Entry Category: Ships and Vessels - Starting with U

The USS Saline County (LST-1101) was an LST-542 Class tank landing ship built in 1944 that saw service in World War II and the Korean War. It was designated the USS Saline County on July 1, 1955, in honor of counties in five U.S. states, including Arkansas. LST-1101 was one of a class of vessels—called Landing Ship, Tank—created to carry tanks, wheeled and tracked vehicles, artillery, construction equipment, and supplies during military operations along coastal areas. Called “Large Slow Targets” by their crews, they were designed as shallow-draft vessels; when carrying a 500-ton load, LST-1101 drew only three feet eleven inches forward and nine feet ten inches aft. They carried pontoons amidships that could be used to create causeways when …

The USS Sebastian was an Alamosa-class cargo ship that served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and the Korean War. The ship was named for Sebastian County and was part of the same class as the USS Chicot, USS Craighead, and USS Poinsett, all named for Arkansas counties. Construction on the ship began on August 10, 1944, and it was launched on December 21, 1944. Constructed by Leatham D. Smith Shipbuilding Company in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, the Sebastian was acquired by the U.S. Navy on loan from the Maritime Commission on August 10, 1945. After undergoing conversion for military use in New Orleans, Louisiana, it was commissioned on September 11, 1945. The Alamosa class consisted of cargo ships …

The USS Sevier (APA-233) was a 6,720-ton Haskell-class attack transport built in 1944 and named for counties in three states, including Arkansas. The Kaiser Company of Vancouver, Washington, laid down the hull for the USS Sevier on October 4, 1944, under a contract with the Maritime Commission. It launched on November 16, 1944. The Sevier was commissioned on December 5, 1944, under Captain A. R. Ponto. The ship was 455 feet long and 62 feet wide and could reach speeds of 17.7 knots. It had a crew of fifty-six officers and 490 sailors and could carry up to eighty-six officers and 1,440 men. The Sevier was armed with one 5-inch gun, one quad-40mm antiaircraft mount, four twin 40mm guns, and …

The USS St. Francis River (LSMR-525) was an LSMR-501 Class landing craft medium (Rockets) that was built in 1945 and saw service in the Korean War and the Vietnam War. LSMR-525 was designated the USS St. Francis River on October 1, 1955, in honor of the St. Francis River, which flows through Missouri and Arkansas, and another river of the same name in Maine. The USS St. Francis River was one of a class of ships designed to provide fire support for combat operations ashore. The vessel weighed 520 tons, was 203.5 feet long and 34.5 feet wide, and could reach speeds of 13 knots. It was armed with one five-inch gun, four 4.2-inch mortars, and two 40mm antiaircraft guns. …

The USS Stone County (LST-1141) was an LST-542–class tank landing ship built in 1945 that saw service in the Pacific after World War II and in the Korean and Vietnam wars. It was designated the USS Stone County on July 1, 1955, in honor of counties in Arkansas, Missouri, and Mississippi. LST-1141 was one of a class of vessels—called Landing Ship, Tank—created to carry tanks, wheeled and tracked vehicles, artillery, construction equipment, and supplies during military operations along coastal areas. Called “Large Slow Targets” by their crews, they were designed as shallow-draft vessels; when carrying a 500-ton load, LST-1141 drew only three feet eleven inches forward and nine feet ten inches aft. They carried pontoons amidships that could be used …

The USS Tensas was originally the steamboat Tom Sugg, which was captured by Federal troops during the Little Rock Campaign of 1863 and refitted as a tinclad gunboat before again returning to private service in 1865. The Tom Sugg was a sixty-two-ton sidewheel paddleboat built at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1860. The vessel was ninety-one feet and eight inches long and twenty-two feet and five inches wide. By 1862, the steamboat was being used by Confederate forces in Arkansas, and in the spring of 1862, Captain John W. Dunnington “armored” it with cotton bales and mounted an 8-inch cannon on its bow so that it could be used against Major General Samuel R. Curtis’s Army of the Southwest. While there are …

The USS Thach was an Oliver Hazard Perry–class guided missile frigate launched in 1982 and named after John Smith (Jimmie) Thach, an innovative World War II Navy aviator who rose to the rank of full admiral. In a nearly thirty-year career, the Thach was active in both military and anti-narcotic operations. Jimmie Thach was born in Pine Bluff (Jefferson County) on April 19, 1905. As a naval aviator during World War II, he developed a system in which two planes would weave back and forth when under attack, drawing the attacking fighter into the line of fire of one of the American planes; the “Thach Weave” was credited with increasing the downing of Japanese planes during crucial battles in the …

The 180-foot-long A. O. Tyler, a Mississippi and Ohio river packet named for its original owner, was the largest of three side-wheeled steamboats purchased by the United States War Department for conversion into river gunboats at the beginning of the Civil War. Navy commander John Rodgers, the purchaser of the craft, felt it inappropriate to call the boat Tyler since former President James Tyler was a leading secessionist, preferring instead to refer to the boat as Taylor for unionist Zachary Taylor. However, the name Tyler remained official. During the first year and a half of the war, the gunboat was under U.S. Army control as part of the Western Gunboat Flotilla—yet was staffed by naval officers—to provide artillery support for General …

The USS Van Buren was a Tacoma-class patrol frigate launched in 1944 that served in the New Guinea campaign in the western Pacific during World War II. The USS Van Buren was the second U.S. naval vessel to bear that name. The first was an early nineteenth-century revenue cutter named for U.S. president Martin Van Buren. The World War II patrol frigate was named in honor of the city of Van Buren, the county seat of Crawford County. The Van Buren’s hull was laid down on June 24, 1943, by Consolidated Steel Corporation in Los Angeles, California. The vessel was launched on July 27. It was commissioned at Terminal Island on December 17 under the command of Lieutenant Commander Charles …

The USS White River (LSMR-536) was an LSMR-501 Class landing craft medium (Rockets) that was built in 1945 and saw service in the Korean War and the Vietnam War. LSMR-536 was designated the USS White River on October 1, 1955, in honor of rivers in seven states, including Arkansas. The USS White River was one of a class of ships designed to provide fire support for combat operations ashore. The vessel weighed 520 tons, was 203.5 feet long and 34.5 feet wide, and could reach speeds of 13 knots. It was armed with one five-inch gun, four 4.2-inch mortars, and two 40mm antiaircraft guns. Ten rocket projectors were continuously fed, with each firing thirty pin-stabilized five-inch rockets per minute, allowing …