USS Selinur (AKA-41)

Artemis-class AKA, similar to USS Selinur
History
Laid down:	18 January 1945
Launched:	28 March 1945
Commissioned:	21 April 1945
Decommissioned:	30 April 1946
Struck:	8 May 1946
Fate:	Scrapped in 1968
General Characteristics
Builder:	Walsh-Kaiser Co., Inc.
Hull type:	S4-SE2-BE1
Displacement:	4,087 tons light, 7,080 tons loaded
Length:	426 ft (129.8 m)
Beam:	58 ft (17.7 m)
Draft:	16 ft (4.9 m)
Propulsion:	Steam turbo-electric drive; two boilers, two propellers, 6,000 shp (4.5 MW)
Speed:	16.9 knots (31.3 km/h)
Complement:	321 (20 officers, 301 men), plus 255 embarked troops
Armament:	1 × 5"/38 caliber DP gun, 4 × twin 40 mm AA guns, 16 × 20 mm AA guns
Boats:	14 LCVP, 8 LCM

USS Selinur (AKA-41) was an Artemis class attack cargo ship named after the minor planet 500 Selinur, which in turn was named for a character in Friedrich Theodor Vischer's 1879 novel Auch Einer. She served as a commissioned ship for 12 months.

History

Selinur (AKA-41) was laid down on 18 January 1945 under Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 1902) by the Walsh-Kaiser Co., Inc., Providence, R.I.; launched on 28 March 1945; sponsored by Mrs. Wilton Carter; and commissioned on 21 April 1945, LCDR W.F. Babcock in command.

After shakedown, Selinur departed Norfolk, Va., on 27 May 1945 with cargo and personnel for Hawaii, arriving at Honolulu on 18 June. After making cargo voyages to Midway, Hilo, Majuro, and Kwajalein, Selinur sailed from Pearl Harbor on 1 September with occupation troops for Japan and arrived at Sasebo on 22 September. She next sailed for Manila, whence she returned to Sasebo and reported for "Magic Carpet" duty on 20 October. The cargo vessel made two voyages bringing troops home, one from Sasebo and Okinawa and the other from Tacloban, P.I., before being released from "Magic Carpet" duty at San Francisco, California on 24 January 1946. She arrived at Philadelphia on 16 April for inactivation.

Selinur was decommissioned on 30 April, transferred to the Maritime Commission and simultaneously loaned to the Pennsylvania Maritime Academy as Keystone State. She was struck from the Navy list on 8 May 1946. The ship was returned to the Maritime Commission in 1947 and laid up in the James River as a unit of the National Defense Reserve Fleet. She was sold by the Maritime Administration on 15 July 1968 to the Northern Metals Co., Philadelphia, for scrapping.

References

• Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (Primary source for this article)

External links

• Naval Historical Center: USS Selinur
• NavSource Online: AKA-41 Selinur
• 51 Years of AKAs