TCG Akin (A-585), 2013, image via ShipSpotting http://www.shipspotting.com/gallery/photo.php?lid=1825096
The news comes that the Chanticleer-class submarine rescue ship TCG Akin (A-585) was retired from the Turkish Navy last month, on whose flag she operated under since 1970. Starting life as USS Greenlet (ASR-10), the 251-foot was built by Moore Dry Dock & Shipbuilding Co., Oakland, California, commissioned 29 May 1943.
According to DANFS:
Constructed as a submarine rescue ship, she served at Pearl Harbor and at Midway for more than a year, making escort runs and conducting refresher training for patrol-bound submarines. As the progress of the war advanced steadily across the Pacific, she sailed to Guam 21 December 1944 to carry invaluable submarine training closer to the patrol areas.
While at Midway and Guam, Greenlet helped train some 215 submarines, among them such fighting boats as Tang, Tautog, Barb, Snook, Drum, and Rasher. Indirectly, she contributed to the sinking of 794 enemy ships, including a battleship and 6 aircraft carriers. Eleven of the submarines trained by Greenlet were lost during the war, but her charges sank more than 2,797,000 tons of Japanese military and merchant shipping.
She is listed as one of the Allied ships present in Tokyo Bay during the Surrender Ceremony, 2 September 1945 and later supported submarine operations in Korea and Vietnam before her warm transfer to the Turks where she served as that country’s only submarine rescue asset until replaced earlier this year by a newer ship. If you note in the above image, she has her floats and dive chamber ready on deck.
Moore Dry Dock & Co. sure knew what they were doing.
USS GREENLET (ASR-10) San Deigo 1949 80-G-427645