Duluth, USAMRS
Builder: Chicago Shipbuilding Company, Chicago, Illinois
Length: 381' 6"
Beam: 50' 2"
Draft: 26'
Displacement: 4,869
Cost: N/A
Launched: 1903
Commissioned: 15 August 1944
Decommissioned: 23 November 1945
Disposition: Returned to service on the Great Lakes
Machinery: Reciprocating steam engine; 1,600 HP
Performance:
Maximum Speed: 8 knots
Economic/Cruising Speed: ?
Complement: ?
Electronics: ?
Armament: At least 1 x 3"/50; unknown number of 20mm/80s
Vessel History:
On 14 March 1944 the Coast Guard agreed to man numerous small Army Transportation Corps vessels and by the end of the war, the service had manned a total of 288 U.S. Army craft. Despite having Coast Guard crews, however, the Army Transportation Corps maintained administrative control over each of these vessels. Many of these vessels were already operating in the southwest Pacific and most served in the South Pacific with no assigned permanent station or home yard. Each of the larger repair ships manned by the Coast Guard were old, in fact David Grover, author of the only history of the Army's "fleet" during the war, characterized each as "ancient castoffs."
The Duluth, a 4,369-ton Great Lakes freighter, served as a marine repair vessel in the Pacific. Her Coast Guard crew was first put aboard on 15 August 1944 and they were removed on 23 November 1945.
Although old by this time, the Duluth's long cargo bays provided ample space for marine repair shops. No further information about her government service is available. After the war she returned to service on the Great Lakes and was used for a time as a cannery ship. She disappears from the records in 1958.
Sources:
Edward Flynn. The Forgotten Voyage of the USARS Duluth: Recalling a Coast Guard Manned Vessel That Fell Through the Cracks of World War II History. Clifton Park, NY: By the author, 2004.
David H. Grover. U.S. Army Ships and Watercraft of World War II. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1987.
Robert Scheina. U.S. Coast Guard Cutters & Craft of World War II. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1982.