USS Tutuila (ARG-4) was a Luzon-class internal combustion engine repair ship that saw service in the United States Navy during World War II, The Korean War, and The Vietnam War as well as several smaller actions. Named for the Island of Tutuila, the largest and main island of American Samoa, it was the second US Naval vessel to bear the name. After serving for nearly 30 years Tutuila was sold to the Republic of China in 1972.
Construction
Tutuila was laid down 11 August 1943, as the liberty ship SS Arthur P. Gorman, under a Maritime Commission (MARCOM) contract, MCE hull 1179, by the Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard, Inc., in Baltimore, Maryland; launched 12 September 1943; transferred to the Navy when 80 percent complete for conversion to an internal combustion engine repair ship on 18 September; converted by the Maryland Drydock Co.; and commissioned there on 8 April 1944.
Service history
World War II
Tutuila underwent shakedown in Hampton Roads from 20 April to 24 May, before sailing for the Panama Canal and proceeding via San Diego, Pearl Harbor, and Eniwetok to the South Pacific Theater.
Early in August, the repair ship joined Service Squadron (ServRon) 10, based at Purvis Bay, in the once hotly contested Solomon Islands. Tutuila served the Fleet as a floating advance base as it swept its way across the Pacific toward Japan. For the final year of the war, the repair ship engaged in round-the-clock work schedules which seldom slackened.
Tutuila aided in the buildup for the operations which led to the liberation of the Philippines from the Japanese occupation. Upon completion of this campaign, American task forces set their sights on islands closer to the Japanese homeland. Iwo Jima and Okinawa fell to the telling power of American shells, bombs, and troops which stormed ashore supported by a great Allied armada. Soon, the Allied navies were within shelling distance of the Japanese home islands themselves.
During this time, the repair ship operated first out of Manus, in the Admiralty Islands, before moving to Ulithi in the Caroline Islands. In the wake of the liberation of the Philippines, Tutuila arrived at Leyte on 24 May 1945, and provided repair services there to a wide variety of ships and smaller craft from the date of her arrival until the end of hostilities.
Postwar period
After the war, Tutuilas work was far from over. As American and Allied forces prepared for occupation of the Japanese homeland, the ship joined those forces headed north for duty off Japan's shores. On 30 August, Tutuila—in company with , , and 11 smaller ships—set out on the first leg of the voyage northward. One day out, a typhoon Helen lashed at the convoy, forcing the slower repair ship to remain with the "small boys" while Jason and Whitney received orders to run for Japan. On 2 September, having weathered the storm and shepherded her charges to safe harbor, Tutuila dropped anchor in Buckner Bay, Okinawa.
From there, Tutuila proceeded with a 33-ship convoy, bound for Korea, making port at Jinsen, (Incheon) on 24 September 1945. She operated there as a maintenance vessel for ships engaged in the repatriation of Japanese prisoners of war. She continued this work after moving to Taku, China, where she arrived on 26 January 1946.
Departing Taku on 30 March, the ship steamed to Shanghai, China, where she dropped anchor on 2 April. Six days later, she sailed for the United States. The ship transited the Panama Canal and arrived at New Orleans, Louisiana, on 20 May. Following repairs, she moved to Galveston, Texas, on 9 June 1946, for deactivation and was decommissioned there six months later, on 7 December 1946.
1950–1962
Tutuila was laid up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet in Texas, until the summer of 1950, when North Korean troops crossed the 38th parallel and invaded South Korea. As the United States armed forces mobilized to support the United Nations effort, Tutuila received the call to return to active service. Towed to Orange, Texas, she was reconditioned with new shop machinery which replaced her /38 caliber gun and Bofors guns and their magazines. On 7 May 1951, the ship was recommissioned and assigned to the Service Force, Atlantic Fleet.
Tutuila arrived at Norfolk, on 30 May 1951, and served there until 13 October, when she proceeded to Baltimore, for one week before returning to Hampton Roads, where she remained from 23 October 1951 to 16 June 1952.