Marmora II (IX-189)
Marmora, sometimes spelled Marmara, is an island in the sea of Mormora where quarries of white marble with black streaks are found.
II
The second Marmora (IX‑189), built in 1918 as Montrolite by American Shipbuilding Co., Seattle, Wash., and subsequently renamed J. S. Fitzsimmons in 1926 and Valerian Kuibyshev in 1943, was acquired by the Navy under the name J. C. Fitzsimmons from WSA under bareboat charter 13 December 1944; and commissioned the same day as Marmora at Pearl Harbor, Lt. Grant R. Olsen, USNR, in command.
Assigned to the Service Force, Pacific Fleet, Marmora departed Pearl Harbor 28 January for the Marshall Islands, arriving Eniwetok 13 February for duty as a mobile floating storage ship. Four days later the ship continued on to Saipan, anchoring the 27th to begin unloading aviation gas brought from Pearl Harbor.
On 31 March she sailed for the Caroline Islands, reaching Ulithi 3 April. Marmora next stopped at the Ryukyus, operating out of Okinawa Shima from 28 May, through the Japanese surrender 15 August, until 1 November when she sailed for the east coast, via Pearl Harbor and the Panama Canal.
Marmora arrived Mobile, Ala., 4 January 1946. On 11 February she decommissioned there and was delivered to WSA, and renamed J. C. Fitzsimmons. The tanker was sold to Pinto Island Metals Co., delivered 1 February 1947, and scrapped.
