USS Unimak (AVP-31)

USS Unimak (AVP-31) was a United States Navy Barnegat-class small seaplane tender in commission from 1943 to 1946.

Construction, commissioning, and shakedown
Unimak was laid down on 15 February 1942 at Harbor Island, near Seattle, Washington by Associated Shipbuilders, Inc. She was launched on 27 May 1942, sponsored by Mrs. H. B. Berry, the wife of Captain H. B. Berry, the personnel officer of the 13th Naval District, and commissioned on 31 December 1943 with Commander Hilfort C. Owen in command. She was engaged in shakedown and fitting-out into late January 1944.

Operations in Central America, the Galápagos Islands, and the Caribbean
Unimak departed San Diego, California, on 20 March 1944, bound for the Panama Canal Zone. Arriving at Balboa, Panama, on 28 March 1944, Unimak operated on the Pacific coast of Central America into April 1944, providing logistics support to advanced seaplane bases at Santa Elena Bay, Ecuador, and at Aeolian Bay, Battra Island, in the Galápagos Islands. She soon shifted to Coco Solo on the Caribbean side of the Panama Canal and transported men and materiel to Barranquillas, Colombia, arriving there on 25 April 1944.

After escorting the merchant ship SS Genevieve Lykes back to Coco Solo on 23 June 1944 and 24 June 1944, Unimak conducted routine exercises with patrol planes into July 1944. On 4 July 1944 she received reports that a tanker near her position had been torpedoed, and headed for the damaged ship. When she arrived on the scene late that day, Unimak found the tanker still underway, making for the Panama coast. She immediately commenced screening the disabled ship and, aided by an escort of United States Army and U.S. Navy planes, shepherded the tanker safely to Colón, Panama, late on the afternoon of 5 July 1944.

Soon thereafter, Unimak shaped her course towards the last reported position of Navy blimp K-53. At 15:32 hours on 9 July 1944, she sighted two yellow rubber life rafts and the wreckage of the crashed blimp floating on the water. At 15:58 hours, Unimak took on board nine survivors and sank the unsalvageable blimp by collapsing the bag with 40-millimeter gunfire. She then landed the survivors at Portland Bight, Jamaica.

On 13 July 1944, Unimak joined with destroyer USS John D. Edwards (DD-216) in hunting for a submarine reported to be lurking nearby. Within a few days, word of a crashed plane sent the two ships speeding for the last reported position of the aircraft. When they arrived at the crash site, they found widespread debris and small floating pieces of the crashed plane. It was noted in the ship's diary that they recoved a "mutilated unidentifiable crewmember's body" that was "badly blasted and burned". The aviator was buried at sea with full military honors on 16 July 1944 at 10°14.5'N, 78°53'W.

Unimak remained in the Caribbean through the autumn of 1944, tending patrol planes, conducting logistics support missions for advanced seaplane bases, and occasionally towing targets for the patrol planes training in the area. On 15 December 1944, seaplane tender USS Rockaway (AVP-29) relieved Unimak, releasing her to steam north via Norfolk, Virginia, to Boston, Massachusetts.

Voyages to England
Arriving at Boston at the end of December 1944, Unimak underwent availability at the Boston Navy Yard for the entire month of January 1945. She got underway for England on 14 February 1945, but an engineering casualty forced her to return to Boston for a major propeller shaft alignment which lasted into March.

On 7 April 1945, Unimak got underway for the British Isles and proceeded, via Bahia Praia in the Azores, to Bristol, England, on the first of two voyages to England to bring back supplies and men from decommissioned U.S. Navy patrol plane squadrons in the British Isles, and was engaged in these activities when the war with Germany ended in May 1945. On the second voyage, from 5 June 1945 to 15 June 1945, Unimak transported the men and material of Patrol Bomber Squadron 103 (VPB-103) and Patrol Bonber Squadron 105 (VPB-105) from Bristol to Norfolk.

Transfer to the Pacific
Departing Hampton Roads, Virginia, on 20 July 1945, bound for the United States West Coast, Unimak transited the Panama Canal on 26 July 1945 and arrived at San Diego on 3 August 1945. She got underway for Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 12 August 1945. She was en route when hostilities with Japan ended on 15 August 1945 bringing World War II to a close.

Post-World War II U.S. Navy service
Unimak operated in the Hawaiian Islands until 7 September 1945, when she headed for the Aleutian Islands.

She operated in the Northern Pacific — calling at Adak, Kodiak, and Attu, Alaska, and once at Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in the Soviet Union — into November 1945 before heading southward to prepare for inactivation. Reporting for inactivation in December 1945, Unimak was decommissioned on 26 July 1946 and placed in reserve. She remained in reserve until transferred to the Coast Guard on 14 September 1948.

United States Coast Guard service


The Navy loaned Unimak to the United States Coast Guard on 14 September 1948 and she was commissioned as Coast Guard cutter USCGC Unimak (WAVP-379) in 1949. She was reclassified as a high endurance cutter and reclassified as WHEC-379 in 1966, and the Navy permanently transferred her to the Coast Guard on 26 September 1966. During her first period in commission (1949-1975), she was stationed successively at Boston, Massachusetts; Cape May, New Jersey; and Yorktown, Virginia, and was used to patrol ocean stations, providing weather reports and data, conducting law-enforcement and search-and-rescue operations, and providing communications assistance to ships and aircraft in the North Atlantic. She also conducted United States Coast Guard Reserve training cruises. She was redesignated WTR-379 in 1969. She was decommissioned in 1975, but recommissioned in 1977, again designated WHEC-379, and stationed at New Bedford, Massachusetts. She was used primarily for fishing patrol, but also conducted law enforcement and search and rescue operations, during her second period in commission.

Unimak was decommissioned and transferred to the Navy in April 1988, and was sunk as an artificial reef off the Virginia coast.