Peconic (AOG-68)
1945-1957
A river in the state of New York.
(AOG-68: displacement 5,970; length 325'2"; beam 48'2"; draft 19'0"; speed 10 knots; complement 97; armament 1 3-inch, 2 40-millimeter, 3 20-millimeter; class Klickitat; type T1-M-BT1)
Peconic (AOG-68) was laid down on 31 January 1945 at Jacksonville, Fla., by the St. John’s River Shipbuilding Co., under a Maritime Commission contract (M.C. Hull 2628); launched on 14 May 1945; sponsored by Mrs. Mal Haughton, Jr.; delivered and acquired on a loan basis by the Navy from the Maritime Commission on 28 September 1945; and commissioned on 28 November 1945.
Peconic reported to Commander Service Force Atlantic at Norfolk, Va., but because of the reduced need following the war’s end, she was decommissioned on 7 February 1946 at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Portsmouth, Virginia. Stricken from the Navy Register on 21 January 1947, the ship was returned to the Maritime Commission.
The gasoline tanker entered merchant service in 1946 as Voshell, and was operated by the Maritime Transport Lines, Inc. until 4 April 1948, at which time she was turned over to the Naval Transportation Service (NTS) as Peconic (AOG-68) at Boston. Maritime Transport Lines Inc. continued to operate Peconic under contract for the Naval Transportation Service. NTS became the Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS) on 1 October 1949 and the ship was then designated USNS Peconic (T-AOG-68).
Reinstated on the Naval Vessel Register on 28 April 1950, Peconic continued service in MSTS until 12 November 1957 when she transferred to the Maritime Administration reserve fleet at Beaumont, Texas, at 11:30 a.m. She was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register the same day.
On 26 May 1982, Peconic was traded-out to Keystone Shipping Co., along with five other vessels, for the T-2 tanker Chancellorsville (M.C. Hull 366). Keystone immediately resold Peconic to C.W. Enterprises & Investment Co., a California-based corporation, with the right to resell the ship to domestic shipbreakers in Brownsville, Texas, or abroad in Taiwan or Spain, that transaction to take place with 24 months. With the trade-in-exchange contract of 26 May 1982, Peconic was withdrawn from the Beaumont group at 9:55 a.m. on 7 December 1982 and delivered to Andy Exports, Inc., who scrapped the ship by 2 February 1983.
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
28 July 2022
