Zenobia (AKA-52)
1945-1946
Minor Planet No. 840, whose name is derived from the Greek, "having life from Zeus."
(AKA-52: displacement 7,000; length 426'0"; beam 58'0"; draft 16'0"; speed 16.9 knots; complement 303; armament 1 5-inch, 8 40 millimeter, 10 20 millimeter; class Artemis; type S4-SE2-BE1)
Zenobia (AKA-62) was laid down under a Maritime Commission contract (M. C. Hull 1913) on 12 May 1945 at Providence, R.I., by the Kaiser-Walsh Co.; launched on 6 July 1945; sponsored by Mrs. Lillian V. MacDonald; and commissioned at the Boston Navy Yard on 6 August 1945, Lt. Cmdr. Frederic C. Rice, DE-V(G), USNR, in command.
Following her shakedown, Zenobia relieved Vermilion (AKA-107) as a training ship with the Atlantic Fleet's Operational Training Command on 19 August. She served briefly in that role before she was reassigned to Service Force, Atlantic Fleet (ServLant), on 11 September. She operated with ServLant into 1946.
Although allocated to the Amphibious Force of the Atlantic Fleet on 1 April 1946, Zenobia's days as a U.S. naval vessel were numbered. She reported to the Commandant, Third Naval District, on 7 April and was decommissioned exactly one month later, on 7 May, at Brooklyn, N.Y. Stricken from the Navy Register on 30 November 1946, Zenobia was transferred at Brooklyn to the government of the Republic of Chile on 9 December 1946.
Renamed Presidente Pinto, the erstwhile Navy attack cargo ship served the Chilean Navy as a transport through the late 1960's and ended her active career as a training ship for midshipmen. She was transferred to "harbor duties" in 1968, probably serving as a floating barracks or accommodation ship, and was replaced as training ship by the four-masted schooner Esmeralda. Presidente Pinto was probably scrapped in about 1974.
Robert J. Cressman
Updated, 21 March 2024
