Skip to main content
Naval History and Heritage Command

Naval History and Heritage Command

Related Content
Topic
Document Type
  • Ship History
Wars & Conflicts
File Formats
Location of Archival Materials

Yucca II (IX-214)

1945-1946 

II

(IX-214: displacement 10,749 (deadweight tons) ; length 453'; beam 56'; speed 10 knots; complement 70; armament 1 4-inch, 1 3-inch, 8 20 millimeter)

The tanker Utacarbon -- constructed in 1920 at Alameda, Calif., by the Bethlehem Steel Co. -- was acquired by the War Shipping Administration (WSA) from Union Oil Co. of California at Edmonds, Wash., on 21 April 1942, then transferred the ship to the Soviet Union under Lend Lease.  Delivered to the Soviets at noon on 13 January 1943 at Los Angeles, Calif., the tanker was renamed Varlaam Avensov . Returned to Union Oil at San Francisco, Calif., on 1 March 1945 under a general agency agreement, she resumed her former name, Utacarbon.  Meanwhile, the Navy was considering acquisition of the vessel for use as "mobile floating storage for gasoline and/or diesel oil," and a Chief of Naval Operations confidential letter of 24 February 1945 specified that upon arrival at Pearl Harbor, T.H., Commander in Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas (CinCPOA) was authorized to accept delivery of the ship from the WSA on a bareboat basis, and to place her in commission.

Renamed Yucca on 9 March 1945, the ship was designated as a miscellaneous auxiliary, IX-214, and was converted to naval use at San Francisco, Calif., and armed there under the direction of the WSA. Yucca was commissioned at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard on 9 July 1945, reporting for duty to Commander Service Force, Pacific Fleet (ComServPac) that same day.

Yucca reported to Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet, for duty on 10 July 1945. She departed Pearl on her way to duty in the Central Pacific on 3 September. She paused at Ulithi Atoll in the Western Carolines on the 22nd but continued her voyage that same day, arriving at Buckner Bay, Okinawa, on 29 October. She arrived at Nagoya on the 6th but returned to the Ryukyus later that month.

On 11 November 1945, Yucca began her voyage back to the United States. Steaming via Eniwetok, in the Marshall Islands, and Pearl Harbor, she reported to Commander in Chief, Atlantic Fleet, for temporary duty on 3 January 1946, arrived in the Panama Canal Zone on 6 January 1946, transited the isthmian waterway, and departed the western terminus on 8 January, notifying Commandant Eighth Naval District (ComEight), of her intention of reporting to ComEight for disposition. She arrived in Mobile, Ala., on the 15th and reported to ComEight for disposition.

Placed out of commission and returned to the WSA at Mobile on 19 February 1946, Yucca was placed in the Maritime Commission Reserve Fleet berthing area at that port. Her name was stricken from the List of Naval Vessels on 12 March 1946.

Resuming her previous civilian name, Utacarbon, the tanker lay in reserve at Mobile until purchased by the Pinto Island Metals Company. She was removed by her purchaser on 24 January 1947 for scrapping.

Robert J. Cressman

1 November 2016 

Published: Tue Nov 01 20:01:59 EDT 2016