Pinetree Line Miscellaneous

USNS Sagitta - T-AK-87 – Assorted Sources

Enceladus Class Cargo Ship: Originally planned as "Moses Pike", Maritime Commission hull no. 650, (standard type N3-M-A1); Renamed "Sagitta", 30 October 1942; Acquired from the Maritime Commission by the US Navy, 1 January 1943; Laid down, 24 January 1944, under a Navy contract, at Penn Jersey Shipbuilding Corp., Camden, NJ; Launched, 9 July 1944; Delivered to the Navy, 18 July 1944, and transferred to the US Army Transportation Service the same day; Struck from the Naval Register, 13 September 1944; Transferred to MSTS, 26 April 1952; Placed In-service as "USNS Sagitta" (T-AK-87); Placed Out-of-service, 1959; Transferred to the Maritime Administration, 23 February 1960 for lay up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet; Struck from the Naval Register, (date unknown); Transferred to the Army, 12 April 1966; Final disposition, fate unknown.

Specifications: Displacement 1,677 t. (lt), 5,202 t.(fl); Length 269' 10"; Beam 42' 6"; Draft 20' 9"; Speed 10kts; Complement 83, Armament one 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount; Propulsion, diesel, single shaft, 1,300shp.

From Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol. VI (1976), pp. 231

(AK-87: dp. 1,677, l. 269'10", b. 42'6", dr. 20'9", s. 10 k.; cpl. 83; a. 13"; cl. Enceladus; T. N3-M-A1)

Sagitta (AK-87) was laid down as MC Hull 650 on 24 January 1944 by Penn-Jersey Shipbuilding Corp., Camden, NJ; launched on 9 July 1944, sponsored by Mrs. Frank L Hare, and transferred to the Army on 18 July 1944.

Transferred from the Army to the Navy under assignment to the Military Sea Transportation Service on 26 April 1952, Sagitta operated as a summer Pinetree line resupply ship out of New York City from 1952 through 1959. She steamed annually to St. Johns and Argentia, Newfoundland, and to Goose Bay, Labrador. She also voyaged to Cartwright, Labrador, annually except in 1954; to Makkovik, Labrador, annually from 1957 through 1959; to Resolution Island, Northwest Territories, annually except in 1952 and 1957, and to Narsarsauk, Greenland, in June 1954 and 1957. During the winters, she carried cargo to Bermuda; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Cristobal, Panama Canal Zone, annually from 1953 through 1955, and to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in 1956. Occasionally sailing across the Atlantic, she visited Piraeus, Greece, from 9 to 12 February 1957, and Port Lyautey, Morocco, from 2 to 6 February 1958.

Transferred to the Maritime Administration on 23 February 1960, she remained in the National Defense Reserve Fleet until 25 April l966 when she was transferred to the Army for duty, first at Fort Eustis, VA; and then, from 1968 into 1974, at Curtis Bay, MD where she provides stevedore training.

[USNS Sagitta]

Comments by JCCook9468@aol.com on 3 March 2003.

The Sagitta was one of two identical ships. I have been racking my brain, but I cannot think of the name of the other one, by the time I was on the Sagitta, the other one was permanently out of service and I believe that my trip was the Sagitta's last trip. The last I heard of her, someone told me she was at Fort Story, permanently docked, and being used to train Army longshoremen.

She was normally a three mate ship, but when she went North, she carried a fourth mate (me). I never heard of her doing anything other than what we were doing while she was with MSTS. We carried an Army LCM, with a three man crew, and a gang of Army longshoremen, under the command of a First Lieutenant. I believe we had a couple of Army trucks too. We also had an LCVP on deck, which tried to sink every time it was put in the water, but it was ship's equipment, not Army. Totally useless and unuseable.

We also had aboard an Air Force Lt. Col. Chaplain, an Air Force Major who was an electronics expert and one trip a Transportation Corps Captain, who was checking up on our Lieutenant.

According to my discharge book, I was aboard from 6/28/59 to 11/30/59. I joined the ship in Brooklyn. I think we went from there to Norfolk and then up to St. Johns, Newfoundland from which we fared to points North. St. Johns was our home port and we made probably four, maybe five trips to such exotic places as St. Anthony, Cartwright, Goose Bay, Saglek, Resolution Island, and Frobisher Bay. We may have also gone to Hopedale. We had a Newfoundlander on board acting as pilot and advisor, who docked and undocked the ship in the few places we could dock. As far as I'm concerned, any place without palm trees is eminently forgettable.

There was about as bad a windstorm as I've ever seen on one trip. We were headed from Resolution Island to Frobisher Bay. I came on watch at midnight and went up to relieve the third mate, and as I entered the wheelhouse, the third mate said, "The pilot said call him if the wind picked up. I think you'd better call him." He left. I looked outside and the seas were from dead ahead and the height of the mainmast. We were riding up and down like a cork, pitching and rolling very slightly. It was sort of like being in an elevator. The water surface was completely white and the spray was going over the flying bridge. I called the pilot and the Captain.

When they arrived, the pilot said words to the effect that we'd better turn around, or we wouldn't be able to. We turned around, and for a while, I thought we were going to turn over. We went South until we could get in the lee of Resolution Island and then we headed into the wind directly for the Island. At slow ahead the ship moved astern, and at half speed, we crept ahead. Don't forget, the mighty Sagitta was, to put it charitably, somewhat underpowered.

The only place we could contact on the radio was Saglek. We asked them how hard the wind was blowing, and they said they didn't know, their anemometer had jammed and carried away at 165 knots. Of course, they were on top of a mountain, and they may have been exaggerating just a tad, but all their radio antennas carried away and they lost some outbuildings and a good bit of passageway at their main site.

We were ordered to hightail it for Goose Bay, where we picked up new pieces of antenna for all the stations that lost them. There was no weight to them, and we had crates of antenna pieces literally all over the ship. These were all radio and microwave dish antennas. The big domed main aircraft detecting radars were not damaged, as I recall. The main thing I remember about the crated antennas, is that they were all lashed down, using small manila line that was four strand and cable laid. The stuff must have cost as much as the antennas.

The cargo usually went ashore using our equipment. We'd usually anchor, put the LCM in the water, put a truck in it, load the truck and send it ashore. It would bring back another truck, and repeat. I simply do not recall whether we had our own trucks, or not. We may have used only trucks from ashore. We docked at St. Johns, St. Anthony, Goose Bay and Cartwright.

The sergeant who drove the LCM was an expert at putting the thing up on the beach at high tide and letting the water run out from under him. With the kind of tides you have in that part of the world, he spent a good deal of time on the beach.

Hope this tells you what you want to know. The Sagitta seems long ago and far away, and my memory of her is somewhat hazy. I'm a retired Panama Canal Pilot, and I live close to a big red lighthouse at Jupiter Inlet. I'm reasonably sure that there is nothing but tundra North of here.

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Updated: Marach 9, 2003