Beaverhead (AK-161)
1945-1946
A county in the southwestern corner of the state of Montana.
(AK-161: displacement. 7,450 (limiting); length 338'6"; beam 50'0"; draft 21'1" (limiting); speed 11.5 knots (trial); complement 85; armament 1 3-inch, 6 20 millimeter; class Alamosa; type C1-M-AV1)
Beaverhead (AK-161) was 1aid down on 15 June 1944 at Richmond, Calif., by Kaiser Cargo, Inc., under a Maritime Commission contract (M.C. Hull 2106); launched on 2 September 1944; sponsored by Mrs. T. H. Purdom, Jr.; and commissioned on 3 January 1945, Lt. Cmdr. Olin F. Weymouth, USNR, in command.
The cargo ship fitted out at the Naval Supply Depot at Oakland, Calif., and then underwent a brief conversion at the Naval Sea Frontier Base, Treasure Island. Beaverhead departed the San Francisco Bay area on 22 January 1945 bound for San Pedro, Calif., and shakedown. At the conclusion of that training, she conducted a post shakedown availability at the San Pedro Harbor Boat Co. between 8 and 14 February. On the 20th, the ship got underway from San Pedro bound for the Admiralty Islands. She arrived at Manus on 15 March but remained only until the 18th, moving via Hollandia in New Guinea to the Philippine Islands, arriving in Leyte Gulf on 28 March. Over the next eight months, Beaverhead plied the waters of the Philippines, supplying various U.S. bases. Although operating principally in that archipelago, the ship on occasion voyaged to Borneo, Morotai, and Manus.
Ultimately, Beaverhead sailed for home on 5 December 1945. She transited the Panama Canal on 19 January 1946 and arrived in New York 11 days later. She moved to Norfolk during the second week in February and was decommissioned there on 8 March 1946. The ship was turned over to the Maritime Commission's War Shipping Administration (WSA) for disposal on 13 March 1946, being placed in the WSA Reserve Fleet berthing area at Lee Hall, Va., on the James River at 4:14 p.m. the same day. Her name was stricken from the Navy Register on 28 March 1946, a little over a fortnight later.
Transferred under a general agency agreement to the firm of Dichmann, Wright & Pugh at Lee Hall at 10:15 a.m. on 26 February 1947 pending delivery to her purchaser, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the ship was taken to Hoboken, N.J. where the Dutch government took custody. Renamed Hera, the cargo vessel soon began operating under the colors of the Netherlands with the Koninklijke Nederlandsche Stoomboot Maatschappij, homeported at Amsterdam.
Purchased by the Bahamas Lines in 1963, Hera was renamed Omar Express, and began operations under the Panamanian flag. Taken in hand for conversion at Avondale Shipyard, Avondale, La., in 1967, the former Navy cargo vessel underwent transformation to a self-unloading cement carrier, being renamed Cementos Ponce (1967-1976), then Vanessa (1976-1982), She was subsequently broken up at Veracruz, Mexico, between 1982 and 1984.
Raymond A. Mann
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
1 November 2021
