USS ''Ash'' (AN-7/YN-2) was an ''Aloe''-class

net laying ship 300px, , an American net laying ship that worked at Pearl Harbor in the 1940s A net laying ship, also known as a net layer, net tender, gate ship or boom defence vessel was a type of naval auxiliary ship. A net layer's primary function was to l ...

which was assigned to serve

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...

ships and harbors during World War II with her protective anti-

submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...

nets.

Career

''Ash'' (YN-2) was launched on 15 February 1941 at

Houghton, Washington Houghton is one of the lakeside neighborhoods of the city of Kirkland, Washington. Consisting mostly of upscale, single-family homes, Houghton overlooks Lake Washington and is one of the wealthier districts of the Eastside suburbs of Seattle ...

, by the Lake Washington Shipyards, Inc., and was placed in service on 1 July 1941. The net layer served briefly in

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay (Chochenyo language, Chochenyo: 'ommu) is a large tidal estuary in the United States, U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the cities of San Francisco, California, San ...

laying out net buoys and tending nets until 20 August when she headed for the

Hawaiian Islands The Hawaiian Islands () are an archipelago of eight major volcanic islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the Pacific Ocean, North Pacific Ocean, extending some from the Hawaii (island), island of Hawaii in the south to nort ...

and duty in the

14th Naval District United States Naval Districts is a system created by the United States Navy to organize military facilities, numbered sequentially by geographic region, for the operational and administrative control of naval bases and shore commands in the Unit ...

. ''Ash'' arrived at the section base at Bishop's Point on the island of

Oahu Oahu (, , sometimes written Oahu) is the third-largest and most populated island of the Hawaiian Islands and of the U.S. state of Hawaii. The state capital, Honolulu, is on Oahu's southeast coast. The island of Oahu and the uninhabited Northwe ...

on 28 August and began working on the nets that protected

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 ...

. She was at the Bishop's Point section base when the Japanese attacked American warships and installations at Pearl Harbor on the morning of 7 December 1941. Though she fired sporadically at some of the enemy planes during the two hours of the attack, she claimed no kills and suffered neither casualties nor damage. Following the attack, the ship served at Pearl Harbor through the end of the war. Redesignated ''AN-7'' on 20 December 1942, she was placed in full commission that same day. ''Ash'' continued to operate in the

area until 11 May 1946, when she got underway for

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, California. The net layer was moored at 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 ...

until 1 November when she got underway for

Vancouver, Washington Vancouver ( ) is a city on the north bank of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington, located in Clark County, Washington, Clark County. Founded in 1825 and incorporated in 1857, Vancouver had a population of 190, ...

. She was placed out of commission there on 13 December 1946, and remained in reserve until 1 September 1962, when her name was struck from the

Naval Vessel Register The ''Naval Vessel Register'' (NVR) is the official inventory of ships and service craft in custody of or titled by the United States Navy. It contains information on ships and service craft that make up the official inventory of the Navy from t ...

. She was then transferred to the U.S. Maritime Administration for lay up with the

National Defense Reserve Fleet The National Defense Reserve Fleet (NDRF) consists of Ship, ships of the United States, mostly Merchant ship, merchant vessels, that have been Reserve fleet, mothballed but can be activated within 20 to 120 days to provide shipping during nationa ...

Olympia, Washington Olympia is the capital city of the U.S. state of Washington. It had a population of 55,605 at the 2020 census, making it the state of Washington's 23rd-most populous city. Olympia is the county seat of Thurston County, and the central city ...

. She stayed there until sold on 14 May 1971 to I. D. Logan for scrapping.

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ash (AN-7) Aloe-class net laying ships 1941 ships World War II net laying ships of the United States Ships present during the attack on Pearl Harbor Ships built at Lake Washington Shipyard