After being relieved by another ship we returned to Ulithi at 715PM on the evening of Sept. 16th with a load of ordnance gear and some Japanese soldiers as passengers.

The next day we got a supply of fresh water from the Distilling Ship and returned to the net line. We were picking up net and sinking it elsewhere. A Net Cargo Ship (AKN) was suppose to arrive any day to pick up anchors and other gear that we had salvaged.

In late September some Net Tenders were taken from the Ulithi net line and sent to Yap and Palau. The ones going to Palau removed and salvaged the net line at Kossol Roads. Most of them returned to the Ulithi net line in about a week.

This was the rainy season at Ulithi. From time to time the Net Tenders were slowed up because of the rain and choppy waters.

Our officers informed us that the Navy wanted all wooden Net Tenders back in the states for decommissioning. Some of the steel Net Tenders would remain in service. Others would be mothballed and placed in the reserve fleet. Presumably our wooden hulled ships would deteriorate much sooner then the steel ships, so the navy did not have further use for them.

On October 6th we had about two miles of net left to salvage. Some of the new replacement net which hadn't been in too long would be salvaged and transported to Saipan.

The salvage job of the Ulithi net line was completed Oct. 14th. Most or all of the Net Tenders were loaded down with net panels headed for Saipan. Our ship was also towing a barge with net material.

The other two radio operators and I would now be back in the radio shack on the jobs we were trained for, mostly copying and sending messages via morse code and monitoring other frequencies for distress calls or message traffic.

We arrived in Tanapag harbor at Saipan Oct. 17th. We had six ex-battleship passengers aboard. The sea was quite rough and most of them were seasick. They weren't accustomed to the jerky pitching and rolling of a small ship.

This page is created and maintained by Gary P. Priolo