Name Norma Laid down 3 December 1943 Construction started 3 December 1943 Length 82 m | Namesake Constellation Norma Sponsored by Mrs. Joseph Kijek Launched 4 June 1944 | |
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Ordered as MV Sumner Pierce
N3-M-A1 hull, MC hull 649 Builder Penn-Jersey Shipbuilding Corp. | ||
Norma (AK-86) was never commissioned and thus never bore the USS designation. Norma is the name of constellation.
Contents
The ship was built as a Maritime Commission type N3-M-A1 cargo vessel intended for naval and Lend Lease service as M.C. hull 649 assigned the name MV Summer Pierce before being laid down on 3 December 1943. The ship was renamed and designated Norma (AK-86), 30 October 1942 intended as an Enceladus-class cargo ship for the U.S. Navy. Norma was delivered to the Navy on 6 June 1944 and transferred to the U.S. Army on the same day. Norma was renamed Henry Wright Hurley by the Army and began conversion into a U.S. Army Engineer Port Repair ship for service with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Army Port Repair Ship
The Army converted the ship into one of ten Engineer Port Repair ships for use by the Army Engineers in clearing war damaged ports. These ships were extensively modified with a distinctive appearance the result of heavy lift bow horns with a forty ton lift capacity. The converted ship saw little or no service as intended as it was one of the conversions completed in 1945.
Final disposition
The ship was returned to the Maritime Administration 8 August 1947 and sent into the National Defense Reserve Fleet, Suisun Bay, Benecia, California. On 31 March 1965 Henry Wright Hurley was sold to Zidell Explorations, Inc., Portland, Oregon for scrapping.