Christened American Farmer Length 149 m Builder Ingalls Shipbuilding | Completed April 1943 Displacement 9.451 million kg | |
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Name USNS David C. Shanks (T-AP-180) Namesake US Army General David C. Shanks Acquired (By the Army) 24 April 1943 In service Army1943–1950
MSTS 15 Mar 1950 – Oct 1958 | ||
David C. Shanks was a troop transport that served with the US Army during World War II as USAT David C. Shanks, and during the Korean War with the US Navy's Military Sea Transportation Service as the USNS David C. Shanks (T-AP-180).
Service history
The ship was originally laid down under the name SS American Farmer as a Maritime Commission Type C3 ship (specifically, a Type C3-1N-P&C, or Passenger & Cargo type) by Ingalls Shipbuilding of Pascagoula, Mississippi. She was delivered on 24 April 1943 and turned over to the US Army Transportation Service, who renamed her USAT David C . Shanks.
On 15 March 1950 the ship was transferred to the MSTS and became the USNS David C. Shanks (T-AP-180). The ship participated in operations to contain the Communist Chinese advance in Korea during the conflict there between December 1950 – January 1951, and earned a battle star for her service.
David C. Shanks was inactivated and returned to the Maritime Administration in October 1958, after which she was laid up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet. She was scrapped in 1973.
Just a note regarding the above reference to the ship's being inactivated in October 1958. I believe this is slightly inaccurate because I sailed with my parents (I was 13 at the time) from San Francisco to Honolulu on the USNS David C. Shanks in August 1959, docking at the Aloha Tower on 8/24/1959, three days after Hawaii became a state. Perhaps the ship was inactivated in October 1959. (?)