With the expansion of its area of operations after the Spanish- American War and the introduction of submarines and destroyers in significant numbers, the U.S. Navy began to include specialized repair tenders in the fleet train. Initially, these were converted naval colliers and commercial vessels, but by World War I, ships designed from the keel up for maintenance and repair functions had begun to be built. With the vast expansion of the fleet that began in the late 1930s came new orders for support auxiliaries in the destroyer tender (AD), submarine tender (AS), and general repair ship (AR) categories. World War II requirements meant the adoption of Maritime Commission standard cargo ship hulls and Navy tank landing ships (LSTs) for duty as tenders as well as the conversion of some older commercial ships. By August 1945, the Navy had more than 130 self-propelled tenders in service, plus more than 70 well-equipped, non- self-propelled repair barges.
The much smaller Navy’s seagoing repair ship fleet has now shrunk to two submarine tenders, the Emory S. Land (AS-39) and her sister, the Frank Cable (AS-40), both of which are planned to be transferred to Military Sealift Command operation during the next year. Then, the Navy will no longer crew any commissioned auxiliaries. Today, with worldwide responsibilities and major portions of its fleet deployed thousands of miles from home ports, the Navy is dependent on the proximity of friendly foreign repair facilities to maintain and repair its deployed ships. Damaged ships of up to destroyer size are brought home for repairs on board foreign-owned, commercially operated heavy lift ships.
The first and last of four Vulcan- class repair ships designed in the late 1930s were removed from Maritime Administration reserve fleet berths during November 2006 for scrapping— the Vulcan (AR-5) under a $494,000 contract with Bay Bridge Enterprises of Chesapeake, Virginia, and the Jason (AR-8, ex-ARH-1, ex-AR-8) in a $1.4 million contract with Marine Metal of Brownsville, Texas.
The Vulcan had been laid down at the New York Shipbuilding Corporation’s Camden, New Jersey, yard on 26 December 1939, launched 14 December 1940, and commissioned 16 June 1941- The ship was continuously in commission for more than half a century until her retirement to reserve on 30 September 1991. The 529-foot 4-inch-long tender had a broad beam of 73 feet 4 inches, and her capacious double hull had six internal decks and drew more than 23 feet at her designed maximum displacement of 16,200 tons. The ship’s compact twin- screw propulsion plan employed four Babcock & Wilcox three-drum boilers to provide steam to two sets of double reduction-geared turbines, producing a maximum of 11,000 shaft horsepower between them and driving her at up to 19.2 knots. With a range of 18,000 nautical miles at 12 knots on her 3,800 tons of fuel oil, the Vulcan could get to almost any navigable point on the world ocean.
The Vulcan's six 1,500-kw turbogenerators provided electrical power to an incredibly diverse and extensive set of repair capabilities that rivaled those found in the best shore-based repair yards. Specialized shops included an elaborately equipped, two-deck-high machine shop amidships stretching from beam to beam and for 96 feet between the two engine rooms; the shop had no fewer than 17 large lathes in addition to just about any metalworking equipment that might be needed. Below the after portion of the main machine shop was a two-deck-high foundry that could sand-cast both aluminum and steel components. The foundry had a 3-ton traveling crane that served a hatch that opened through the machine shop and was tended by two 20-ton cranes on the Vulcan’s upper deck. Other shops included optical, drafting, photographic, instrumentation, welding, electronics repair, electrical, internal- combustion engine, pattern making, boiler, blacksmith, sheet metal, and carpentry. Well below the waterline was a large storeroom filled with patterns for standard Navy equipment, while more than 3,000 tons of supplies, provisions, and repair parts could be carried. The ship’s divers had a specially equipped 36- foot launch for their use.
These diverse capabilities required a very large crew. By 1945, the Vulcan accommodated 53 officers and 1,244 enlisted personnel. Even at the time of her retirement, the ship had a complement of 28 commissioned and warrant officers and 745 enlisted men. Indeed, the overhead cost of the many personnel required to operate and maintain the Navy’s repair tenders was the principal reason for their demise.
The Vulcan's operational career began even before the United States officially entered World War II. In September 1941, after operating at Argentia, Newfoundland, supporting U.S. Navy destroyers escorting convoys in the western Atlantic, the repair ship deployed with Task Force 4 as part of the occupation force at Iceland, arriving at Reykjavik on 28 September. There she patched up the destroyer Keamy (DD-432), which had suffered a huge hole in her starboard side from a torpedo launched by the U-568 on 17 October. The next month, the Vulcan worked on the Niblack (DD-424) after her collision with a Norwegian freighter.
In April 1942, the Vulcan was relieved in Iceland by the destroyer tender Melville (AD-2) and, after a refit at Boston and another tour at Argentia, returned to Iceland, operating at Hvalfjordur from November 1942 to April 1943. That June, the ship was sent to support Navy ships in the Mediterranean. She was first based at Oran and then Algiers until August 1944, when she accompanied the Allied invasion of southern France and earned her only battle star. Departing the Mediterranean on 23 November 1944 for a refit at the Norfolk Navy Yard, the Vulcan was next deployed to the South Pacific, arriving at Guadalcanal in February 1945. From there, she followed the fleet northward toward the Japanese home islands, providing services at Ulithi Atoll to the vast fleet involved in the Okinawa invasion. After duties in establishing facilities for the U.S. occupation of Japan, the ship at last returned to Atlantic waters in April 1946. Based at Newport, Rhode Island, to February 1954, she spent the remainder of her active career home-ported at Norfolk. During the Cuban Missile Crisis in the fall of 1962, the Vulcan deployed to San Juan, Puerto Rico, to assist ships blockading Cuba. The old repair ship began her final stand-down on 10 June 1991 and after decommissioning was transferred on 1 February 1999 to the Maritime Administration’s custody at its James River reserve fleet.