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Whippet II (IX-129)

1944-1946

II

(IX-129: displacement 15,425; length 441'6"; beam 57'0"; draft 27'8 7/8"; speed 12.5 knots; complement 109; armament 1 5-inch, 1 3-inch, 8 20 millimeter; type Z-ET1-S-C3)

Eugene W. Hilgard was laid down on 31 October 1943 at New Orleans, La., by the Delta Shipbuilding Co. under a Maritime Commission contract (M.C.E. Hull 1933); launched on 15 December 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Will Camp Sealy; delivered to the Navy on 13 January 1944; renamed Whippet and designated IX-129; and commissioned on 14 January 1944, Lt. Cmdr. Richard Parmenter, D-V(S), USNR, in command.

Following shakedown out of New Orleans, Whippet got underway late in January 1944 for duty in the South Pacific. She arrived at Bora Bora in the Society Islands on 27 February and remained there until 9 March when she continued her voyage. Two days later, the ship arrived at Funafuti and served there as station tanker until the beginning of the second week in May. On 10 May, Whippet headed for Oahu, Territory of Hawaii, and, after a nine-day voyage, arrived in Pearl Harbor. Late in June, she had returned west of the International Dateline, arriving at Eniwetok on 24 June. For the next nine months, she served as station tanker at various forward bases in the Central Pacific-Eniwetok during the Marianas campaign and Ulithi during the struggles for the Palaus and the Philippines. By the spring of 1945, the tanker had moved to Saipan in the Marianas to prepare for the Okinawa assault.

On 27 March 1945, Whippet departed Saipan and, on 2 April, entered the anchorage at Kerama Retto in the Ryukyus to the west of Okinawa. There she remained, serving again as station tanker until well after organized resistance on Okinawa ceased. On 25 July, she departed the Ryukyus and steamed via Ulithi to Leyte where she arrived on 7 August.

Whippet remained there until 12 October 1945 when she got underway for the Philippines. The tanker arrived at Manila the following day and served there until near the end of the second month of 1946. On 24 February, she returned to Leyte briefly before continuing on to the Marianas. After spending the month of March in the Marianas, she returned to the Philippines at Subic Bay at the end of the second week in April. The ship stayed there until the end of the month at which time she received orders to return to the United States at Norfolk. She stopped at Pearl Harbor from 7 to 20 May and arrived in San Francisco on the 29th. Instead of returning to Norfolk, however, she remained on the west coast.

Whippet entered the Reserve Fleet berthing area at Suisun Bay, Calif., at 12:40 p.m. on 25 June 1946, being placed in Area P-5. Decommissioned on 1 July 1946, the ship was stricken from the Navy List on 19 July 1946.

WIthdrawn from the Reserve Fleet on 26 February 1948 at 11:15 a.m., Eugene W. Hilgard was delivered tio the American-Pacific Steamship Co., but the sale was rescinded on 5 August 1948. Returned to Suisun Bay on 17 August 1948 at 1:30 p.m., the tanker remained laid-up until again removed from the Reserve Fleet at 11:13 a.m. on 25 January 1951 for Mathiasen's Tanker Industries, Inc., the buyer's agent, and delivered to the Paragon Steamship Co. Eugene W. Hilgard was then purchased by Hilgard Tanker Corp., delivery taking place at Alameda, Calif. on 27 April 1951 at 2:30 p.m.

Sold to Liberian interests in July 1954, the vessel continued to retain her name, being sold the following year (1955) to Theodpolis J. Vatis, of Greece. Converted to a dry cargo ship at Savannah, Georgia, later that same year, the ship was renamed Loida. She continued to operate under Liberian colors, being lengthened a decade later, in 1965, the transformation taking place at Kobe, Japan. Sold in 1971, being renamed Nervion, she was ultimately broken up for scrap at Kaohsiung, Taiwan, later that same year.

Whippet received two battle stars for her World War II service, one commemorating her participation in the Marianas operation, specifically the capture and occupation of Saipan (20 July--10 August 1944), and the second for her participation in the assault and occupation of Okinawa Gunto (27 March--30 June 1945).

Updated, Robert J. Cressman

28 March 2022

Published: Mon Mar 28 16:24:29 EDT 2022