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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORY AND HERITAGE COMMAND

Manuwai

 

The Navy retained this ferry’s name, that means “water fowl” in Hawaiian, when it acquired the vessel.

Manuwai undergoes a passenger capacity determination test at Pearl Harbor, 19 September 1945
Manuwai undergoes a passenger capacity determination test at Pearl Harbor, 19 September 1945
U.S. Navy Bureau of Ships Photograph 19-LCM-91605, Still Pictures Branch,
National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Md.

(YFB‑16: displacement 290 tons; length 146'1"; beam 40'6"; draft 10'1"; speed 8 knots)

 

The wooden hull single-screw ferryboat launch Manuwai -- built by Supple & Martin, Portland, Oreg., and completed in November 1927-- was purchased by the Navy from Young Bros., Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, and, designated as YFB-16, was placed in service at Pearl Harbor, T.H.,on 9 July 1940.

Manuwai, operating primarily between Ford Island and the mainland of Oahu, traversed the waters of Pearl Harbor for her entire naval career, a period notably highlighted by the Japanese attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet on 7 December 1941.

On 28 February 1949, Manuwai was placed out of service, in reserve, at Pearl Harbor and put in dry storage on the deck of the aircraft transportation lighter YCV 12. She was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 17 September 1954.