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USS Asterion)
USS Asterion (AK-100, AK-63, WAK-123) was a Q-ship of the
United States Navy named for Asterion, a star in the
constellation Canum Venaticorum. See also her twin sister ship,
USS Atik (AK-101).
Evelyn, a steel-hulled, single-screw steamer, was laid down on
January 17, 1912, by the Newport News Shipbuilding
and Dry Dock Company, launched on May 9, 1912; and delivered
to the A.H. Bull Steamship Line on June 11, 1912.
For the next 30 years, Evelyn operated between ports on the eastern
seaboard of the United States and the West Indies, carrying
passengers and freight. During World War I, she was inspected in the
3d Naval District on January 9, 1918, for possible naval service
and was assigned the identification number Id. No. 2228. However, she was
not actually taken over. Remaining a merchantman, she received a Navy
armed guard detachment who protected her between
January 31 and November 11, 1918.
Evelyn pursued her prosaic calling under the house flag of the Bull
Line through the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. A dispatch dated
January 31, 1942, stated the Chief of Naval Operations'
desire that Evelyn and Carolyn "be given a
preliminary conversion to AK (cargo ship) in the shortest possible
time." A letter from the Chief of the Bureau of Ships elaborated on the
"shortest possible time," when it stated on February 12 that the
conversion and outfitting of the vessels was desired "by 1 March 1942."
Acquired by the Navy from the Bull Line early in 1942, Evelyn was
renamed Asterion and classified as a cargo ship, AK-100. That
designation, however, was strictly a cover, for Asterion, like her
sister ship Atik (AK-101) (the former SS Carolyn) was
in fact a Q-ship. While this ruse de guerre had worked moderately
well in World War I, it was at best a stop-gap measure adopted in the
hope of ending a rash of sinkings of merchantmen in American coastal waters.
Given a main battery, machine guns and depth charge gear hidden in
concealed positions, Asterion was placed in commission at the
Portsmouth Navy Yard in early March 1942,
Lieutenant Commander Glen W. Legwen, Jr., in command.
While on patrol, she would answer friendly requests for identification
as the SS Evelyn, but if enemy ships should challenge, she would
reply as SS Generalife of Spanish Registry, callsign EAOQ.
After brief sea trials, Asterion sailed for her assigned patrol area on
March 23, 1942, in company at the outset with her sister ship
Atik. The mission assigned each ship was to sail under the guise of a
tramp steamer, proceeding independently, in the hope of luring a
U-boat to the surface and destroying the submarine with gunfire before
she could realize what was happening. Once out at sea, the two vessels parted company.
One day out, Asterion picked up a submarine contact on her underwater detection gear. Two days later, however, her radios picked up ominous traffic. "Carolyn" (Atik) had been torpedoed. Then, after luring her assailant, U-123, to the surface with her "tramp" steamer guise, Atik had engaged the U-boat with gunfire, but succeeded only in mortally wounding an officer on the submarine's bridge before the German captain wisely broke off the action and cleared the area to await nightfall and a second crack at the Q-ship. U-123 delivered the coup de grace that evening, and Atik exploded and sank. Asterion plodded immediately to Atik's assistance; but, when she arrived on the scene, found only wreckage. Not a man in Atik's crew had survived.
Arriving at Norfolk, Virginia, on March 31, 1942, Asterion
set out for her second cruise on April 4, and that afternoon witnessed
the torpedoing of the tanker SS Comol Rio by U-154.
A destroyer arrived on the scene shortly thereafter and took up the
search after Asterion had picked up a sound contact.
Various contacts with friendly surface craft and aircraft on this patrol
and the previous one led to awkward situations which required tact and
ingenuity on the part of the Commanding Officer to preserve the Q-ship's
cover story. That cover story was maintained; officers in Headquarters,
Eastern Sea Frontier, were so completely unaware of the nature of this
ship's mission that they recorded her various dispatches in the Enemy Action
Diary for April 4, April 10, and April 14 under her commercial
name, SS Evelyn.
Operating off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, on April 14,
Asterion rescued the 55 men of the crew of a British merchantman that
had been torpedoed earlier -- saving even the captain's dog. She entered
New York harbor on April 18 and there disembarked the sailors she had
rescued, cautioning them not to tell anyone of what they had seen on board
the Q-ship.
Asterion's third cruise commenced on May 4, 1942, from New York,
and she sailed between Key West and Norfolk, proceeding as an independently
routed merchantman or as a straggler from a convoy. The fourth cruise
commenced on June 7, 1942, and, due to increased submarine activity
in the Gulf of Mexico, the Q-ship set course for those dangerous waters.
Clearing New York, she sailed down the eastern seaboard, transited the
Straits of Florida on June 11, passed the Dry Tortugas on
June 14; and thence steamed to the Yucatan Channel. Reversing course,
she moved to the Mississippi River Delta whence she continued on a
westerly course toward Galveston, Texas. She then returned to New York,
and arrived there on July 6.
Departing New York a fortnight later, Asterion went directly to Key West
and then sailed north of the Bahamas to the Windward Passage.
Returning to New York on August 18, Asterion sailed at the end of the
month for her sixth cruise, which took her through the waters that she had
traversed on the fifth patrol. On September 25, 1942, she was
redesignated AK-63. Commencing her seventh cruise on November 18, the
ship proceeded to Key West and, while there, carried out training exercises
on November 30 with a friendly submarine.
On December 2, 1942, Asterion got underway for the
British West Indies and, going via the Old Bahama Channel,
followed the convoy route to Trinidad and Tobago, patrolling to the westward of
Aruba, in the Dutch West Indies. Departing Trinidad on the day
after Christmas the ship headed home and arrived at New York on
January 10, 1943.
Over the next few months, Asterion underwent an extensive overhaul,
involving the strengthening of her whole structure and modification of her
armament. Inspection after her sixth cruise raised considerable doubt as to
her ability to remain afloat if hit by even a single torpedo because she had
three large holds. A representative of the New York Navy Yard conferred
with the Bureau of Ships, Damage Section, who confirmed the opinion that she
could not successfully withstand a torpedo hit, and that such a hit would
result not only in her eventual sinking but also in such a quick list that
her battery would be ineffective. (This weakness almost certainly was
responsible for the rapid sinking of Atik.) A conference held in
the office of the Vice Chief of Naval Operations decided to increase
flotation by building five transverse bulkheads. It was estimated that this
would take three months and that it would cost about US$200,000. The work
took much longer and cost much more than had been estimated. Not until
September 27 was the overhaul completed -- more than eight months
after the end of Asterion's latest cruise. The overhaul had included
re-subdivision by longitudinal and athwart ship bulkheads, the filling of
her holds with 16,772 empty steel flotation drums. The Supervising
Constructor estimated that the vessel could be completely flooded and 25% of
the barrels completely crushed before her well decks would be awash. Thus
it seemed probable that she had an excellent chance of remaining afloat
after a U-boat had made a successful attack on her.
After that overhaul, Asterion steamed to New London, Connecticut,
and beginning on September 4, operated with American submarines in
training. After returning briefly to New York, from September 18 to
September 20, she resumed her training at New London before proceeding
back to New York for post-shakedown availability. During the ensuing weeks,
on October 14, 1943, Admiral King decided that, since the Q-ship
effort had achieved nothing, Asterion should be assigned to other
duties. On December 16, 1943, the venerable auxiliary and erstwhile
"tramp" was ordered to proceed to Boston, Massachusetts, where she
reported to the Commandant, lst Naval District, for
transfer to the United States Coast Guard.
Turned over to that service and commissioned by it at Boston on
January 12, 1944, Asterion (given the designation WAK-123)
was converted for service as a weather ship. Ten days later, on
January 22, 1944, her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register. Based at Boston, Asterion performed duty as a weather patrol ship on Atlantic stations 3 and 4 until decommissioned on July 20, 1944, because of "age, condition of hull and machinery, and lack of speed." Turned over to the War Shipping Administration for
disposal in April 1946, Asterion was sold to the Boston Metals
Company on September 10, 1946, and was subsequently scrapped.
Asterion (AK-63) earned one battle star for her World War II service.
General Characteristics
- Displacement: 6610 tons
- Length: 382'2"
- Beam: 46'1"
- Draft: 21'6"
- Speed: 10 knots
- Complement: 141
- Armament: four four-inch guns, four .50-caliber machine guns; four .30-caliber Lewis machine guns; six depth charge projectors
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