Sitka (APA-113)
1945–1946
A town on the west coast of Baranof Island, Alaska. Originally a Native Tlingit settlement called Sheetʼká (“People living on the outside of Shee”) in Southeast Alaska. It was the capital of Imperial Russian America between 1808 and 1867 when it was called New Archangel. It was renamed Sitka after the United States purchased Alaska in 1867 and served as the department and district capital of Alaska until 1906.
(APA-113: displacement 8,393; length 492'0”; beam 69'6"; draft 26'0”; speed 18.4 knots; complement 478; troops 1,500; armament 2 5-inch, 8 40 millimeter, 18 20 millimeter; class Bayfield; type C3-S-A2)
Sitka (APA-113) was laid down on 2 February 1944 under a Maritime Commission contract (M.C. Hull 875) at Pascagoula, Miss., by the Ingalls Shipbuilding Corp.; launched on 23 June 1944, and sponsored by Mrs. Mary Lee Council; and commissioned on 14 March 1945, Capt. Charles F.M.S. Quinby in command.
Sitka departed Mobile, Ala., on 20 March 1945, and after a stop in New Orleans, La., arrived at Bolivar Roads, Galveston, Texas, on 29 March for exercises. Her shakedown only lasted four days as she received orders to report to Newport, R.I., for duty as a training ship for pre-commissioning crews. She arrived at Newport on 6 April and spent two and one-half months training crews of new amphibious and auxiliary vessels in seamanship and gunnery. Relived by her sister ship Guilford (APA-112), Sitka sailed for Norfolk, Va., on 25 June.
Following a brief overhaul, she sailed from Norfolk on 6 July 1945 with a replacement draft of several hundred marines, troops, and cargo. She transited the Panama Canal on 11 July, stopped at Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, between 14 July and 3 August, at Eniwetok on the 11th and 12th, and arrived at Guam on 15 August. After her troops were disembarked, she sailed for Manila, the Philippines to embark occupation troops for Japan.
Sitka sailed from Manila on 7 September 1945 and arrived at Yokohama, Japan, on the 13th. “As the anchor chain rattled after the descending anchor,” wrote the ship’s historian, the men of the Sitka gazed upon the rubble that was once Japan’s leading sea port….This type of entry into the land of the enemy was a far cry from that which the ship expected…this was doing it the easy way, but easy or hard, the ship entered Tokyo Bay as it always said it would — as victor!”
After disembarking her troops and equipment. She departed on the 19th for Guam. There, she took on board units of the Sixth Marine Division, for the occupation of Tsingtao, China. “With the possibility of trouble present,” Sitka sailed in convoy, “prepared for battle conditions.” She arrived there on 11 October.
Sitka returned to Manila on 23 October 1945 and, after a week of maintenance, embarked troops of the 52nd Chinese National Army at Haiphong, Indochina, on 3 November. They were disembarked at Chinwangtao in northern China on the 13th. After a week at Taku, China, Sitka sailed on 21 November 1945 for Manila, arriving on the 26th. There, she joined Operation Magic Carpet, the transportation of veterans home to the United States. She departed Manila on 28 November and arrived at Seattle, Wash., on 14 December.
Sitka remained at Seattle for repairs and then sailed to Saipan and Guam on 30 January 1946. She returned to San Pedro, Calif., on 23 February and departed for the East Coast on 1 March. The ship arrived at Norfolk on 16 March for deactivation. Sitka was decommissioned on 14 May 1946 and returned to the War Shipping Administration the next day. She entered the Lee Hall, Va., Reserve Fleet at 1245 on 15 May 1946 and was stricken from the List of Naval Vessels on 5 June 1946.
Pope and Talbot, Inc., Portland, Oregon, purchased Sitka at 1100 on 10 July 1947, and took delivery on the 17th. Pope & Talbot, Inc., sold her to the Argentine Brazil Line in December, 1948 as P & T Trader. Moore-McCormick Lines, Inc., purchased her in April, 1957 and renamed her Mormacguide. On 23 November 1964, American Foreign Steamship Corp. acquired her and renamed her American Condor. She was finally sold for scrapping in Taiwan on 9 August 1976.
Commanding Officer Date Assumed Command
Capt. Charles F.M.S. Quinby 14 March 1945
Gary J. Candelaria
12 August 2024
