USS ''ARD-1'' was an auxiliary repair dock serving with the

United States 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 ...

during

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 ...

Auxiliary floating drydock An auxiliary floating drydock is a type of US Navy List of auxiliaries of the United States Navy, auxiliary Dry dock#Floating, floating dry dock. Floating dry docks are able to submerge underwater and to be placed under a ship in need of repai ...

. ''ARD-1'' was built by the

Pacific Bridge Company Pacific Bridge Company was a large engineering and construction company. During World War II, Pacific Bridge Company of Alameda, California was selected to build US Navy Auxiliary Repair Docks (ARD) a type of Auxiliary floating drydock and Type B ...

and completed in September 1934. ''ARD-1'' was commissioned at

Alameda, California Alameda ( ; ; Spanish for "Avenue (landscape), tree-lined path") is a city in Alameda County, California, United States, located in the East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), East Bay region of the Bay Area. The city is built on an informal archipe ...

on 19 December 1935 then towed to

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. ''ARD-1'' was the first in her class of self-sustaining, ship hull shape ship repair docks. ''ARD-1'' was able to repair ships in a

Naval fleet A fleet or naval fleet is a large formation of warships – the largest formation in any navy – controlled by one leader. A fleet at sea is the direct equivalent of an army on land. Purpose In the modern sense, fleets are usually, but no ...

in remote locations.

Background and design

USS ''ARD-1'' was the third steel floating

drydock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...

built for the US Navy. The first two were the ''

YFD-2 YFD-2 (Yard Floating Dock-2, USS ''YFD-2'') was an auxiliary floating drydock built for the United States Navy in 1901. The first parts were laid down in early 1901 at Maryland Steel Co. of Sparrows Point, Maryland. YFD-2 was the first of its ...

'' built in 1901 and the USS ''Dewey'' built in 1905. While these two floating drydocks worked very well, they proved to be not very mobile. Both proved to be difficult to tow, as both lacked bows to cut though waves. A new design was needed, or as it turned out an older design made new. In the past wood ships hulls with no interior were used to drydock smaller ships that could fit into the drydock ship. This design, but with a steel ship hull, was needed. The repair dock would have new modern steel

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 ...

pontoons

tanks A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engine; t ...

that could be flooded with water to submerge the dock or pumped dry to raise a ship in need of repair. Between 1920 and 1930, the US Navy Bureau of Yards and Docks made numerous studies of various types of mobile docks of both signal unit and sectional types. The best was a one-piece dock, ship-shaped in form, with a molded closed bow and a stern that could be opened or closed. The stern could be closed with bottom-hinged flap gate, that was operated by hydraulic rams. This stern gate could lowered for ship entrance into the submerged dock and then closed to keep out wave. ''ARD-1'' did not need a completely calm bay to operate. The new ARD-1 would be self-sustaining and have a

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 ...

to help in tow moving, making ''ARD-1'' very mobile. The ARD was raised by pumping water out of the ballast compartments and the main ship basin. ARDs would be equipped with a diesel-electric power plant, a pumping plant, repair shops, and crew's accommodations. ARD-1 was the first drydock that was self-sustaining enough to join a fleet into remote waters. ''ARD-1'' could lift ships of up to 2200 tons, thus repair small crafts, tugs, small destroyers and small submarines. The design was so good that 30 ARDs docks were built, most completed between 1942 and 1944. The need to repair large ships and subs meant the following ARDs were designed somewhat larger. Other improvements also were made from what was learned from ''ARD-1''. ARDs were deployed throughout the world during the

USS ''ARD-1'' World War II

''ARD-1'' was towed to

Naval Base San Diego Naval Base San Diego is a United States Navy base in San Diego, California. It is the world's second largest surface ship naval base. Naval Base San Diego is the principal homeport of the United States Pacific Fleet, consisting of over 50 ships ...

for testing in 1936. There one of ships repaired was the USS Aylwin (DD-355) a 1,375 tons long ''Farragut''-class

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, maneuverable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy, or carrier battle group and defend them against a wide range of general threats. They were conceived i ...

was repaired in 1938. The ''ARD-1'' was next towed to

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 ...

, there ''ARD-1'' demonstrating its effectiveness. A few of the ships repaired in ''ARD-1'': * USS ''Pyro'' (AE-24) a Nitro-class ammunition ship was repaired. * USS ''Monssen'' (DD-436) (DD-436)repaired on 31 March 1942 * USS ''Safeguard'' (ARS-25) was repaired. * USS Spectacle (AM-305) was repaired after

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 on 22 May 1945. ''ARD-1'' was taken to a forward Naval base at

Kerama Retto The are a subtropical island group southwest of Okinawa Island in Japan. Geography Four islands are inhabited: Tokashiki Island, Zamami Island, Aka Island, and Geruma Island. The islands are administered as Tokashiki Village and Zamami Vil ...

Okinawa Island , officially , is the largest of the Okinawa Islands and the Ryukyu Islands, Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Islands of Japan in the Kyushu region. It is the smallest and least populated of the five Japanese archipelago, main islands of Japan. The island is ...

to repair the many ships damaged by kamikaze attacks. ARD-1 made many temporarily repairs to get ships back into action. Many other ARDs joined ''ARD-1'' in this important task. This minimized the time ships were out of action for repairs.

Post War

On 21 October 1946 ''ARD-1'' was decommissioned and moved back to the United States. In 1950s ''ARD-1'' was towed to the

Portsmouth Naval Shipyard The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (PNS), often called the Portsmouth Navy Yard, is a United States Navy shipyard on Seavey's Island in Kittery, Maine, bordering Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The naval yard lies along the southern boundary of Maine on ...

near the city of

Portsmouth, New Hampshire Portsmouth is a city in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census it had a population of 21,956. A historic seaport and popular summer tourist destination on ...

, and used for the repairing of small submarines.Bureau of Ships Journal, Volume 1, May 1953, page 5.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:ARD-1 Ships built in Alameda, California 1934 ships World War II auxiliary ships of the United States Floating drydocks of the United States Navy