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NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive

USS Dawn (IX-186)

International Radio Call Sign:
November - Alpha - India - Uniform
NAIU

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Precedence of awards is from top to bottom, left to right
Top Row - American Campaign Medal
Bottom Row - Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal - World War II Victory Medal - Philippine Liberation Medal

Dawn Class Mobile Floating Fuel Storage Ship:

Built in 1920 as SS Vacuum, an Emergency Fleet Corp design 1041 tanker, at Moore Shipbuilding Co., Oakland, CA.

Assigned Registry Number (ID-4501) by US Navy

Acquired by the Navy from the War Shipping Administration, 25 December 1944, at Brisbane, Australia

Commissioned Miscellaneous Unclassified USS Dawn (IX-186), 26 December 1944, LCDR. H. V. Perron in command

Decommissioned, 12 April 1946, at Norfolk, VA.

Struck from the Naval Register, date unknown

Returned to the War Shipping Administration for disposal, 12 April 1946

Final Disposition, sold for scrapping, 4 December 1946, to Patapsco Scrap Metal Corp., Baltimore, MD. for $22,571.00 (PD-X-237), delivered, 17 December 1947

Specifications:
Displacement 15,381 t.(fl)
Length 438' 5"
Beam 57'
Draft27' 6"
Speed 9 kts.
Complement 107
Armament

one single 4" gun mount

one single 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount

eight single 20mm AA gun mounts

Propulsion

single triple expansion steam engine

oil fired boilers

single screw

Click On Image For Full Size Image	Size	Image Description	Source
Post WWII Merchant Service Vaccaro Brothers SS Co.
094618607	97k	SS Vacuum wearing the colors of Vaccaro Brothers SS Co., underway, date and location unknown . Auke Visser's MOBIL Tankers & Tugs Site	Robert Hurst
094618608	43k	Vaccaro Brothers tanker SS Vacuum moored pierside, date and location unknown. Auke Visser's MOBIL Tankers & Tugs Site	Robert Hurst
USS Dawn (IX-186)
	126k	*USS Dawn* (IX-186)** discharging AVGAS at the Diloma Gas Jetty at Subic Bay, circa 1 April to 19 July 1945.	Forwarded by John Clingman for Daniel Wilmes to honor his father Robert K. Wilmes MM/3c USS Dawn
	211k	Two of *USS Dawn* (IX-186)**'s crew playing cards in a raft, near the fantail, while underway. date and location unknown.	Forwarded by John Clingman for Daniel Wilmes to honor his father Robert K. Wilmes MM/3c USS Dawn
	338k	*USS Dawn* (IX-186)** moored pierside at Naval Station Norfolk, VA. awaiting decommissioning, circa 8 February to 12 April 1946.	Forwarded by John Clingman for Daniel Wilmes to honor his father Robert K. Wilmes MM/3c USS Dawn
	573k	*USS Dawn* (IX-186)** moored pierside at Naval Station Norfolk, VA. awaiting decommissioning, circa 8 February to 12 April 1946.	Forwarded by John Clingman for Daniel Wilmes to honor his father Robert K. Wilmes MM/3c USS Dawn
	658k	*USS Dawn* (IX-186)** moored pierside at Naval Station Norfolk, VA. awaiting decommissioning, circa 8 February to 12 April 1946.	Forwarded by John Clingman for Daniel Wilmes to honor his father Robert K. Wilmes MM/3c USS Dawn
	89k	Authorization for *USS Dawn* (IX-186)'s boat crew to enter the Olongapo area to repair the ships boat. Click here** to get the story behind the memo	Daniel Wilmes to honor his father Robert K. Wilmes MM/3c USS Dawn

USS Dawn (IX-186)
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS)

Crew Contact And Reunion Information
U.S. Navy Memorial Foundation - Navy Log

Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
MARAD Vessel History Database
Robert Kenneth Wilmes, US Navy, USS Dawn

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Comments, Suggestions, E-mail Webmaster.

This page is created and maintained by Gary P. Priolo

Last Updated 18 August 2023

An antidote to the history ofUSS Dawn contributed by Daniel Wilmes in honor of his father Robert K. Wilmes MM/3c
"When my father's tanker was in Hollandia, they were given an LCVP to use to travel in the harbor, he said this was standard practice for ships which didn't have motorized craft of their own. Upon leaving in a convoy to the Phil. on Jan 24, 1945, they enlisted the aid of a Liberty ship to hoist the LCVP on deck (Dawn had cranes capable of lifting nothing heavier than hoses and drums). This "stolen" craft they used from then on, there is reference in his journal of being alongside another Liberty ship to unload the LCVP when they got to the Phil. At one point they had to cross to another island when no helpful freighter was around, and so it was towed a few hundred miles with my father and a cox[swain] aboard in case the towline parted. My father said it was the most miserable "cruise" he had ever been on, being dragged through rather than over waves... The manual for the Greymarine engine is in his sea chest still, he was responsible for The manual for the Greymarine engine is in his sea chest still, he was responsible for keeping it running. At one point it did break down, and I have an order giving permission for him to travel to Olongapo to get the LCVP "belonging to Dawn" repaired."