USS Zenobia (AKA-52)

USS Zenobia (AKA-52) was an Artemis-class attack cargo ship named after minor planet 840 Zenobia. Zenobia was also the name of the Queen of Palmyra who reigned from 267 to 272. She served as a commissioned ship for 9 months.

Zenobia (AKA-62) was laid down under a Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 1913) on 12 May 1945 at Providence, R.I., by the Walsh-Kaiser Co., Inc.; launched on 6 July 1945; sponsored by Mrs. Lillian V. MacDonald; and commissioned at the Boston Navy Yard on 6 August 1945, Lt. Comdr. F. C. Rice in command.

Service history
Following her shakedown, Zenobia relieved USS 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 United States naval vessel were numbered. She reported to the Commandant, 3rd Naval District, on 7 April and was decommissioned exactly one month later, on 7 May, at Brooklyn, N.Y. Struck from the Navy list 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 former Navy attack cargo ship served the Chilean Navy as a transport through the late 1960s, including being the yearly supply ship for Easter Island and figuring prominently in scientific expeditions there, 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.