USS Rehoboth, 1952-1955

The second Rehoboth (AVP-50) was laid down 3 August 1942 by Lake Washington Shipyards, Houghton, Wash.; launched 8 November 1942; sponsored by Mrs. R. P. McConnell; and commissioned 23 February 1944, Comdr. Robert Crawford Warrack in command.

Decommissioned 30 June 1947, she commenced conversion to a survey ship the following year. Reclassified AGS-50, she recommissioned 2 September 1948, and commenced oceanographic survey work under the direction of the Hydrographic Office. Equipped with a small laboratory and machinery to take Nansen casts, which provide the oceanographer with the temperature and samples of sea water at different depths, and drill for core samples, she traveled over 300,000 miles in the North Atlantic and adjacent seas during her first 6 years of operation.

In February 1952, while crossing the Atlantic, she discovered and accurately positioned an underwater mountain range with heights up to 12,000 feet above the ocean floor. In March 1952 she discovered and charted a 7,000-foot mountain near Bermuda and in August 1953 Rehoboth became the first ship to anchor in over 2½ miles of water.

Employed on special projects in 1953 and 1954, she returned to oceanographic survey work in the Atlantic and Caribbean in 1953. Transferred to the Pacific in 1956, she departed Philadelphia 15 February. She decommissioned and was struck from the Navy list 15 April 1970.

[Taken from the entry on Rehoboth in the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.]