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Shakamaxon

(Mon: dp. 5,660; l. 345'5"; b. 56'8"; dr. 17'6"; s. 10 k.; a. 4 15" sb.; cl. Kalamazoo)

Chief Village of the Delaware Indians (now Kensington, Pa.) where an important treaty was signed on 23 June 1683 between William Penn and Chief Tammanen.

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Shakamaxon, a large, seagoing monitor, was ordered from the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 4 November 1863 and laid down before the end of the year. Since the ship was still on the ways at the end of the Civil War, work on her was suspended on 30 November 1865. She was renamed Hecla on 15 June 1869 and Nebraska on 10 August 1869. The still unfinished monitor was broken up on the ways between January 1874 and March 1875.

(AN-88: dp. 775 (tl.) ; l. 168'6"; b. 33'10"; dr. 10'10" (f.); s. 12.3 k.; cpl. 46; a. 1 3"; cl. Cohoes)

Shakamaxon (AN-88) was laid down on 30 June 1944 by the Leathern D. Smith Shipbuilding Co., of Sturgeon Bay, Wis.; launched on 9 September 1944; sponsored by Mrs. Theodore E. Layman; and commissioned on 5 April 1945.

Shakamaxon completed fitting out at the Boston Navy Yard, then conducted shakedown off the New England coast before commencing post-shakedown availability at Boston. The auxiliary net-laying ship was assigned to the Pacific Fleet for duty in July 1945. By March 1946, she was at Guam in the Marianas and, from there, moved to Bikini Atoll in the Marshalls for Operation "Crossroads," the atomic bomb tests. She remained at Bikini from 25 May until 23 July, when she put to sea. Shakamaxon arrived at Kwajalein on 28 August and stayed until early September. She put to sea again for a time and then made for Guam on 13 September. She made a trip to Tinian on that date and returned to Guam, where she remained until 14 October. Shakamaxon arrived in Pearl Harbor on 29 October and did not depart until 16 January 1947. From there, she voyaged to San Diego for inactivation overhaul. On 21 April 1947, the auxiliary net-laying ship entered the Pacific Reserve Fleet at San Diego.

She remained out of commission, in reserve, until 1 July 1963 when her name was struck from the Navy list and she was transferred to the Maritime Administration for lay-up. She was reacquired in 1968 and transferred to the Department of Interior, for which she now serves as a cargo carrier in Micronesia.

Published: Wed Sep 09 08:36:46 EDT 2015