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NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive

USS Yucca (IX-214)

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Precedence of awards is from top to bottom, left to right
American Campaign Medal - Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal - World War II Victory Medal
Mobile Floating Storage Tanker:
  • Built in 1920 as the Emergency Fleet Corporation design 1047 tanker SS Utacarbon under United States Shipping Board contract # 1466 at Bethlehem Steel Co., Alameda, CA.,
  • Chartered Union Oil Co., 24 April 1942
  • Reacquired by the War Shipping Administration, 13 January 1943, for Lend-Lease to the Soviet Union, renamed SS Varlaam Avanesov, reflagged USSR
  • Returned to the War Shipping Administration, in February 1945
  • Transferred under contract to the Union Oil Co., 1 March 1945, renamed SS Utacarbon re-flagged US
  • Acquired by the US Navy, 4 July 1945, at Pearl Harbor, T.H.
  • Renamed Yucca, 9 March 1945
  • Converted for naval service at San Francisco, CA.
  • Commissioned USS Yucca (IX-214), 9 July 1945.
  • Decommissioned, 19 February 1946, at Mobile, AL. and returned to the War Shipping Administration for disposal
  • Struck from the Naval Register, 12 March 1946
  • Final Disposition, sold for scrapping, 24 January 1947, (MARAD contract PD-X-237) for $12, 696.00, to the Pinto Island Metals Co. Delivered 24 January 1947
    Specifications:
    Displacement 10,749 t.
    Length 453'
    Beam 56'
    Draft unknown
    Speed 10 kts.
    Complement 70
    Cargo Capacity
    Oil 74,500 Bbls
    Armament
    one 4"/50 gun mount
    one 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount
    eight single 20mm AA gun mounts
    Propulsion
    one vertical triple expansion steam engine
    three single end boilers
    Ship's Service Generators
     three turbo-drive 75Kw 120V D.C.
     one turbo-drive 100Kw 120V D.C.
    single propeller, 2,800shp
    Click On Image
    For Full Size Image    		Size Image Description Source
    Merchant Service
    Yucca 69k SS Utacarbon underway during builders trials around 25 March 1920 after completion by the Bethlehem S.B. Corp., Alameda, CA.
    US National Archives photo # RG-32-S, courtesy Shipscribe.com.    		 Robert Hurst
    Yucca 50k SS Utacarbon underway while in the livery of the Union Oil Co., date and location unknown. Robert Hurst
    USS Yucca (IX-214)
    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
    Back To The Navsource Photo Archives Main Page Back To The Service Force Ship Type Index Back To The Miscellaneous Unclassified Ship (IX) Photo Index
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    This page is created and maintained by Gary P. Priolo
    All pages copyright NavSource Naval History
    Last Updated 6 November 2015