USS Whitewood (YN-84), a wooden-hulled 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...

 was laid down on 24 October 1942 at Rockland, Maine, by the Snow Shipyard, Inc.; named Whitewood on 5 July 1943; re-classified a net laying ship, AN-63, on 1 January 1944; launched on 21 April 1944; sponsored by Mrs. Eben Kenney; and commissioned on 17 July 1944, Lt. John I. Beam, USNR, in command.

World War II

Whitewood tended and laid nets and buoys at Boston, Mass., and at Newport and Melville, R.I., through the remainder of 1944 and into 1945. After a drydocking which began at the Boston Navy Yard

Boston Navy Yard

The Boston Navy Yard, originally called the Charlestown Navy Yard and later Boston Naval Shipyard, was one of the oldest shipbuilding facilities in the United States Navy. Established in 1801, it was officially closed as an active naval installation on July 1, 1974, and the property was...

 in March 1945, the net layer shifted to Portland, Maine, in July. There she worked out of the Navy Net Depot at Little Diamond Island through the end of World War II in August 1945. After shifting to Newport, R.I., at the end of the month, she provided services for the naval net depot there and assisted in laying experimental net installations off Block Island

Block Island

Block Island is part of the U.S. state of Rhode Island and is located in the Atlantic Ocean approximately south of the coast of Rhode Island, east of Montauk Point on Long Island, and is separated from the Rhode Island mainland by Block Island Sound. The United States Census Bureau defines Block...

.

Operation Nanook

Although apparently slated for inactivation on 22 October 1945, Whitewood apparently remained in commission through the end of the year. Early in 1946, the ship was placed in "deferred disposal" status pending possible future use. On 11 April, she was selected to participate in Operation Nanook, Arctic exercises slated to take place in the summer of 1946. Taken to the Boston Naval Shipyard, the ship was under conversion for the rest of the spring and into the summer. During this time, on 20 May, a fire broke out on board the ship in one of her after storerooms and caused "Nanook's" planners to fear that the wooden-hulled ship's services would be lost to the pending operation. Fortunately, the fire was put out before major damage occurred; and the shipyard was able to repair the ship enabling her to take part in "Nanook" as scheduled.

The nucleus of the "Nanook" force, Task Force (TF) 68, consisted of , , , , and Whitewood. On 3 July, Whitewood departed Boston to rendezvous with Northwind off Greenland.

For the remainder of July and into August, Whitewood operated in the Canadian Arctic, off western Greenland. She transited the Davis Strait

Davis Strait

Davis Strait is a northern arm of the Labrador Sea. It lies between mid-western Greenland and Nunavut, Canada's Baffin Island. The strait was named for the English explorer John Davis , who explored the area while seeking a Northwest Passage....

 to the northern part of Baffin Bay

Baffin Bay

Baffin Bay , located between Baffin Island and the southwest coast of Greenland, is a marginal sea of the North Atlantic Ocean. It is connected to the Atlantic via Davis Strait and the Labrador Sea...

 in company with Northwind and Atule and conducted exercises en route. All ships in TF 68 except the two AK's eventually rendezvoused at Melville Bight, Baffin Bay, on 20 July. Whitewood and Atule subsequently accompanied Norton Sound to Thule harbor to recover a PBM Mariner

PBM Mariner

The Martin PBM Mariner was a patrol bomber flying boat of World War II and the early Cold War period. It was designed to complement the PBY Catalina in service. A total of 1,366 were built, with the first example flying on 18 February 1939 and the type entering service in September 1940.-Design and...

 forced down with engine trouble.

From 22 July to 5 August, all activities in "Nanook" centered around Thule; Norton Sound remained at anchor there, in North Star Bay

North Star Bay

North Star Bay is a bay in Wolstenholme Fjord, Greenland.The bay was the site of a Cold War nuclear accident when a B-52 bomber carrying four thermonuclear bombs crashed, spreading contaminated material over the area. Thule Air Base is located at the edge of the bay....

, servicing her two PBM's. Meanwhile, Whitewood and Atule operated from North Star Bay as they conducted exercises and tests in the Smith Sound

Smith Sound

Smith Sound is an uninhabited Arctic sea passage between Greenland and Canada's northernmost island, Ellesmere Island. It links Baffin Bay with Kane Basin and forms part of the Nares Strait....

–Kane Basin

Kane Basin (waterway)

Kane Basin is an Arctic waterway lying between Greenland and Canada's northernmost island, Ellesmere Island. It links Smith Sound to Kennedy Channel and forms part of Nares Strait. It is approximately 180 kilometres in length and 130 km at its widest....

 area. On 5 August, Norton Sound and Whitewood headed for Dundas Harbor, Devon Island

Devon Island

Devon Island , claimed to be the largest uninhabited island on Earth, is located in Baffin Bay, Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada. It is one of the larger members of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, the second-largest of the Queen Elizabeth Islands, Canada's sixth largest island, and the 27th...

, to attempt air and surface operations there. Unfortunately, the ships found the harbor iced over, with a belt of pack ice extending out three miles down the coast. Northwind later joined the two ships in the vicinity of Dundas Harbor, searching for a suitable anchorage that could accommodate the ships and their attached aircraft. Whitewood succeeded in finding a small, ice-free anchorage at Tay Bay, off northwestern Bylot Island

Bylot Island

Bylot Island lies off the northern end of Baffin Island in Nunavut Territory, Canada. At it is ranked 71st largest island in the world and Canada's 17th largest island. It is also one of the largest uninhabited islands in the world. While there are no permanent settlements on this Canadian Arctic...

.

In the ensuing weeks, Whitewood reconnoitered the coastal areas in Lancaster

Lancaster Sound

Lancaster Sound is a body of water in Qikiqtaaluk, Nunavut, Canada. It is located between Devon Island and Baffin Island, forming the eastern portion of the Northwest Passage. East of the sound lies Baffin Bay; to the west lies Viscount Melville Sound...

, Eclipse, and Jones Sound

Jones Sound

Jones Sound is an uninhabited waterway in Qikiqtaaluk, Nunavut, Canada. It lies between Devon Island and the southern end of Ellesmere Island. At its northwestern end it is linked by several channels to Norwegian Bay; at its eastern end it opens via Glacier Strait into Baffin Bay.The first known...

s, and Prince Regent

Prince Regent Inlet

Prince Regent Inlet is a body of water between Somerset Island and the Brodeur Peninsula in Nunavut, Canada. To the south, the inlet leads to the Gulf of Boothia; to the north, it leads to Lancaster Sound. The Arctic inlet's northern portion is approximately wide; the southern portion is...

, Admiralty

Admiralty Inlet (Nunavut)

Admiralty Inlet is a body of water in Nunavut's Qikiqtaaluk Region. It extends southerly from Lancaster Sound along the western shore of Baffin Island's Borden Peninsula...

, and Navy Board Inlet

Navy Board Inlet

Navy Board Inlet is a body of water in Nunavut's Qikiqtaaluk Region. It is an arm of Lancaster Sound, after which it proceeds southerly before it empties into Eclipse Sound. It is long and wide....

s. Operating on this duty in company with Northwind, Whitewood landed shore parties that set up positions ashore to obtain terrestrial navigation "fixes" to dovetail with the photographic coverage obtained from the ships and planes of the project's task force.

Eventually, the summer Arctic weather deteriorated to the point where it hindered Whitewood's surveying efforts — especially her terrestrial fixes. Released from the expedition in early September, Whitewood received her sailing orders on 6 September and soon set her course for Boston. She arrived there on 19 September for repairs.

Reclassified as (AG)

While at Boston, Whitewood was reclassified a miscellaneous auxiliary (AG) on 14 January 1947 and was given the alphanumeric hull number AG-129. She conducted refresher training in Chesapeake Bay soon thereafter and returned to Boston on 9 July to prepare for the next round of Arctic operations.

Return to the Arctic

She sailed for the Canadian Arctic in company with the Navy's newest icebreaker, , to participate in the successor to Operation "Nanook." The basic missions for TF 68 in this Arctic stint were the resupply of existing weather stations and the establishment of a new one at Melville Harbor, Ville Island.

Whitewood performed reconnaissance and survey work during the expedition, while completed her assigned task, supplying the weather station at Thule. When Whitewood and Edisto tried to force their way through the ice to deliver needed supplies to the station at Slidre Fjord, the heavy pack ice damaged Whitewood's bow sheathing, steering engine, and propeller, necessitating her return to Boston for repairs. After transferring her cargo to Edisto — which eventually forced her way through the pack ice to Slidre Fjord — Whitewood headed home.

Whitewood underwent repairs at Boston between 1 September and 18 October before sailing for Bayonne, N.J., for an overhaul that lasted through the end of October. She headed back northward and operated out of Argentia, Newfoundland

Argentia, Newfoundland and Labrador

Argentia is a community on the island of Newfoundland in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is situated on a flat headland located along the southwest coast of the Avalon Peninsula on Placentia Bay...

; and Grondal and Søndre Strømfjord

Kangerlussuaq

Kangerlussuaq is a settlement in western Greenland in the Qeqqata municipality, located at the head of a fjord of the same name. It is Greenland's main air transport hub, being the site of Greenland's largest commercial airport....

, Greenland; into late 1948 supporting the International Ice Patrol

International Ice Patrol

The International Ice Patrol is an organization with the purpose of monitoring the presence of icebergs in the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans and reporting their movements for safety purposes. It is operated by United States Coast Guard but is funded by the 13 nations interested in trans-Atlantic...

. During the tour, she touched at such ports as Narsarssuak

Narsarsuaq

Narsarsuaq is a settlement in the Kujalleq municipality in southern Greenland. It had 158 inhabitants in 2010. There is a thriving tourism industry in and around Narsarsuaq, whose attractions include a great diversity of wildlife, gemstones, tours to glaciers, and an airfield museum...

, Grondal, Argentia, and Breton.

On 6 December 1948, while the ship was operating in heavy pack ice, a shifting floe sprung a leak in her port chain locker. A seam opened there, and the ship began to fill uncontrollably. In order to save the ship, her commanding officer, Lt. Cpmdr. F. E. Clark, ordered her beached. Meanwhile, Edisto, which had just completed refresher training in Narragansett Bay

Narragansett Bay

Narragansett Bay is a bay and estuary on the north side of Rhode Island Sound. Covering 147 mi2 , the Bay forms New England's largest estuary, which functions as an expansive natural harbor, and includes a small archipelago...

, was summoned to join in assisting Whitewood out of her predicament. Eventually, with a patch applied to her side, Whitewood made Boston on 8 January 1949 — exactly one month after her serious accident.

Subsequently cleared for disposal on 12 March, she was decommissioned at Newport on 1 April and struck from the Navy list on 7 June. She was then sold to Walter H. Wimms of Los Angeles, Calif., on 3 March 1950 and scrapped.

Source

• Navsource.org