The third USS ''Ability'' (AFD-7/AFDL-7) was a small

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 ...

in the service of 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 ...

Construction

The construction of ''AFD-7'', a one-section, steel, floating dry dock built at

Eureka, California Eureka ( ; Wiyot: ; Hupa: ; ) is a city and the county seat of Humboldt County, located on the North Coast of California. The city is located on U.S. Route 101 on the shores of Humboldt Bay, north of San Francisco and south of the Oreg ...

, by the Chicago Bridge & Iron Co., was begun sometime early in 1943 and was completed in April 1944.

Service history

The small, non-self-propelled auxiliary floating dry dock was then towed to the east coast for duty at the

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base at

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, where she began a long career of docking small naval combatants (up to the size of

destroyer escort Destroyer escort (DE) was the United States Navy mid-20th-century classification for a warship designed with the endurance necessary to escort mid-ocean convoys of merchant marine ships. Development of the destroyer escort was promoted by th ...

s) for hull repairs. At the end of

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 ...

, the vessel returned to the Pacific and proceeded via

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. While serving there, she was redesignated ''AFDL-7'' in August 1946. Following brief operations at the naval operating base at Guam, ''AFDL-7'' was taken out of service on 1 January 1947, and laid up with the

Pacific Reserve Fleet The United States Navy maintains a number of its ships as part of a reserve fleet, often called the "Mothball Fleet". While the details of the maintenance activity have changed several times, the basics are constant: keep the ships afloat and s ...

. Some time in 1948, she was towed back to Hawaii and laid up at

. New Year's Day 1950, found her at the

Long Beach Naval Shipyard The Long Beach Naval Shipyard (Long Beach NSY or LBNSY), which closed in 1997, was located on Terminal Island between the city of Long Beach and the San Pedro district of Los Angeles, approximately 23 miles south of the Los Angeles Internationa ...

for repairs, which lasted into the following year. Two years later, she was back at Pearl Harbor still inactive. She was inactive, in reserve, there until June 1970, when she was transferred, on loan, to the

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for service in

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. In October 1971, the small dry dock was returned to the United States Navy and laid up at Guam. On 1 January 1973, she was reactivated and served at various advanced Pacific bases. She remained in this status through 1980. During this period of service, ''AFDL-7'' was named ''Ability'' on 7 June 1979. While at Guam, she was taken out of service early in 1981. Her name was struck from the

Navy list A Navy Directory, Navy List or Naval Register is an official list of naval officers, their ranks and seniority, the ships which they command or to which they are appointed, etc., that is published by the government or naval authorities of a co ...

on 15 February 1981. She was sold for scrap on 1 July 1982.

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