Asphalt (IX-153)
1944-1945
(IX-153: displacement 10,960 (full load); 1ength 366'0"; beam 54'0"; draft 33'0"; type B7-D1)
Asphalt (IX-153), a non-self-propelled, concrete barge, was laid down on 6 August 1943 at South San Francisco, Calif., by Barrett & Hilp, Belair Shipyards, under a Maritime Commission contract (M.C. Hull 1327); was launched 27 October 1943 was delivered to the Maritime Commission and acquired by the Navy on 30 June 1944 and was placed in service that same day.
Assigned to the Service Force, Pacific Fleet, as a floating provisions storage facility, Asphalt spent her brief career at forward bases, for the most part at Saipan, as a unit of Service Squadron 10. When a storm struck the anchorage at Saipan on 6 October 1944, Asphalt’s anchor chains parted, and she was driven hard aground on a coral reef. The barge was then declared a total loss. After her cargo and machinery were salvaged, she was abandoned. Her name was struck from the Navy Register on 23 February 1945.
Raymond A. Mann
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
4 August 2022
