Back to Gators

APA 113 Sitka 

NavSource

Click Here for USS Sitka Main Page
USS Sitka
Links to Other Amphibious Ships:

APA Links and The National Amphibious Veterans Assoc.
APA 2 Harris LSV 6 Montauk  AV7 Currituck APA 8 Biddle
APA 16 J Franklin Bell APA 38 Chilton APA  54 Wayne AKA 70 Tate
AKA 87 Duplin APA 094 Baxter   AKA 106 UNION APA 137 Bowie
APA 154 Video Links APA Blueprints from APA 154 APA 154 Lowdnes
APA 156 Mellette AP 157 General Ballou   APA 158 Newberry   APA 159 Darke
USS Gage APA168 APA 174 Jerauld APA 193 Sanborn APA 196 Logan  
APA 198 McCracken APA 200 Marathon APA 208 Talladega APA 209 Tazewell  
APA 211 Missoula APA 213 Mountrail APA 214 Natrona   APA 218 Noble
 APA 216 Neshoba APA 219 Okaloosa APA 232 San Saba
LST 597

Links to other Ship's WebPages

LCI (L) 664   Large Slow Targets

This site is intentionally kept simple to navigate and quick to load.

Specifications:
Displacement 8,100 t.(lt), 16,100 t.(fl)
Length 492' 6"
Beam 69' 6"
Draft 26' 6"
Speed 18 kts.
Complement 51 Officers, 524 Enlisted
Flag Accommodation 43 officers, 108 Enlisted
Troop Accommodation 80 Officers, 1,146 Enlisted
Cargo Capacity 200,000 cu. ft., 4,700 t.
Boats 12 LCVP, 4 LCM (Mk-6), 3 LCP(L) (MK-IV)
Armament two single 5"/38 dual purpose gun mounts, one fore and one aft, two single 40mm AA gun mounts, two twin 40mm AA gun mounts, eighteen single 20mm AA gun mounts
Propulsion General Electric geared turbine, 2 Combustion Engineering D-type boilers, single propeller, design shaft horsepower 8,500

Bayfield Class Attack Transport:

Laid down, 2 February 1944, as a Maritime Commission type (C3-S-A2) hull under Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 875) at Ingalls Shipbuilding Co., Pascaguloa, MS.

Launched, 23 June 1944

Fitted out as an Attack Transport at Waterman Steamship Co., Mobile, AL.

Commissioned USS Sitka (APA-113), 14 March 1945, at Mobile, AL., CAPT. Charles F. M. S. Quinby in command

Decommissioned, 14 May 1946, at Norfolk, VA.

Returned to the Maritime Commission, 15 May 1946

Struck from the Naval Register, 5 June 1946

Sold for commercial service in 1947 by the Maritime Commission, to Pope & Talbot Lines., renamed SS P&T Trader

Resold in 1963 to Moore-McCormack Lines, renamed SS Mormacguide

Resold in 1964 to American Foreign Steamship Co., renamed SS American Condor

Final Disposition, scrapped in 1976

A town on the western coast of Baranof Island, Alaska.

The name Sitka was assigned to PF-94 on 30 August 1943, but she was renamed Milledgeville (q.v.) on 7 February 1944.

 

(APA-113: dp. 8,393; l. 492'; b. 69'6"; dr. 26'; s. 18.4 k.; cpl. 478; a. 2 5", 4 40mm., 18 20mm.; cl. Ouster; T. C3-S-A2)

 

Sitka (APA-113) was laid down on 2 February 1944 under Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 875) by the Ingalls Shipbuilding Corp., Pascagoula, Miss.; launched on 23 June 1944; sponsored by Mrs. Mary Lee Council; and commissioned on 14 March 1945, Capt. Charles F. M. S. Quinby in command.

 

Sitka departed Mobile on 20 March 1945; and, after stopping at New Orleans for supplies, arrived at Bolivar Roads, Galveston, on 28 March 1945 for shakedown. However, her shakedown lasted only four days, as she received orders to report to Newport, R.I., for duty as training ship for precommissioning crews being-formed there. Sitka arrived at Newport on 6 April and, for two and one-half months, she trained crews of new amphibious and auxiliary vessels in seamanship and gunnery. Relieved by Guilford (APA-112), Sitka sailed from Newport for Norfolk on 25 June.

 

After a brief overhaul, Sitka sailed from Norfolk on 6 July with a replacement draft of several hundred marines, as well as other troops and cargo. Transiting the Panama Canal on 11 July, Sitka called at Pearl Harbor from 24 July to 3 August and at Eniwetok on the llth and 12th, before arriving at Guam on the 15th. She discharged her troops and cargo at Guam, and sailed for Manila on 27 August to embark troops for the occupation of Japan. Departing Manila on 7 September, the transport arrived at Yokohama, Japan, on the 13th and began disembarking troops and equipment two days later. Sitka departed Yokohama on the 19th; and, between 23 and 27 September, embarked units of the 6th Marine Division at Guam for the occupation of Tsingtao, China. She arrived at Tsingtao on 11 October and disembarked her troops and cargo on the 15th and 16th. After returning to Manila on the 23d for a week of upkeep, she embarked units of the 52d Chinese National Army at Haiphong, Indochina, on 3 November; and disembarked them at Chinwangtao in northern China on the 13th. After a week at Taku, she departed China on the 21st and arrived at Manila on the 26th to join operation "Magic Carpet," the transportation of war veterans home to the United States. Sitka sailed from Manila on 28 November carrying homeward-bound servicemen and arrived at Seattle, Wash., on 14 December.

 

Sitka remained at Seattle for repairs until sailing to Saipan and Guam on 30 January 1946. The ship arrived at San Pedro on 23 February, and got underway for the east coast on 1 March. On 16 March, she arrived at Norfolk, Va., for deactivation. Sitka was decommissioned on 14 May 1946, returned to the War Shipping Administration the next day, and struck from the Navy list on 5 June 1946. She was sold into mercantile service as P. & T. Trader in 1947; and, after being renamed Mormacguide in 1957 and American Condor in 1964, remains in service into 1974.