USS Recovery (ARS-43) was a Bolster-class rescue and salvage ship

Rescue and salvage ship

Rescue and salvage ships in the United States Navy were common during World War II. Their purpose was to come to the rescue of stricken ships, usually because of their towing ability, and to tow away ships damaged because of enemy action or engine failure....

 of the United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

, which remained in commission for over 48 years.

Laid down on 6 January 1945 by the Basalt Rock Company

Basalt Rock Company

Basalt Rock Company was a multifaceted industrial operation that was founded in 1920. The company started as a rock quarrying operation located a few miles south of Napa, California near the Napa River. It later branched out into the ship building business in 1941 when it started building ships...

 in Napa, California

Napa, California

-History:The name Napa was probably derived from the name given to a southern Nappan village whose people shared the area with elk, deer, grizzlies and cougars for many centuries, according to Napa historian Kami Santiago. At the time of the first recorded exploration into Napa Valley in 1823, the...

, the ship was launched on 4 August 1945, sponsored by Mrs. Harry Burris, and commissioned on 15 May 1946, Lt. J. T. Moritz in command.

1946–1960

Following shakedown, Recovery operated briefly out of San Diego, then on 9 August got underway for the Panama Canal Zone

Panama Canal Zone

The Panama Canal Zone was a unorganized U.S. territory located within the Republic of Panama, consisting of the Panama Canal and an area generally extending 5 miles on each side of the centerline, but excluding Panama City and Colón, which otherwise would have been partly within the limits of...

. Homeported at Naval Station Rodman from her arrival on 30 August, until September 1953, the ship performed salvage, repair, and towing operations in the Canal Zone and the Caribbean; provided men and equipment for underwater projects of the Army Engineers

United States Army Corps of Engineers

The United States Army Corps of Engineers is a federal agency and a major Army command made up of some 38,000 civilian and military personnel, making it the world's largest public engineering, design and construction management agency...

; served as a training ship for Naval Reservists of the 15th Naval District; and, after April 1952, added a second-class diving school to her duties. Transferred to the east coast in October 1953, Recovery arrived at her new homeport, Norfolk, Virginia

Norfolk, Virginia

Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....

, on the 11th only to depart soon after for her first tour in northern latitudes in support of MSTS North Atlantic and Arctic resupply programs. She arrived at Goose Bay

Goose Bay

Goose Bay may refer to:* Happy Valley – Goose Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada* Goose Bay , Canada...

 on 3 November and operated off Labrador

Labrador

Labrador is the distinct, northerly region of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It comprises the mainland portion of the province, separated from the island of Newfoundland by the Strait of Belle Isle...

, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...

 into the new year, returning to Norfolk on 29 January 1954.

In addition to annual deployments to subarctic and arctic waters to support Military Sea Transportation Service operations over the next seven years, Recovery's mobile ability to provide salvage, repair, towing, diving, and rescue services to the fleet was utilized along the lengths of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts and in the Caribbean as well as in the Chesapeake Bay

Chesapeake Bay

The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay's drainage basin covers in the District of Columbia and parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West...

 area. Occasionally assigned to experimental programs, in 1960 she assisted in shock test programs at Key West

Key West

Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida on the North American continent at the southernmost tip of the Florida Keys. Key West is home to the southernmost point in the Continental United States; the island is about from Cuba....

 and in the Bahamas and in escape and recovery tests off the Virginia coast for the National Aeronautical and Space Administration

NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

's man-in-space program. That year she also provided disaster relief for the outer islands of the Bahamas in the wake of Hurricane Donna

Hurricane Donna

Hurricane Donna in the 1960 Atlantic hurricane season was a Cape Verde-type hurricane which moved across the Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico, Hispanola, Cuba, The Bahamas, and every state on the East Coast of the United States...

.

1961–1970

In February 1961 the Arctic came to Chesapeake Bay and Recovery assisted Coast Guard vessels in clearing heavy ice congestion and aiding stranded merchantmen. In May she again operated in support of NASA's space program and directed offshore standby recovery forces during Commander Shepard

Alan Shepard

Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr. was an American naval aviator, test pilot, flag officer, and NASA astronaut who in 1961 became the second person, and the first American, in space. This Mercury flight was designed to enter space, but not to achieve orbit...

's suborbital flight, America's first manned space flight. Salvage operations then took Recovery north to assist and other vessels in pulling decommissioned destroyer off the beach at Montauk Point, N.Y. The destroyer was floated, but because damage was beyond economic repair, she was towed out to sea and sunk by gunfire from the ARS and the ATF. In July Recovery returned to Cape Canaveral

Cape Canaveral

Cape Canaveral, from the Spanish Cabo Cañaveral, is a headland in Brevard County, Florida, United States, near the center of the state's Atlantic coast. Known as Cape Kennedy from 1963 to 1973, it lies east of Merritt Island, separated from it by the Banana River.It is part of a region known as the...

 and joined the support force for Major Grissom

Gus Grissom

Virgil Ivan Grissom , , better known as Gus Grissom, was one of the original NASA Project Mercury astronauts and a United States Air Force pilot...

's suborbital flight. Between August and November she supported the Arctic resupply program; then, in 1962, provided target towing service before returning to Florida for Lieutenant Colonel Glenn

John Glenn

John Herschel Glenn, Jr. is a former United States Marine Corps pilot, astronaut, and United States senator who was the first American to orbit the Earth and the third American in space. Glenn was a Marine Corps fighter pilot before joining NASA's Mercury program as a member of NASA's original...

's February orbital mission.

East coast and Caribbean operations occupied the remainder of the year and in 1963 she added oceanographic survey work to her duties. In northern waters in April, she was diverted to assist in searching for . First on the scene, she recovered samples of oil and grease, plastic, and styrofoam.

In July 1964 Recovery returned from her last oceanographic mission and her survey equipment was removed. In September she sailed to Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 to participate in exercise "Teamwork", thence proceeded to Spain for "Steel Pike

Operation Steel Pike

Operation Steel Pike was the largest peacetime amphibious landing exercise in history, conducted by the United States Navy and Marine Corps and taking place on the coast of Spain in October to November 1964....

", the largest peacetime amphibious operation. In November she returned to the United States and resumed duty out of Norfolk. In 1967 she again sailed north for extended operations in northern latitudes, returning to Norfolk in October, after a good will visit to Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

. Three months later, in January 1968, she again assisted with shock tests at Key West; then, until July, was engaged primarily in towing operations. On 25 July she deployed, for the first time, to the Mediterranean, where for the next seven months she provided salvage, repair, diving, and towing services to the 6th Fleet. She returned to Norfolk in mid-February 1969 and resumed operations along the eastern seaboard and in the Caribbean, continuing such operations in that area into 1970.

1970–1994

In late January 1970, she steamed out of Little Creek, Virginia, for a deployment in the Mediterranean. By 18 July, she had returned to normal operations along the Atlantic seaboard and in the Caribbean. Recovery continued in this employment until 4 August 1971, at which time she embarked on her third Mediterranean cruise. Seven months later she returned to Little Creek, Virginia, and engaged in normal operations along the east coast.

She was in dry dock out of the water and completely being refit when I got to her in winter 1977. She was still in service from Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base, Virginia through 1981 when I was discharged. She made several more Mediterranean deployments which I was on as well as salvage ops in the Med and elsewhere. She traveled to the Caribbean and did a salvage job on a beached old naval ship that had been used for target practice off of Pensacola, Florida. We all got a ribbon for that one. She was in the Med when I was discharged and flown back to the U.S. The famous Master Chief Carl Brashear (Men of Honor) served on her as well for a few years.

Decommissioning and transfer

Recovery was decommissioned and simultaneously struck from the Naval Vessel Register

Naval Vessel Register

The Naval Vessel Register 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 the time a vessel is authorized through its life cycle and...

 on 30 September 1994. She was transferred to Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

 on 30 September 1998, under the Security Assistance Program, and commissioned on 1 March 1999 in the Republic of China Navy

Republic of China Navy

The Republic of China Navy is the maritime branch of the Armed forces of the Republic of China . The ROC Navy's primary mission is to defend ROC territories and the sea lanes that surround Taiwan against a blockade, attack, or possible invasion by forces of the People's Republic of China...

as ROCS Da Juen (ARS-556), where she remains in commission .

External links

• http://www.shipbuildinghistory.com/history/shipyards/4emergencysmall/basalt.htm Basalt Rock Compay Shipbuilding History