USS Kailua (IX-71)
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Civilian cable layer Dickenson, later USS Kailua
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| History | |
|---|---|
 United States |
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| Name: |
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| Namesake: | Kailua, Hawaii |
| Owner: | Commercial Pacific Cable Company |
| Operator: |
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| Port of registry: | New York |
| Builder: | Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Company |
| Launched: | 1923 |
| Completed: | April 1923 |
| Acquired: | 19 May 1942 |
| Commissioned: | 5 May 1943 |
| Decommissioned: | 29 October 1945 |
| Identification: |
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| Fate: | Sunk as target February 7, 1946 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage: | |
| Displacement: | 1,411 tons |
| Length: | |
| Beam: | 30.1 ft (9.2 m) |
| Draft: | 15 ft 2 in (4.62 m) |
| Depth: | 21.8 ft (6.6 m) |
| Installed power: | 166 NHP |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | 9.8 kn (18.1 km/h) |
| Complement: | 61 |
| Armament: |
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USS Kailua (IX-71), formerly CS Dickenson, was a civilian cable-laying ship that became an auxiliary ship of the United States Navy in the Second World War.
Building
The Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Company of Chester, Pennsylvania built the ship as Dickenson for the Commercial Pacific Cable Company. She was launched in 1923, completed that April and registered in New York.[1]
The ship had four corrugated furnaces with a grate area of 82 square feet (8 m2) that heated two single-ended boilers with a combined heating surface of 3,303 square feet (307 m2). They supplied steam at 185 lbf/in2 to her three-cylinder triple expansion engine, which developed 166 NHP and gave her a speed of 9.8 kn (18.1 km/h).[1]
The United States Navy bareboat chartered Dickenson on 19 May 1942 and renamed her Kailua. She was commissioned on 5 May 1943 with Lieutenant C.R. Bower in command.
Kailua left Pearl Harbor on 15 May 1943 to join the Service Force of the United States Seventh Fleet. Upon her arrival at Pago Pago, Samoa, 25 May she immediately began operations as an auxiliary in the Pacific islands. In June she reached Milne Bay, New Guinea, and for the next year remained there laying cables, anti-submarine nets, and buoys. Kailua reached Pearl Harbor 4 July 1944 and performed similar services there for the rest of the War.
She was decommissioned at Pearl Harbor 29 October 1945 and sunk as a target on 7 February 1946.[2]
Rediscovery
In 2013 the wreck of the Kailua was discovered by the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory. It is located 20 miles off the coast of Oahu at a depth of 2,000 feet.[2]
Awards
References
- This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
Links
Media related to Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. at Wikimedia Commons
- photo gallery at navsource.org
- press release announcing discovery of the wreck of the Kailua.
- news article GERONTIC 'Ghost ship' prowled the undersea cables of the 1940s
