Baham (AG-71)
1942-1947
A 3.7 magnitude star in the constellation Pegasus.
(AG-71: displacement 14,350 (trial); length 441'6"; beam 56'11"; draft 23'0" (limiting); speed 12.5 knots (trial); complement 927; armament 1 5-inch, 4 40 millimeter, 12 20 millimeter; class Basilan; type EC2 S C1)
Elizabeth C. Bellamy was laid down on 10 November 1943 under a Maritime Commission contract (M. C. E. Hull 1217) at Jacksonville, Fla., by the St. John's River Shipbuilding Co.; renamed Baham and designated AK-122 on 13 November 1943; launched on 21 December 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Walter F. Rogers; delivered to the Navy on 31 December 1943 under a bare-boat charter; placed in reduced commission on 1 January 1944 for the voyage to the Charleston Navy Yard; decommissioned there on 6 January 1944 for conversion to a combination repair, distilling, and stores-issue ship; redesignated AG-71 on 14 March 1944; and placed in commission on 18 August 1944, Lt. Gavin L. Field, USNR, in command.
Baham stood out of Charleston on 1 September and shaped a course north to the Chesapeake Bay where she devoted about a month to shakedown training. She got underway on 8 October and proceeded via Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the Canal Zone. After transiting the Panama Canal, Baham headed for Hawaii and reached Pearl Harbor on Armistice Day 1944. She underwent a second conversion in the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard during which she received equipment that enabled her to serve as a maintenance headquarters to repair electronic equipment and issue stores. Those modifications were completed during the first week in January 1945; and the ship put to sea on the 10th, bound for the Central Pacific. Steaming by way of Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands, Baham arrived at her first duty station, Ulithi Atoll in the Western Carolines, on 30 January 1944 and began her multifaceted repair duties as a unit of Service Squadron (ServRon) 10. The highlight of her duties was to assist in the repairs made on Randolph (CV-15) after that aircraft carrier had been damaged by a kamikaze attack in the Ulithi anchorage on 11 March 1945.
On 20 May 1945, Baham put to sea on her way to a new duty station, Leyte in the Philippine Islands. She anchored in Leyte Gulf on the 25th and began her varied repair duties. At Leyte, her chores consisted of more typhoon damage repair than battle damage work. Baham remained at Leyte just over a month before heading back to the Central Pacific. The ship arrived at Eniwetok on 10 July and began a noticeably more leisurely repair routine. On 6 September, soon after Japan's formal surrender ceremony, her repair force disembarked, and their spaces were converted to accommodate several sections of the staff of the Commander, Service Division (ServDiv) 102. Two days later, she put to sea bound for Japan. After encountering a typhoon off Honshu, Baham dropped anchor in Tokyo Bay on 20 September.
Her station ship and staff duty in Japan lasted just under six months. On 8 March 1946, she headed back to the United States with returning American servicemen embarked, and the ship arrived at San Francisco, Calif., on 24 March. Later, she steamed to Pearl Harbor where she was placed out of commission on 19 July 1946. Baham remained in reserve at Pearl Harbor until March 1947 when she was towed back to San Francisco. Her name was stricken from the Navy Register on 22 May 1947.
Transferred back to the Maritime Commission and laid up with its National Defense Reserve Fleet at Suisun Bay, Calif., on 30 June 1947, Baham remained at Suisun Bay until sold on 9 June 1972 to the Union Minerals & Alloys Corp., of New York. She was removed from Maritime Administration (the successor to the Maritime Commission) custody on 22 June 1972 for scrapping.
Raymond A. Mann
2 December 2005
