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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Hesperia (AKS-13), 1945-1973

USS Hesperia, an Acubens class stores issue ship modified from a "Liberty" (EC2) type freighter, was built at New Orleans, Louisiana, as the civilian ship Samdale. Following conversion at the Norfolk Navy Yard, Virginia, she was commissioned at the beginning of April 1945. Hesperia went to the Pacific in May, then steamed to the western Pacific, where she provided supplies to U.S. forces during the final months of World War II and, after Japan's surrender in early September 1945, supported the occupations of Korea, China and Japan. In March 1946 she recrossed the Pacific to the West Coast, then made a voyage to Hawaii and another to the Marshall Islands. This work was completed in December, and USS Hesperia was decommissioned in late February 1947. Turned over to the Maritime Commission and laid up at Suisun Bay, California, she had no further active service. Hesperia was sold in March 1973 and subsequently scrapped in Taiwan.

This page features all the views we have concerning USS Hesperia (AKS-13).

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 94526 USS Hesperia (AKS-13) Off the Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Virginia, 26 April 1945. Courtesy of Charles N. Dragonette. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 86KB; 740 x 610 pixels
Photo #: NH 94525 USS Hesperia (AKS-13) Off the Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Virginia, 26 April 1945. Courtesy of Charles N. Dragonette. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 83KB; 740 x 605 pixels
Photo #: NH 94527 USS Hesperia (AKS-13) Off the Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Virginia, 26 April 1945. Courtesy of Charles N. Dragonette. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 96KB; 740 x 595 pixels
Photo #: NH 94523 USS Hesperia (AKS-13) Off the Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Virginia, 26 April 1945. Courtesy of Charles N. Dragonette. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 74KB; 740 x 600 pixels
Photo #: NH 94524 USS Hesperia (AKS-13) Off the Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Virginia, 26 April 1945. USS Saturn (AF-40) is in the left background. Courtesy of Charles N. Dragonette. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 74KB; 740 x 605 pixels

In addition to the images presented above, the National Archives appears to hold other views of USS Hesperia (AKS-13). The following list features some of these images:

The images listed below are NOT in the Naval Historical Center's collections.
DO NOT try to obtain them using the procedures described in our page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions".

Photo #: 80-G-323290 USS Hesperia (AKS-13) underway at low speed in the vicinity of Norfolk, Virginia, 26 April 1945. Photographed from an aircraft based at Naval Air Station Norfolk. Starboard quarter (rather toward the stern) aerial view. Photo #: 80-G-323291 As 80-G-323290, but starboard bow aerial view. A city shoreline is in the background. Photo #: 80-G-323293 As 80-G-323291, but starboard broadside aerial view. Reproductions of these images should be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system for pictures not held by the Naval Historical Center. The images listed in this box are NOT in the Naval Historical Center's collections. DO NOT try to obtain them using the procedures described in our page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions".

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Page made 8 May 2004