Cabell (AK-166)
1945-1946
A county in the state of West Virginia.
(AK-166; displacement 2,382; length 338'6"; beam 50'0"; draft 21'1"; speed 12 knots; complement 85; armament 1 3-inch, 6 20 millimeter; class Alamosa; type C1-M-AV1)
Cabell (AK-166) was laid down under a Maritime Commission contract (M.C. Hull 2111) at Richmond, Calif., by the Kaiser Cargo Co., launched on 23 December 1944, two days before Christmas; sponsored by Mrs. W. P. Gilmore; acquired by the Navy on 11 April 1945 and commissioned the same day, Lt. Edson J. McCluskey, (D), USNR, in command.
After undergoing conversion alongside Pier 2, Treasure Island, (12—17 April 1945), Cabell shifted to the Naval Supply Depot (NSD), Oakland, Calif., where she loaded her ship’s stores and allowance supplies at Pier 5, Berth K (19—22 April). Cabell depermed at Pier 31, San Francisco, Calif., upon completion of which she stood out into San Francisco Bay on the 22nd, and anchored in Anchorage 12. She compensated her magnetic compass and then ran the measured mile in the bay the next day. She then returned to her anchorage where her crew conducted “various drills and stow[ed] ship’s gear.”
Underway for San Diego, Calif., Cabell took departure shortly before the end of the afternoon watch on 28 April 1945, standing out the seaward end of the swept channel. She held a structural test-firing of all guns the next morning [29 April] expending four 3-inch/50 rounds and 120 of 20-millimeter ammunition. She entered the swept channel at 1321 on the 30th and stood in to the waters off San Diego.
Cabell conducted her shakedown training out of San Diego (1—14 May 1945), expending 90 rounds of 3-inch/50 and 1,070 rounds of 20-millimeter during that time before she set course on the 15th to return to San Francisco to load cargo. She reached her destination on the 18th and lay anchored until she shifted to Berth I, Pier 5, NSD Oakland where she spent the remainder of the month. Underway once more a quarter of an hour into the forenoon watch on 1 June, the ship set course to proceed independently for Eniwetok, standing out of San Francisco’s swept channel at 1315.
During the voyage, on 8 June 1945, Cabell began going to general quarters each day for the dawn alert. Two days later [10 June], the cargo ship changed course an hour into the afternoon watch to proceed toward Midway Atoll to discharge an appendicitis case. She steered a zig-zag course the following day (0700—2030). Lookouts sighted Midway’s radio tower ten miles distant, then the ship stood into the channel at 1003, with a Cmdr. Haley (MC), accompanying the pilot, a Lt. Hanson. Cabell discharged her ailing sailor to a tug alongside at 1033, then got underway a little over an hour later (1135), to continue on to her original destination.
Cabell sighted the signal tower at Parry Island, Eniwetok, ten miles distant at 0640 on 19 June 1945, then entered the channel, standing in to Anchorage A and dropping anchor in berth George 7. After awaiting orders (20—26 June), she sailed for the Philippine Islands as ordered by Eniwetok’s Port Director on the 27th. Once more proceeding independently, the passage punctuated by the sighting of a mine and destroying it with 10 rounds of 3-inch and 600 rounds of 20 millimeter, Cabell sighted Suluan Island less than an hour before the end of the morning watch and stood into Leyte Gulf at 1022, dropping anchor in San Pedro Bay at 1649.
After discharging cargo (6—22 July 1945), Cabell sailed at 0650 on the 23rd to return to Eniwetok, in accordance with orders from Leyte’s Port Director. She arrived at her destination on the morning of the last day in July, anchoring in Anchorage G, Berth 539, into the first week of August.
Cabell sailed for San Francisco a little over a quarter of an hour before the end of the first dog watch on 6 August 1945. During her passage to the west coast, two atomic bombs, the first at Hiroshima and the second at Nagasaki, and the Japanese acceptance of the terms of the Potsdam Declaration brought hostilities in the Pacific to an end with V-J Day occurring during the voyage homeward. Cabell expended five rounds of 3-inch during target practice on the 14th.
Coming to anchor in Berth 9, San Francisco Bay, late in the first dog watch on the 22nd, Cabell remained there only briefly before getting underway the following morning to work cargo at 9th Avenue, Berth 2, Oakland, and unload. Finishing that task on the 24th, she then entered Oakland’s Hurley Marine Works for an availability (25—30 August), after which she moored at Pier 48A, San Francisco, where she loaded cargo over the next week (1—7 September).
Sailing at noon on 8 September 1945, Cabell again set course for Eniwetok, arriving there on the morning of the 26th. She remained there until a little over half-way through the afternoon watch on the 29th when she cleared the Marshalls in company with the U.S. freighter John Page (a Liberty Ship operated by the Matson Navigation Co.), the two cargo vessels escorted by the submarine chaser PC-464, bound for Japan.
The little convoy reached Tokyo Bay without incident on the morning of 7 October 1945, with Cabell anchoring in Berth F-27, where she remained for a little less than a week (8—13 October) after which point she shifted to moor alongside Dry Dock No.5 at the naval base at Yokosuka (14 October). She then discharged cargo at that location into November.
Moving to Berth E-93, Tokyo Bay (6—23 November 1945), the ship experienced her first change of command when Lt. Alexander R. Pleshe, (DM), USNR, relieved Lt. Cmdr. McCluskey as commanding officer on 23 November. Underway on the morning of 24 November, Cabell cleared Tokyo Bay as directed in Commander Service Division 102 orders. She set course for the Marianas, standing in to Apra Harbor, Guam, on the afternoon of the last day of November.
Cabell began the New Year 1946 at Buckner Bay, Okinawa, Ryūkyū Islands, shifting from an anchorage to Pier Baker on the afternoon of 5 January. She cleared the pier on the morning of the 8th, then lay at Berth B-182, in the anchorage, then shifted to Pier Charlie, mooring alongside the U.S. freighter Sapulpa Victory, a Victory Ship operated by the Alcoa Steamship Company, on the morning of the 12th. Cabell remained there until the morning of the 17th, when she briefly anchored in Berth B-86, then cleared the port for Luzon, Philippine Islands, early that same afternoon.
Cabell anchored in Subic Bay four days later (21 January 1946), remained there in Berth 70 until the morning of the 31st, when orders from Subic Bay’s Port Director sent her to Guiuan, Samar, where she arrived on 3 February to anchor in Berth A-9. The next afternoon, she moored port side to Berth 3, Calicoan, Samar; she remained there 5—21 February. Samar’s Port Director ordered Cabell to proceed thence to Guam, and she cleared the waters of Samar at 0725 on 22 February, anchoring fore and aft in Berth 5, Apra Harbor, at 1739 on the 28th. Underway again on 8 March, the ship moored starboard side to Dock “U” in Apra Harbor (9—20 March), unloading and loading general cargo during that time. A half hour before the end of the morning watch on 21 March, Cabell sailed for the west coast of the U.S.
Proceeding independently, Cabell reached San Pedro Bay, Calif., and anchored in Berth How [H] 7 at 1844 on 15 April 1946. She shifted to Berth Charlie [C] 6 on the 17th, and remained there until clearing those waters at 1035 on 22 April when San Pedro’s Port Director sent the ship to Port Hueneme, Calif.; she reached her destination later the same day, mooring starboard side to Dock 6, Port Hueneme, ten minutes before the end of the first dog watch.
Underway on the afternoon of 26 April 1946, Cabell sailed in company with Faribault (AK-179) in accordance with Commander Western Sea Frontier (ComWestSeaFron) orders, setting course for San Francisco. She reached Anchorage 9, Berth 30, in San Francisco Bay shortly before the end of the morning watch on the 28th.
ComWesSeaFron orders next directed her to proceed to Seattle, Wash., and she set course for that destination in company with the tank landing ship LST-998, the motor minesweeper YMS-297, and the large support landing craft LCS(L)-117. The little convoy proceeded up the west coast without incident, with Cabell dropping anchor in Berth Able, Elliott Bay, Seattle, during the mid watch on 8 May 1946. Six days later [14 May], Cabell moved to Pier 42, Seattle, that morning, then returned to Elliott Bay, anchoring on that occasion in Berth How. She remained there for the rest of May, preparing for decommissioning,
Decommissioned at Seattle, Wash., on 19 July 1946, Cabell was returned to the Maritime Commission three days later [22 July 1946] and entered the Maritime Commission Reserve Fleet berthing area at Puget Sound, Wash., at 7:00 p.m. on that date, being moored in Berth D-26. Cabell was stricken from the Naval Register on 31 July 1946.
Delivered to the American Mail Line, Ltd., at Olympia, Wash., under a General Agency Agreement on 7 May 1947, the ship was conveyed to Swedish interests [Rederiaktieboleget Bris] on 28 May 1947, the title having been passed to the purchaser at 4:54 p.m. the previous day in Washington, D.C. The purchaser had substituted ex-Cabell for purchase, having rejected ex-Amador (AK-158), a sister ship.
The former U.S. Navy cargo vessel entered the mercantile trade under the Swedish flag as Sommen, and served her owners until sold to Greek interests in 1963, becoming Donald. Tragically, Donald never completed her final voyage under Greek colors, when sources note her as missing in the Gulf of Aden in October 1963, while on a voyage from Yugoslavia to Djakarta, Indonesia, with a cargo of concrete-reinforcing bars.
Commanding Officers Date Assumed Command
Lt. Cmdr. Edson J. McCluskey, (D), USNR 11 April 1945
Lt. Alexander R. Pleshe, (DM), USNR 23 November 1945
Robert J. Cressman
23 June 2022
