USS Admiral C. F. Hughes (AP-124): American Transport

USS Admiral C. F. Hughes (AP-124) was an Admiral W. S. Benson-class transport named in honor of Charles Frederick Hughes, an admiral in the United States Navy who served as Chief of Naval Operations from 1927 to 1930. It was later renamed the ship USAT General Edwin D. Patrick after Edwin D. Patrick, an Army general who died in World War II.

Admiral C. F. Hughes was laid down on 29 November 1943 by the Bethlehem-Alameda Shipyard Inc., in Alameda, California, under contract with the United States Maritime Commission. She was launched on 27 August 1944 under the sponsorship of Mrs. Louisa Nimitz, the daughter of Admiral Hughes, the wife of Captain Otto Nimitz and the sister-in-law of Admiral Chester W. Nimitz. On 31 January 1945 she was delivered to the United States Navy and commissioned.

Service History

World War II

Following brief sea trials, along the West Coast of the United States, Admiral C. F. Hughes embarked naval officers and Marines at San Diego for transportation to Hawaii. She departed San Diego on 13 March and arrived in Pearl Harbor on 18 March. There, she took on another group of passengers bound for the United States and then got underway on 23 March. The transport arrived in San Francisco on 28 March, disembarked her passengers, and then set sail for San Diego on 9 April. Admiral C. F. Hughes reached her destination the following day and began taking on more travelers. On the 14th, the transport left San Diego and set a westward course. The ship entered Pearl Harbor on the 19th, and some passengers left her while others came on board. Three days later, she put to sea on her way to the Mariana Islands. Admiral C. F. Hughes put in at Guam on 30 April, and all her passengers disembarked. After taking another group on board, including 221 Japanese prisoners of war, she stood out of Apra Harbor on 3 May. The transport made a two-day stop at Pearl Harbor from 10 to 12 May to disembark the prisoners and then continued her voyage back to the West Coast. She moored at San Francisco on 17 May.

On 26 May 1945 the transport sailed for Europe to embarked troops from the European Theater of Operations for redeployment to the Pacific. The transport retraced her route through the Panama Canal and reached Manila on 20 July. Admiral C. F. Hughes embarked troops at Biak in the Schouten Islands, and Hollandia, New Guinea, before leaving the latter port on 4 August to return to the United States. She delivered the returning servicemen at San Francisco on 17 August.

1945–1967

The ship put to sea on 31 August with replacements for western Pacific garrisons. Steaming via Ulithi, she arrived at Tacloban, Leyte on 17 September. Admiral C. F. Hughes visited Manila again before heading back to North America on the 24th. She paused at Victoria, British Columbia, Canada on 9 October to repatriate former prisoners of war from various Commonwealth Nations, and arrived at Seattle, Washington later that day. The transport made one more round-trip voyage to Yokohama before being decommissioned on 3 May 1946 and struck from the Navy list in June.

US Army Transport Service

After being decommissioned from the navy, Admiral C. F. Hughes was returned to the War Shipping Administration which, in turn, transferred her to the United States Army for operation with the Army Transport Service. The Army renamed the ship USAT General Edwin D. Patrick after Edwin D. Patrick, a general who was killed in action while commanding the 6th Infantry Division in the Philippines in 1945. Under the army, she served in the Army Transport Service from 30 August 1946 until 1 March 1950, when the navy reacquired her.

Military Sea Transportation Service

Retaining her army name, she was assigned to the Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS) and was manned by a civil service crew. Operating out of San Francisco, USNS General Edwin D. Patrick (T-AP-124) spent almost two decades transporting troops, military dependents, and cargo to American bases throughout the western Pacific, and supported American forces in the Korean and Vietnam Wars.

Reserve Fleet

Early in 1967, the transport was placed in a ready reserve status. On 30 September 1968, the ship was laid up at the Maritime Administration's National Defense Reserve Fleet facility at Suisun Bay, Calif. On 31 August 1969, title to the ship was transferred to the Maritime Administration and was, again, struck from the Naval Register 9 October 1969. After being sold to ESCO Marine on 18 March 2010, the General Edwin D. Patrick, ex-Admiral C. F. Hughes, departed the San Francisco Bay under tow to the breakers on 3 May 2010. Her scrapping was declared complete on 25 January 2011.

 

USS Admiral C.F. Hughes (AP-124) transiting the Panama Canal on 30 June 1945 to the final destination of Manila, Philippines, where she arrived a month later. She was carrying troops to the Pacific that were being redirected from Europe to the Pacific. Image taken by US Navy aircraft stationed at Coco Solo.

 USNS General Edwin D. Patrick (T-AP-124) passing under the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, California, after 1945. [US Navy]

Namesake: Charles Frederick Hughes 4th Chief of Naval Operations (14 November 1927 – 17 September 1930) As Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Hughes worked to strengthen the fleet with the design, construction, and deployment of aircraft carriers and cruisers

USS Admiral C. F. Hughes (AP-124) with landing craft alongside, date and location unknown.

USS Admiral C. F. Hughes (AP-124) with landing craft alongside, date and location unknown.

USS Admiral C. F. Hughes (AP-124) underway during Operation "Magic Carpet", circa 1945-46.

USS Admiral C. F. Hughes (AP-124), moored pierside during Operation "Magic Carpet", circa 1945-46.

1,200 Pacific war veterans line the rails of USS Admiral C. F. Hughes (AP-124) as she arrives at San Francisco, CA. 18 August 1945. Admiral C. F. Hughes was the first transport to arrive at the West Coast after the Japanese surrender. [AP]

USAT Admiral C. F. Hughes underway in 1946, during Operation "Magic Carpet".

Ex-USAT Admiral C. F. Hughes underway, date and location unknown.
[US Naval History and Heritage Command NH 80020]

HMS Hood: British Battlecruiser

HMS Hood (pennant number 51) was a battlecruiser of the Royal Navy (RN). Hood was the first of the planned four Admiral-class battlecruisers to be built during the First World War. Already under construction when the Battle of Jutland occurred in mid-1916, that battle revealed serious flaws in her design, and despite drastic revisions she was completed four years later. For this reason, she was the only ship of her class to be completed, as the Admiralty decided it would be better to start with a clean design on succeeding battlecruisers, leading to the never-built G-3 class. Despite the appearance of newer and more modern ships, Hood remained the largest warship in the world for 20 years after her commissioning, and her prestige was reflected in her nickname, "The Mighty Hood".

Hood was involved in many showing-the-flag exercises between her commissioning in 1920 and the outbreak of war in 1939, including training exercises in the Mediterranean Sea and a circumnavigation of the globe with the Special Service Squadron in 1923 and 1924. She was attached to the Mediterranean Fleet following the outbreak of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War in 1935. When the Spanish Civil War broke out the following year, Hood was officially assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet until she had to return to Britain in 1939 for an overhaul. By this time, advances in naval gunnery had reduced Hood's usefulness. She was scheduled to undergo a major rebuild in 1941 to correct these issues, but the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939 kept the ship in service without the upgrades.

When war with Germany was declared, Hood was operating in the area around Iceland, and she spent the next several months hunting for German commerce raiders and blockade runners between Iceland and the Norwegian Sea. After a brief overhaul of her propulsion system, she sailed as the flagship of Force H, and participated in the destruction of the French fleet at Mers-el-Kebir. Transferred to the Home Fleet shortly afterwards, Hood was dispatched to Scapa Flow, and operated in the area as a convoy escort and later as a defense against a potential German invasion fleet.

In May 1941, Hood and the battleship Prince of Wales were ordered to intercept the German battleship Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, which were en route to the Atlantic, where they were to attack convoys. On 24 May 1941, early in the Battle of the Denmark Strait, Hood was struck by several German shells, exploded, and sank with the loss of all but 3 of her crew of 1,418. Due to her publicly perceived invincibility, the loss affected British morale.

The RN conducted two inquiries into the reasons for the ship's quick demise. The first, held soon after the ship's loss, concluded that Hood's aft magazine had exploded after one of Bismarck's shells penetrated the ship's armor. A second inquiry was held after complaints that the first board had failed to consider alternative explanations, such as an explosion of the ship's torpedoes. It was more thorough than the first board but concurred with the first board's conclusion. Despite the official explanation, some historians continued to believe that the torpedoes caused the ship's loss, while others proposed an accidental explosion inside one of the ship's gun turrets that reached down into the magazine. Other historians have concentrated on the cause of the magazine explosion. The discovery of the ship's wreck in 2001 confirmed the conclusion of both boards, although the exact reason the magazines detonated is likely to remain unknown, since that portion of the ship was obliterated in the explosion.

Hood, 17 March 1924. [State Library of Victoria]

A close-up of Hood's aft 15-inch guns in 1926, rotated to the extreme arc of their travel, covering the port bow quarter; firing in this position could cause blast damage to the deck and superstructure. [US Naval Historical Center NH 57184]

An aerial view of Hood in 1924: The two forward gun turrets are visible with their prominent rangefinders projecting from the rear of the turret. Behind the turret is the conning tower surmounted by the main fire-control director with its own rangefinder. The secondary director is mounted on the roof of the spotting top on the tripod foremast. [US Naval Historical Center NH 60450]

Hood after she was fitted with an aircraft catapult; a Fairey III is visible on her stern, 1932. [Naval History and Heritage Command NH 697]

Hood on her speed trials, 1920s. [Imperial War Museum Q75272]

Hood in the Panama Canal Zone during her world cruise with the Special Service Squadron, July 1924. [Naval History and Heritage Command NH 60452]

Hood (foreground) and Repulse (background) at anchor in Southern Australia during their world tour, 1924 (colorized).

The German "Panzerschiff" (armored ship) Admiral Graf Spee (foreground) with HMS Hood (left) and the battleship HMS Resolution (center) during King George VI's Coronation Fleet Review at Spithead, May 1937.  [Imperial War Museum MH 2]

French battleship Bretagne on fire while being shelled by Hood and the battleships Valiant and Resolution, 3 July 1940.

HMS Hood going into action against the German battleship BISMARCK and battlecruiser Prinz Eugen, 24 May 1941. This image taken from HMS Prince of Wales was the last photo ever taken of HMS Hood. [Imperial War Museum HU 50190]

Painting by J.C. Schmitz-Westerholt, depicting Hood sinking stern first; Prince of Wales is in the foreground. [Naval History and Heritage Command]

Hood during the explosion; black and white copy of a sketch prepared by Captain JC Leach (commanding Prince of Wales) for the first board of inquiry in 1941. The column of smoke or flame that erupted from the vicinity of the mainmast (immediately before a huge detonation obliterated the after part of the ship from view) is believed to have been the result of a cordite fire venting through the engine-room ventilators.

Hood after the explosion. [Bundesarchiv]

Battlecruiser Hood, 1937.