampoa, China, in March 1973. In addition to her Presidential Unit Citation, the Alchiba had been awarded three Battle Stars for her Navy service.