Buckeye (YN-8)
1941-1963
A tree resembling the horse chestnut.
(YN-8: displacement 700 (trial); length 163'2"; beam 30'6"; draft 11'8" (limiting); speed 12.5 knots (trial); complement 48; armament 1 3-inch, 2 .50 caliber machine guns; class Aloe)
Buckeye (YN-8) was laid down on 17 March 1941 at Portland, Oregon, by the Commercial Iron Works; launched on 26 July 1941; sponsored by Miss Sara Ann Tefler; and placed in service on 5 September 1941, Lt. Elias Johnson, D-V(S), USNR, in charge.
After fitting out at the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Wash., Buckeye began duty in the Thirteenth Naval District. She tended nets there until the fall of 1942. At that time, the ship was transferred to the Alaska Sector based at Dutch Harbor. While stationed there, she was placed in full commission on 26 December 1942, Lt. Cmdr. Elias Johnson, USNR, in command. She continued to tend nets and buoys in the Aleutian Islands, first at Dutch Harbor and, after May of 1943, at recently captured Attu. On 1 January 1944, Buckeye was redesignated AN-13. During the summer of 1944, the net layer received orders to Seattle for an overhaul that she completed between 24 July and 11 September.
Following a round-trip voyage from the west coast to the Territory of Hawaii and back, Buckeye was stationed at the Naval Net Depot at Tiburon, Calif., near San Francisco as ready duty ship and standby vessel for emergency repairs. That duty lasted until 27 January 1945 when she was transferred to Service Squadron (ServRon) 6 of the Seventh Fleet. During February and March, the net layer stopped at Pearl Harbor, Funafuti in the Ellice Islands, Manus in the Admiralty Islands, and Hollandia on New Guinea before arriving in the Philippines in April. Initially, she served in Leyte Gulf but, later that summer moved to Luzon where she operated in Manila Bay and Subic Bay.
Buckeye spent the remainder of her active career at Luzon. On 17 July 1946, the ship went aground in Subic Bay. With the assistance of Elder (AN-20), she was refloated on 29 July and was towed to Alava Dock for repairs. She was still undergoing repairs at the end of 1946 and, apparently, they were never completed. She went out of commission at Subic on 4 March 1947. Later transferred to the Pacific Reserve Fleet group berthed at San Diego, she remained there until 1963 when she was turned over to the Maritime Administration for lay up in Suisun Bay, Calif. Her name was stricken from the Navy List on 1 July 1963. She remained at the Suisun Bay facility until 5 May 1976 at which time she was reacquired by the Navy for use as a salvage training hulk. As of June 1985, her status was unknown.
Raymond A. Mann
Updated 12 November 2021
