USS Acontius (AGP-12) Class

Quick Links Menu.

USS Acontius (AGP-12) on 5 July 1944.
Click on this photograph for links to larger images of this class.

Class:        ACONTIUS (AGP-12)
Design:        MC C1-A
Displacement (tons):        5,236 light, 10,590 lim.
Dimensions (feet):        413.0' oa, 390.0' pp x 60.0' e x 22.5' lim.
Original Armament:        1-5"/38 4-40mmT 12-20mm (1944: both)
Later armaments:        --
Complement:        538
Speed (kts.):        14
Propulsion (HP):        4,000
Machinery:        Allis-Chalmers (AGP-12) or Westinghouse (AGP-13) turbine, 1 screw

Construction:

AGP	Name	Acq.	Builder	Keel	Launch	Commiss.
12	ACONTIUS	22 Dec 43	Pusey & Jones, Wilmington	5 Jun 43	12 Oct 43	23 Jun 44
13	CYRENE	28 Apr 44	Pusey & Jones, Wilmington	14 Oct 43	8 Feb 44	27 Sep 44

Disposition:

AGP	Name	Decomm.	Strike	Disposal	Fate	MA Sale
12	ACONTIUS	22 Mar 46	17 Apr 46	22 Mar 46	MC/R	12 Apr 65
13	CYRENE	2 Jul 46	19 Jul 46	2 Jul 46	MC/R	17 Nov 76

Class Notes:
FY 1944. On 11 Jun 43 the Auxiliary Vessels Board surveyed the Navy's needs for auxiliaries following the approval of a large combatant shipbuilding program in May. The Board's survey showed that there was a shortage of adequate motor torpedo boat tenders (AGP)--units of sufficient size to maintain the PT-boats in efficient operating condition and to house the crews of boats under repair. It concluded that larger tenders than those currently available (the LST conversions) were necessary and recommended the acquisition of two C1 type cargo ships. It estimated that these could be acquired from the MC and that their conversions could be completed in the first and fourth quarters of 1944 respectively. Normally the Navy avoided the C1, the smallest of the three original standard Maritime Commission cargo ship types, because it was too small and slow for many auxiliary ship missions, but it substantially exceeded all the other AGPs in size and the ex-LSTs in speed. The two units selected were of the steam C1-A type whose design speed was 14.0 knots, but CYRENE reported her maximum speed at full load as 15.7 knots.

Both ships were built at Wilmington, Del., and converted to AGPs at Maryland DD, Baltimore, Md. Officially they were 100 percent complete when acquired, but in fact they were accepted at the builder's yard "at a suitable stage of construction" as determined by local Navy and Maritime Commission officials. The conversion plans provided for accommodations for 53 officers, 45 CPOs, and 440 enlisted personnel, along with facilities for repairing and tending 24 PT boats. The lifting capacity of the main boom on these ships was listed officially at 50 tons, though in a complex evolution in February 1945 CYRENE successively lifted four fully loaded PT boats, each weighing 72 tons, from the deck of USS LYNX (AK-100) and put them in the water.

Ship Notes:

AGP	Name	MC#	Notes
12	ACONTIUS	304	Ex merc. CAPE CARTHAGE. Converted by Maryland DD, Baltimore, Md. (arrived at Baltimore 24 Dec 43, began conversion 27 Dec 43). To NDRF 1946 as CAPE CARTHAGE, to buyer 29 Apr 65, scrapped by 25 Oct 65.
13	CYRENE	891	Ex merc. CAPE FAREWELL. Converted by Maryland DD, Baltimore, Md. (arrived at Baltimore and began conversion 29 Apr 44). To NDRF 1946 as CAPE FAREWELL, to buyer 7 Dec 76.