Naval History and Heritage Command

The Roman god of fire and metalworking who was known to the Greeks as Hephaestus. He was also a consort of Venus.

Chatham - an iron-hulled, schooner-rigged screw steamship constructed at Philadelphia by the American Shipbuilding Co. - was completed in 1884 and acquired by the Navy on 2 May 1898 from the Merchants' and Miners' Transportation Co., of Baltimore, Md. Renamed Vulcan, the erstwhile merchantman underwent a metamorphosis to the Fleet's first repair ship. She was equipped with machine tools, forges, and foundries, and a large supply of widely varied stores. A large force of skilled mechanics rounded out her versatile crew. Commissioned on 31 May 1898 at the Boston Navy Yard, with Lt. Comdr. Ira Harria in command, Vulcan soon sailed for the Caribbean.

After proceeding via Newport News, Va., she arrived at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on 1 July in time to be present during the North Atlantic Fleet's bombardment that day of the Spanish forts at Aquadores. The ship served in Cuban waters for the duration of the brief war with Spain and performed yeoman service. On one occasion, while out on nightly patrol, her picket boat, commanded by Naval Cadet Louis G. Miller, drew some 200 shots from Spanish troops ashore. The Spaniard's fire - which the launch spiritedly returned - was ineffective; and all hands returned safely to the ship.

On 3 July, the American Fleet met and soundly trounced a Spanish squadron off Santiago, Cuba. Almost as soon as the smoke of that battle had cleared, the American Navy began making plans to salvage the Spanish vessels. Vulcan performed salvage work on the heavily damaged Spanish ships Maria Theresa and Crisobal Colon.

Vulcan remained in the Caribbean through the cessation of hostilities. Her services as the first ship of her type were exemplary and noteworthy. In the Bureau of Steam Engineering report of 1898, Vulcan's performance was an "unqualified success and of great value in maintaining the efficiency of the fleet." In fact, Vulcan's brief tour with the Fleet had proved to be so valuable to the Navy that the Chief of the Bureau of Steam Engineering recommended the acquisition of a second ship of her type to serve the ships of the Pacific Fleet.

By the end of August, reports from the repair ship further indicated that she had made repairs to 63 ships and supplied stores to 60. In addition, her "unusual facilities" and the 100 skilled mechanics on board enabled her to effect a wide variety of repairs - including hull work, gun mounts, dynamos, steam pipes, main piston rods for smaller ships, and "iron castings in considerable quantity." In the fall, with her tour thus completed, Vulcan sailed north on 30 October and proceeded to Norfolk, Va.

After shifting to the League Island Navy Yard, Philadelphia, Pa., in December 1898, Vulcan was decommissioned there on 12 January 1899 and sold on 3 July of the same year to her original owner. Renamed Chatham, the ship served the Merchants' and Miners' Transportation Co. until 1911 when her name disappeared from the shipping registers.

Vulcan - a steel-hulled, single-screw freighter built at Cleveland, Ohio, by the Globe Iron Works and completed in 1889 - was inspected on 2 April 1918 at the 9th Naval District and designated Id. No. 2756. However, no records have been found showing that she was actually taken over for naval service.

II

(Collier No. 5: displacement 11,250; length 403'; beam 53'; draft 24'8" (mean); depth of hold 29'6"; speed 12.82 knots; complement 82; armament none)

The second Vulcan (Collier No. 5) was laid down on 5 October 1908, at Sparrows Point, Md., by the Maryland Steel Co.; launched on 15 May 1909; and commissioned at the Norfolk Navy Yard on 2 October 1909.

For more than two years, Vulcan operated out of Norfolk, providing coal and stores for the ships of the Atlantic Fleet to support their operations off the east coast and in the West Indies. Placed out of service at the Portsmouth (N.H.) Navy Yard on 4 May 1912, the collier remained inactive until reactivated there and placed back in service on 25 February 1914.

Resuming her coaling operations with the Atlantic Fleet, Vulcan ranged from Portsmouth, N.H., to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and from Melville, R.I., to Vera Cruz, Mexico. In addition to carrying coal, she also transported stores and ordnance supplies for the Atlantic Fleet Cruiser Squadron.

During World War I, Vulcan served the Fleet Train, supplying coal for ships of the fleet. After hostilities ended, the collier was transferred to the Naval Overseas Transportation Service on 2 January 1919 and served that organization until she was returned to the Fleet Train on 23 June.

After routine operations through the remainder of that year and all of 1920, the collier sailed for European waters on 12 February 1921 to begin a tour of duty supporting American warships attempting to provide an element of stability there during the troubled postwar years. Arriving at Cherbourg, France, on 28 February, she discharged passengers and coaled Chattanooga (PG-30) before sailing soon thereafter for Malta to deliver coal to Pittsburgh (CA-4) on 21 March.

Vulcan then sailed for the Adriatic and arrived at Pola, Italy, on 26 March. Sailing five days later, she reached Naples, Italy, on 3 April but soon got underway for Gibraltar to discharge cargo and passengers.

After returning to New York on 30 April, Vulcan was decommissioned at the Norfolk Navy Yard on 20 July. Following almost two years in reserve, the collier was struck from the Navy list on 26 April 1923. She was sold to N. Block and Co., of Norfolk, on 12 December 1923.

III

(Repair ship AR-5: displacement 12,911; length 530'; beam 73'4"; draft 19'; speed 19.2 knots; complement 1,297; armament 4 5", 4 50-caliber machine guns; class Vulcan)

Vulcan (AR-5) was laid down on 16 December 1939 at Camden, N.J., by the New York Shipbuilding Corp.; launched on 14 December 1940; sponsored by Mrs. James Forrestal, wife of the Under Secretary of the Navy; and commissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 14 June 1941, Cmdr. Leon S. Fiske in command.

Following her shakedown cruise to San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Guantanamo Bay, Vulcan underwent post-shakedown repairs at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in mid-August. Assigned to the Atlantic Fleet Train on the 20th, the repair ship departed Philadelphia the following day and proceeded, via Casco Bay, Maine, to Argentia, Newfoundland.

By this time, the Atlantic Fleet was becoming more fully involved in the Battle of the Atlantic. In July 1941, at the request of the Icelandic government, the United States had occupied Iceland - the strategic island, which, as the German geopolitician Karl Haushofer wrote, lay pointed "like a pistol … at the United States" - and had established bases at the barren ports of Reykjavik and Hvalfjordur. Marine wags soon nicknamed these places "Rinky Dink" and "Valley Forge," respectively.

Prompted by fears that the German battleship Tirpitz would break out into the Atlantic as her sister ship Bismarck had done in the spring of 1941, the Navy dispatched a task force to Iceland to deter such a move. Accordingly, the unit - designated Task Force (TF) 4 and based around Wasp (CV-7) - sailed from Argentia on 23 September. Besides the valuable carrier, the force included Mississippi (BB-41), Wichita (CA-45), Vulcan, and a screen of four destroyers. A German U-boat, prowling to the southwest of Iceland, sighted the ships on the 26th but could not keep up with or identify the Americans. Having outpaced their adversary, TF 4 reached "Valley Forge" on 28 September.

While Tirpitz did not sortie, the U-boats continued their deadly forays against Allied shipping. By the fall of 1941, American destroyers were engaged in convoy operations half-way across the Atlantic, turning their charges over to British units at the MOMP (mid-ocean meeting point). On 4 September, Greer (DD-245) narrowly avoided being torpedoed after shadowing a German U-boat.

During the midwatch on 17 October 1941, U-568 torpedoed Kearny (DD-432) while the latter was screening Convoy SC-48. With 11 bluejackets dead, Kearny limped into Reykjavik, a gaping hole and buckled plating disfiguring her starboard side below and aft of the bridge. Vulcan provided timely and affective assistance to the stricken warship. Since permanent repair facilities - such as a drydock - were nonexistent, Kearny pulled up alongside the repair vessel, and her port side was flooded to raise the torpedo hole above water level. Soon Vulcan's repair force had cut away the damaged plating and had fixed a patch. By Christmas 1941, Kearny could sail for the east coast and permanent repairs at Boston.

Operations in these inhospitable climes posed natural dangers as well - fog and storms frequently hampered operations and caused collisions. In November, Niblack (DD-424) was rammed by a Norwegian freighter. The destroyer had been scouring Iceland's coastal waters for a straying Icelandic merchant vessel when the accident occurred, costing Niblack an anchor and putting a hole in her side plating. Vulcan swiftly fixed the damage and patched the side, enabling the destroyer to resume her vital escort duties.

Vulcan remained in Iceland's chill and barren area into the spring of 1942. Meanwhile, on 7 December 1941, a Japanese task force had struck Pearl Harbor and severely crippled the battleships of the Pacific Fleet, plunging the United States into war on both oceans. Vulcan - bound for home in company with Tarazed (AF-13), Livermore (DD-429), and the familiar Kearny - departed "Valley Forge" on 26 April 1942 and arrived at Boston on 2 May. There, the repair ship underwent a drydocking before she returned northward to support the Fleet's operations in the North Atlantic. Based at Argentia from 16 June to 14 November, Vulcan shifted to Hvalfjordur and relieved Melville (AD-2) there on 18 November. She remained at "Valley Forge" until she got underway on 6 April 1943, bound via Londonderry, North Ireland, for Hampton Roads.

After repairs at Norfolk from 8 to 22 June, Vulcan headed for the Mediterranean and arrived at Oran, Algeria, on the 27th. Shifting to Algiers in late June, Vulcan sent a fire and rescue party to the burning British ammunition ship Arrow. Three Vulcan sailors brought a boat alongside the flaming vessel and cut through her side plating to rescue British sailors trapped belowdecks. For their bravery and resourcefulness, the trio from the repair ship received decorations from the British government and Navy and Marine Corps medals from their own.

Vulcan remained based on the North African coast into the summer of 1944. In August and September, the repair ship supported the invasion of southern France and received her sole battle star for providing repair services to the ships and craft involved in the operation.

By late 1944, Vulcan was urgently required in the Pacific, and she accordingly departed the Mediterranean on 23 November 1944 in Convoy GUS-59. After voyage repairs at Norfolk which lasted into January 1945, the repair ship sailed for the South Pacific. Arriving at Guadalcanal on 9 February 1945, Vulcan operated successively out of Tulagi, Noumea, and Ulithi for the remainder of the war. From Ulithi, Vulcan serviced the amphibious units which participated in the assault on the key island of Okinawa.

After hostilities with Japan ceased, Vulcan shifted to Okinawa and entered Buckner Bay in the wake of a destructive typhoon which had forced some ships around and had severely damaged others. Repair work was well in hand by late September, when another typhoon threatened the anchorage. Vulcan led 17 merchantmen to sea in a typhoon evasion sortie - a mission successfully accomplished without loss or damage by 28 September.

Vulcan sailed for Japan immediately thereafter to support the occupation of the erstwhile enemy's home islands. Leading a group of service force ships and oilers through dangerous, still-mined waters, Vulcan arrived in Hiro Wan, near Kure, Japan, on 8 October. Here the repair ship established an advance service unit to provide food, oil, and water to the ships of the medical, and recreational facilities ashore. In addition, she performed maintenance tasks on the diesel-powered vessels of the mine forces then clearing the waters around the Japanese home islands.

Vulcan also operated out of Kobe and Yokosuka into the new year. Departing Yokosuka on 9 March 1946, the repair ship sailed for the east coast of the United States, calling at Pearl Harbor and transiting the Panama Canal en route. She arrived at Brooklyn, N.Y., on 15 April 1946. Vulcan operated at Newport, R.I., until February 1954, when she shifted to Norfolk, Va.

The ship, supporting the Atlantic Fleet with repair services, was homeported at Norfolk into the mid-1970's. During this time, she conducted repairs, alterations, and overhauls on a wide variety of vessels. She called at ports from the Caribbean to Canada, providing repair services to the Fleet at such ports as Guantanamo Bay, San Juan, New York, and Boston, as well as Mayport, Fla., and Charleston, S.C.

When American intelligence pinpointed the presence of Russian missiles in Cuba in the fall of 1962, the United States and the Soviet Union stood "eyeball to eyeball" in the Caribbean. Vulcan sailed to San Juan, where she provided essential repair services to the ships operation on the "quarantine" line off Cuban shores to prevent the arrival of any further Russian military equipment. The ship also assumed an additional role as electronics and ordnance repair vessel as well. After supporting the Cuban blockade from 2 to 26 November, she returned to Norfolk to resume normal operations.

Only once in the 1960's and 1970's did Vulcan venture beyond her normal deployment bounds of the east coast and the Caribbean. In the fall of 1964, the repair ship sailed for Europe to participate in NATO exercises. Departing Norfolk on 8 September, bound for Scotland, she arrived at Greenock on 21 September.

After participating in NATO Exercise "Teamwork," Vulcan called at Antwerp, Belgium; Le Havre, France; and Rota, Spain, before participating in amphibious Exercise "Steel Pike I" off Huelva, Spain. She returned to Norfolk soon thereafter to again take up her regular duties.

Besides type and underway training exercises at sea, Vulcan made an occasional NROTC midshipman cruise and conducted ship exercises in between her regular long assignments as repair ship at Norfolk. Among the ships for which Vulcan provided availabilities was the intelligence ship Liberty (AGTR-5). Between 24 March and 21 April, Liberty lay alongside the repair ship before getting underway later that spring for the fateful overseas deployment in which she was attacked by Israeli planes and motor torpedo boats off El Arishon on the morning of 8 June 1967. In the 1970's, Vulcan's itinerary included recreational and port visits to such places as Cartagena, Colombia; Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; Halifax, Nova Scotia; and the more regular ports such as Charleston and Guantanamo Bay. During the ship's major overhaul in 1976, her long-time main battery - four 5-inch guns -was removed and replaced by four 20-millimeter guns.

Vulcan, as of April 1978, continued to serve at Norfolk as an Atlantic Fleet repair ship.

Vulcan received one battle star for her World War II service.