USS ABSD-2, later redesignated as AFDB-2, was a ten-section, non-self-propelled, large auxiliary floating drydock of the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

. Advance Base Sectional Dock-2 (Auxiliary Floating Dock Big-2) was constructed in sections during 1942 and 1943 by the

Mare Island Naval Shipyard The Mare Island Naval Shipyard (MINSY or MINS) was the first United States Navy base established on the Pacific Ocean and was in service 142 years from 1854 to 1996. It is located on Mare Island, northeast of San Francisco, in Vallejo, Califor ...

Vallejo, California Vallejo ( ; ) is a city in Solano County, California, United States, and the second largest city in the North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, Bay Area. Located on the shores of San Pablo Bay, the ci ...

for

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Her official commissioning ceremony took place on 14 August 1943 with CDR Joseph J. Rochefort in command. With all ten sections joined, she was long, tall (keel to welldeck), and with an inside clear width of . ABSD-2 had a traveling 15-ton capacity crane with an radius and two or more support

barge A barge is typically a flat-bottomed boat, flat-bottomed vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. Original use was on inland waterways, while modern use is on both inland and ocean, marine water environments. The firs ...

s. The two side walls were folded down under tow to reduce wind resistance and lower the center of gravity. ABSD-2 had 6 capstans for pulling, each rated at at , 4 of the capstans were reversible. There were also 12 ballast compartments in each section. Building the Navy's Bases in World War II, History of the Bureau of Yards and Docks and the Civil Engineer Corps 1940-1946 Chapter IX, Floating Drydocks
/ref>

World War II

The ABSD-2 floating drydock departed 2 May 1944 and made the voyage across the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

in convoys. USS ABSD-2 sections arrived 22 June 1944 and then were reassembled at

Espiritu Santo Naval Base Naval Advance Base Espiritu Santo or Naval Base Espiritu Santo, most often just called ''Espiritu Santo'', was a major advance Naval base that the U.S. Navy Seabees built during World War II to support the Allied effort in the Pacific. The base ...

Espiritu Santo Espiritu Santo (, ; ) is the largest island in the nation of Vanuatu, with an area of and a population of around 40,000 according to the 2009 census. Geography The island belongs to the archipelago of the New Hebrides in the Pacific region ...

New Hebrides New Hebrides, officially the New Hebrides Condominium () and named after the Hebrides in Scotland, was the colonial name for the island group in the South Pacific Ocean that is now Vanuatu. Native people had inhabited the islands for three th ...

(now

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (; ), is an island country in Melanesia located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, east o ...

), in the South Pacific Ocean. Once assembled on 13 September 1944 she was moved for operation at

Seeadler Harbor Seeadler Harbor, also known as Port Seeadler, is located on Manus Island, Admiralty Islands, Papua New Guinea and played an important role in World War II. In German, "Seeadler" means sea eagle, pointing to German New Guinea, German colonial activi ...

(also called ''Port Seeadler''), at

Admiralty Islands The Admiralty Islands are an archipelago group of 40 islands in the Bismarck Archipelago, to the north of New Guinea in the South Pacific Ocean. These are also sometimes called the Manus Islands, after the largest island. These rainforest-cov ...

in the

Bismarck Archipelago The Bismarck Archipelago (, ) is a group of islands off the northeastern coast of New Guinea in the western Pacific Ocean and is part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. Its area is about . History The first inhabitants of the archipela ...

, to the north of

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

also called the ''

Manus Island Manus Island is part of Manus Province in northern Papua New Guinea and is the largest of the Admiralty Islands. It is the fifth-largest island in Papua New Guinea, with an area of , measuring around . Manus Island is covered in rugged jungles w ...

s'', after the largest island there at

Manus Naval Base file:NABManus19455 USNavy.jpg, Manus Naval Base, Naval supply depot with piers and Quonset hut, quonset Hut warehouses on September 18, 1945 Manus Naval Base was a number of bases built after the World War II Battle of Manus by United States N ...

. USS ABSD-2 sister ship USS ''ABSD-4'' also worked at Seeadler Harbor during the war. ABSD-2 repaired the large ships in the US Navy and

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

during World War II. Able to lift 90,000 tons ABSD-2 could raise large ships like

aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and hangar facilities for supporting, arming, deploying and recovering carrier-based aircraft, shipborne aircraft. Typically it is the ...

battleship A battleship is a large, heavily naval armour, armored warship with a main battery consisting of large naval gun, guns, designed to serve as a capital ship. From their advent in the late 1880s, battleships were among the largest and most form ...

cruiser A cruiser is a type of warship. Modern cruisers are generally the largest ships in a fleet after aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, and can usually perform several operational roles from search-and-destroy to ocean escort to sea ...

s, and large auxiliary ships, out of the water for repair below the ship's

waterline The waterline is the line where the hull of a ship meets the surface of the water. A waterline can also refer to any line on a ship's hull that is parallel to the water's surface when the ship is afloat in a level trimmed position. Hence, wate ...

. She was also used to repair multiple smaller ships at the same time. Ships in continuous use during war need

repair The technical meaning of maintenance involves functional checks, servicing, repairing or replacing of necessary devices, equipment, machinery, building infrastructure and supporting utilities in industrial, business, and residential installat ...

both from wear and from war damage from

naval mine A naval mine is a self-contained explosive weapon placed in water to damage or destroy surface ships or submarines. Similar to anti-personnel mine, anti-personnel and other land mines, and unlike purpose launched naval depth charges, they are ...

and

torpedoes A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, such ...

Rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, airship, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (usually air or water). On an airplane, the rudder is used primarily to counter adverse yaw ...

s and

propeller A propeller (often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon a working flu ...

s are best serviced on dry docks. Without ABSD-2 and her

sister ships A sister ship is a ship of the same class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They often share a ...

at remote locations, months could be lost in ships returning to a home port for repair. ABSD-2 had provisions for the repair crew, such as bunk beds, meals, and laundry. ABSD-2 had

power station A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the electricity generation, generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electr ...

ballast Ballast is dense material used as a weight to provide stability to a vehicle or structure. Ballast, other than cargo, may be placed in a vehicle, often a ship or the gondola of a balloon or airship, to provide stability. A compartment within ...

pump A pump is a device that moves fluids (liquids or gases), or sometimes Slurry, slurries, by mechanical action, typically converted from electrical energy into hydraulic or pneumatic energy. Mechanical pumps serve in a wide range of application ...

s, repair shops,

machine shop A machine shop or engineering workshop is a room, building, or company where machining, a form of subtractive manufacturing, is done. In a machine shop, machinists use machine tools and cutting tool (machining), cutting tools to make parts, usua ...

s, and

mess hall The mess (also called a mess deck aboard ships) is a designated area where military personnel socialize, eat and (in some cases) live. The term is also used to indicate the groups of military personnel who belong to separate messes, such as the o ...

s to be

self-sustaining Self-sustainability and self-sufficiency are overlapping states of being in which a person, being, or system needs little or no help from, or interaction with others. Self-sufficiency entails the self being enough (to fulfill needs), and a self ...

. ABSD-2 had two rail track moveable cranes able to lift tons of material and parts for removing damaged parts and installing new parts.
Some of the ships repaired: USS ABSD-2 repaired the battleship USS ''Mississippi'' BB-41 on 12 October 1944. On 2 December 1944 the USS ''Claxton'' (DD-571) a entered ABSD-2 for repair of after a

kamikaze , officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending to d ...

attack that damaged her off

Leyte Leyte ( ) is an island in the Visayas group of islands in the Philippines. It is eighth-largest and sixth-most populous island in the Philippines, with a total population of 2,626,970 as of 2020 census. Since the accessibility of land has been ...

on 1 November 1944. ABSD-2 repaired the USS ''Canberra'' (CA-70) a after an attack on 13 October 1944 from an

aerial torpedo An aerial torpedo (also known as an airborne torpedo or air-dropped torpedo) is a torpedo launched from a torpedo bomber aircraft into the water, after which the weapon propels itself to the target. First used in World War I, air-dropped torped ...

. ABSD-2 repaired USS ''Killen'' (DD-593) also a '' Fletcher class'' destroyer with kamikaze damage from an attack off Leyte on 1 November 1944. ABSD-2 reapied the USS ''Sumter'' (APA-52) a on 15 February 1945 for normal repairs. The ''USS Trinity'' (AO-13) a

replenishment oiler A replenishment oiler or replenishment tanker is a naval auxiliary ship with fuel tanks and dry cargo holds which can supply both fuel and dry stores during underway replenishment (UNREP) at sea. Many countries have used replenishment oilers. Th ...

was in her dry dock from 11 April 1945 to April 18 for normal repairs as she was in continuous use though the war. AFDB-2 repaired the USS ''Iowa'' (BB-61) in 1945 before she returned to the States for refit. Due to the ''Iowa'' 37 ft 2 in (11.33 m) draft when full loaded, the battleships had to unload much of her

ammunition Ammunition, also known as ammo, is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. The term includes both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines), and the component parts of oth ...

and

fuel oil Fuel oil is any of various fractions obtained from the distillation of petroleum (crude oil). Such oils include distillates (the lighter fractions) and residues (the heavier fractions). Fuel oils include heavy fuel oil (bunker fuel), marine f ...

before entering AFDB-2. The torpedo damaged USS ''Houston'' and USS ''Reno'' were both repaired at the same time on 8 Jan. 1945.

Attacked

Near the end of the war, on April 22, 1945 at 2pm, a

Mitsubishi A6M Zero The Mitsubishi A6M "Zero" is a long-range carrier-capable fighter aircraft formerly manufactured by Mitsubishi Aircraft Company, a part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. It was operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) from 1940 to 1945. The ...

two seater plane piloted by Shimbo, with Ensign Chuhei Okubo in the second seat, overflew

at . They saw what they thought were two "aircraft carriers", but were actually empty floating dry docks ABSD-2 and ABSD-4. On April 27, 1945 at 11:15pm a

Nakajima B5N The Nakajima B5N (, World War II Allied names for Japanese aircraft, Allied reporting name "Kate") was the standard Carrier-based aircraft, carrier-based torpedo bomber of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) for much of World War II. It also served ...

piloted by Takahashi dropped an

. It hit one of the pontoon tanks in section G, damaging the dry dock. She was repaired and returned to service. After the war ABSD-2 was decommissioned in January 1947

Post-war

Five of ABSD-2 sections, A, B, C, E, F, G, and I were disposed of in various manners in 1990. At the time of this writing, three of her sections, D, F, and H, are still in service. *Sections A and G were sold for scrapping on 13 July 1990. *Section B and C were disposed of in support of a fleet training exercise on 13 July 1990. *Section D was reclassified as a Miscellaneous ship ''IX-522'' om 16 August 1996 and now is currently disposition of NAVSEA as an inactive ship at the On-Site Maintenance Office of

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Reci ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

. In September 2020 it was listed for sale as excess inventory.https://gsaauctions.gov
/ref> *Section F was reclassified as a Miscellaneous ship ''IX-524'' on 19 July 1990, currently disposition at the

Pacific Missile Range Facility The Pacific Missile Range Facility, Barking Sands is a U.S. naval facility and airport located five nautical miles (9 km) northwest of the central business district of Kekaha, in Kauai County, Hawaii, United States. PMRF is the world's l ...

at Kekaha, Hawaii. *Sections E and I were sold by the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service (DRMS) for reuse and conversion on 13 July 1990. *Section H was reclassified a Miscellaneous ship ''IX-535'' on 10 October 2002 and is currently disposition at

Naval Sea Systems Command The Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) is the largest of the United States Navy's United States Navy systems commands, five "systems commands," or materiel (not to be confused with "material") organizations. From a physical perspective, NAVSEA ha ...

(NAVSEA) as an inactive ship at the On-Site Maintenance Office, Pearl Harbor, HI. *Section J was disposed of in support of Fleet training exercise on 13 July 1990.

Commanding officers

*Commander Rochefort, Joseph John, USN from 14 August 1943 to 25 June 1944 *Captain Richardson, George Victor,

USNR The United States Navy Reserve (USNR), known as the United States Naval Reserve from 1915 to 2004, is the Reserve Component (RC) of the United States Navy. Members of the Navy Reserve, called reservists, are categorized as being in either the S ...

from 25 June 1944 to 1 April 1945 *Commander. Lawrence, William Raymond, USNR from 1 April 1945 to 24 December 1945 *Commander Lee, Joseph Epps, USNR from 24 December 1945 to 28 February 1946

Image gallery

File:USSABSD-2ManusAdmiraltyIslandswithUSSIowaBB-61.jpg, USS ABSD-2 at Manus, Admiralty Islands with USS Iowa (BB-61) in 1945 File:USS Claxton (DD-571), USS Canberra (CA-70) and USS Killen (DD-593) in floating dry dock ABSD-2 on 2 December 1944 (80-G-304088).jpg, USS ABSD-2 at Manus on 2 December 1944 repaired both the USS Canberra (CA-70) at right, and USS Killen (DD-593) after battle damage off

File:USS Artisan ABSD-1 01.jpg, Sister ship: USS ''Artisan'' (ABSD-1) with and ''LST-120'' in the dock at

, New Hebrides Islands, 8 January 1945 Image:USS Los Alamos (AFDB-7).JPEG, Sister ship: Los Alamos (AFDB-7), with a repaired submarine at

Holy Loch The Holy Loch () is a sea loch, part of the Firth of Clyde, in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. The "Holy Loch" name is believed to date from the 6th century, when Saint Munn landed there after leaving Ireland. Kilmun Parish Church and Argyll Mausole ...

, Scotland in 1985

External links

Youtube, BATTLESHIP USS IDAHO REPAIRED AT ESPIRITU SANTO in 1944 in USS Artisan (ABSD-1)1Youtube, August 15, 1944 mighty battleship Idaho at ABSD-1Youtube, Floating Dry Docks WWII

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:AFDB-2, USS World War II auxiliary ships of the United States Floating drydocks of the United States Navy 1943 ships