US Navy Auxiliary Ships: Octans (AF-26)

USS Octans (AF-26) at San Francisco on 19 June 1943.
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Class:        OCTANS (AF-26)
Design:        Refrig. P&C, 1917
Displacement (tons):        7,298 light, 11,600 full
Dimensions (feet):        440.0' oa, 425.0' pp x 54.3' e x 26.2' full
Original Armament:        1-5"/51 4-3"/50 8-20mm (1943)
Later armaments:        1-5"/38 4-3"/50 8-20mm (1945)
Complement:        --
Speed (kts):        13.5
Propulsion (HP):        6,000
Machinery:        Workman, Clark vertical triple expansion, 2 screws

Construction:

AF	Name	Acq.	Builder	Keel	Launch	Commiss.
26	OCTANS	8 May 43	Workman, Clark	--	1917	11 Jun 43

Disposition:

AF	Name	Decomm.	Strike	Disposal	Fate	MA Sale
26	OCTANS	6 Mar 46	20 Mar 46	6 Mar 46	RTO	17 Sep 47

Class Notes:
FY 1943. One of three ships built for United Fruit and completed in Belfast during World War I. One sister, TOLOA, served as a civilian-manned WSA storeship during World War II; the other, TELA, was lost in British service during World War I. ULUA was bareboat chartered by WSA in April 1942 from United Fruit, who continued to operate her under a General Agency Agreement, and was allocated by WSA to the Navy (COMSERVPAC) on a voyage basis. As a merchantman, she was to have received an armament of 1-4"/50 and 4-20mm in May 1942; in April 1943 she had 1-4"/50 and 5-20mm.

On 20 Oct 42 Cincpac strongly recommended that three large ships be acquired for use as Fleet Provision Storeships in the South Pacific, and on 23 Oct 42 CominCh directed that the ships be acquired. The Auxiliary Vessels Board concurred on 31 Oct 42, noting that the lack of refrigerating store ships, the lack of storage facilities in the South Pacific, and the rapidly expanding number of ships and men in this operating area made the necessity for such ships acute. The Board ascertained that there were no additional ships of this type in service which could be acquired for this assignment and that the only suitable ships were the refrigeration store ships being built by the Maritime Commission. It identified three fully-refrigerated C2s then under construction at the Moore Drydock Co., MC hulls 183-185, as the ones that would be completed first and recommended that they be purchased and that the minimum conversion required to provide for Navy crews be accomplished in a manner that would preserve the maximum refrigeration space. On 2 Nov 42 the Navy asked the Maritime Commission for the ships, stating that "their services are urgently required for duty in the Pacific due to lack of storage facilities and greatly increased troop and surface vessel operations in that area." The War Shipping Administration successfully resisted the Navy request (although a few years after the war MC hulls 183-84 became AF 51-52).

Subsequently the Navy realized that the three proposed C2s were being constructed to carry frozen beef in bulk and would not be suitable to carry balanced rations, as required of naval AFs, without considerable conversion to provide insulation between the holds and around the hatches. COMSERVPAC stated that he would prefer not to have the C2s provided he could get ships that were only partly refrigerated, as the latter would meet the needs of the fleet to better advantage. He had previously informed the Navy Department that two partially refrigerated "banana boats" then allocated to the Army, PLATANO and MUSA, would be suitable substitutes for two of the C2s. On 18 Feb 43 the Director of the Naval Transportation Service, acting for CNO, approved the acquisition of these two ships, along with the promise of a C2 like those building at Moore to be provided later. The Auxiliary Vessels Board endorsed this arrangement on 1 Mar 43.

On 24 Mar 43 the Board noted that PLATANO, by then under allocation to the Navy, was required in the San Francisco-Hawaii service for the present and, to partially relieve the South Pacific situation pending the acquisition of PLATANO, approved the acquisition of ULUA, which was then under allocation to the Navy on a voyage basis and immediately available. On 24 May 43 the Board noted that it had learned that MUSA could not be procured by the Navy and recommended, in effect, that ULUA be considered a substitute for MUSA. ULUA was manned by a Navy crew and bareboat chartered as AF-26 in early May 1943 and completed conversion to a naval auxiliary and was commissioned as OCTANS in June.

OCTANS is one of few naval auxiliaries to have had her Navy career recorded in a book: Kenneth G. Oliver, "Under the Southern Cross: A Petty Officer's Chronicle of the USS Octans" (McFarland & Co., Jefferson, North Carolina, 1995).

Ship Notes:

AF	Name	Notes
26	OCTANS	Ex merc. ULUA. Completed Sep 17, served as British troopship to Oct 19. Converted by United Engineering Works, Alameda, Cal. Traded in by owner to MC in partial payment for new refrigerator ships then building and to NDRF as ULUA 24 Apr 46. To buyer 6 Dec 47, scrapped by 27 Aug 48.