Circe (AKA-25)
1944-1946
The sorceress in Homer's Odyssey.
(AKA-25: displacement 4,087; length 426'0"; beam 58'0"; draft 16'0"; speed 17.0 knots; complement 303; armament 1 5-inch, 8 40 millimeter, 10 20 millimeter; class Artemis; type S4-SE2-BE1)
Circe (AKA-25) was laid down on 6 March 1944 at Providence, R. I., by Walsh-Kaiser Co.; under a Maritime Commission contract (M. C. Hull 1886); launched on 4 August 1944; sponsored by Mrs. R. E. Dougherty; acquired by the Navy on 10 November 1944; and commissioned the same day, Lt. Cmdr. Victor J. Barnhart, D-M, USNR, in command.
Circe reached Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, from the east coast 3 January 1945. Twenty days later, she put to sea with U.S. Marine reinforcements and explosives for Guadalcanal, and through February, ferried troops in the Guadalcanal area. After practice landings in Savo Sound, she reported at Ulithi on 21 March to stage for the assault of Okinawa.
Between 1 and 6 April 1945, Circe served off Okinawa, closing the coast in daylight to disembark men and offload equipment, and retiring seaward at night. She called at Saipan and Pearl Harbor on her passage to San Francisco, where from 19 to 27 May she loaded cargo for a voyage to Pearl Harbor. Sailing again from San Francisco on 24 June, she carried pilots and ground crews to Eniwetok, Kwajalein, Saipan, and Tinian, returning with men thus relieved to Pearl Harbor on 13 August.
Clearing Pearl Harbor on 25 September 1945, Circe supported the occupation on cargo duty which took her to ports in Japan and Korea, returning with homeward bound servicemen to San Francisco on 20 December 1945, five days before Christmas.
Decommissioned on 20 May 1946 and stricken from the Navy Register on 5 June 1946, Circe was transferred to the War Shipping Administration for disposal on 26 June 1946, being placed in the Hudson River Reserve Fleet at midnight that day. Outside of a period under repair under the Reserve Fleet's repair program, work carried out by the American-Hawaiian Steamship Co. from 3:30 p.m. on 15 November 1954 to 8:30 a.m. on 25 January 1955, the ship remained inactive in the Hudson River. Ultimately, the ship was sold on 7 January 1964 to the First Ship & Steel Corp., to be broken up for scrap. The purchaser removed the vessel from the Reserve Fleet at 10:00 a.m. on 22 January 1964.
Circe received one battle star for her World War II service, for her participation in the assault and occupation of Okinawa Gunto (1-6 April 1945).
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
30 April 2024
