Asterion; USS
AK-100; WAK-123; ex-Evelyn
Asterion: a star in the constellation Canum Ven.
Builder: Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Company, Newport News, Virginia
Length: 382' 2"
Beam: 46' 1"
Draft: 21' 6"
Displacement: 6,610 tons
Cost:
Launched: 1912
Commissioned: 1942 (USN); 12 January 1944 (USCG)
Decommissioned: 20 July 1944
Disposition: Sold, 14 March 1946
Machinery: 1 3-cylinder triple expansion steam engine producing 1,200 SHP; single screw
Performance: 11.0 knots maximum speed
Complement: 141
Armament: 4 x 4-inch guns (concealed); 4 x .50-caliber machine guns; 4 x .30-caliber Lewis machine guns; six depth charge projectors)
HISTORY:
(AK-100:
displacement 6,610 tons; length 382'2"; beam 46'1"; draft
21'6"; speed 10 knots; complement 141; armament four 4-inch guns, four
.50-caliber machine guns; four .30-caliber Lewis machine guns; six depth
charge projectors)
Evelyn--a steel-hulled, single-screw steamer--was laid down on 17
January 1912 by the Newport News (Va.) Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co., for
the A. H. Bull Steamship Line; launched on 9 May 1912; and delivered on 11
June 1912.
For the next 30 years, Evelyn operated between ports on the eastern
seaboard of the United States and the West Indies, carrying passengers and
freight. During World War 1, she was
inspected in the 3d Naval District on 9 January 1918, for possible naval
service and was assigned the identification number, Id. No. 2228. However,
she was not actually taken over. Remaining
a merchantman, she received a Navy armed guard detachment who protected her
between 31 January and 11 November 1918.
Acquired by the Navy from the Bull Line early in 1942, Evelyn was
rename Asterion and classified as a cargo ship, AK-100. That
designation, however, was strictly a "cover," for Asterion,
like her sister ship Atik (AK-101) (the former Carolyn) was to
pursue the far more dangerous game of a "Q-ship." While this ruse
de guerre had worked moderately well in World War I, it was at best a
stop-gap measure adopted in the hope of ending a rash of sinkings of
merchantmen in American coastal waters. Given a main battery, machine guns
and depth-charge gear hidden in concealed positions, Asterion was
placed in commission at the Portsmouth (N.H.) Navy Yard in early March 1942,
Lt. Comdr. Glen W. Legwen, Jr., in command.
After brief sea trials, Asterion sailed for her assigned patrol area
on 23 March 1942 in company at the outset with her sister ship Atik.
The mission assigned each ship was to sail under the guise of a
"tramp" steamer, proceedings independently, in the hope of luring
a U-boat to the surface and destroying the submarine with gunfire before she
could realize what was happening. Once out at sea, the two vessels parted
company.
One day out, Asterion picked up a submarine contact on her underwater
detection gear. Two days later, however, her radios picked up ominous
traffic. "Carolyn" (Atik) had been torpedoed. Then,
after luring her assailant, U-123, to the surface with her
"tramp" steamer guise, Atik had engaged the U-boat with
gunfire, but succeeded only in mortally wounding an officer on the
submarine's bridge before the German captain wisely broke off the action and
cleared the area to await nightfall and a second crack at the Q-ship. U-123
delivered the coup de grace that evening, and Atik exploded
and sank. Asterion plodded immediately to Atik's assistance;
but, when she arrived on the scene, found only wreckage. Not a man in Atik's
crew had survived.
Arriving at Norfolk, Virginia, on 31 March 1942, Asterion set out for
her second cruise on 4 April, and that afternoon witnessed the torpedoing of
the tanker SS Comol Rio by U-154. A destroyer arrived on the
scene shortly thereafter and took up the search after Asterion had
picked up a sound contact.
Operating off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, 10 days later, Asterion
rescued the 55 men of the crew of a British merchantman that had been
torpedoed earlier--saving even the captain's dog. She entered New York
harbor on 18 April and there disembarked the sailors she had rescued,
cautioning them not to tell anyone of what they had seen on board the
"Q-ship."
Asterion's third cruise commenced on 4 May 1942 from New York, and
she sailed between Key West and Norfolk, proceeding as an independently
routed merchantman or as a straggler from
a convoy. The fourth cruise commenced on 7 June 1942, and, due to increased
submarine activity in the Gulf of Mexico, the "Q-ship" set course
for those dangerous waters. Clearing New York, she sailed down the eastern
seaboard, transited the straits of Florida on 11 June, passed the Dry
Tortugas on 14 June; and thence steamed to the Yucatan Channel. Then, after
reversing course,
she moved to the Mississippi River Delta whence she continued on a westerly
course toward Galveston, Tex. She then returned to New York, and arrived
there on 6 July.
Departing New York a fortnight later, Asterion went directly to Key
West and then sailed north of the Bahamas to the Windward Passage. Returning
to New York on 18 August, Asterion sailed at the end of the month for
her sixth cruise, which took her through the waters that she had traversed
on the fifth patrol. On 25 September 1942, she was redesignated AK-63.
Commencing her seventh cruise on 18 November, the ship proceeded to Key West
and, while there, carried out training exercises on 30 November with a
friendly submarine.
On 2 December 1942, Asterion got underway for the British West Indies
and, going via the Old Bahama Channel, followed the convoy route to
Trinidad, patrolling to the westward of Aruba, in the Dutch West Indies.
Departing Trinidad on the day after Christmas the ship headed home and
arrived at New York on 10 January 1943.
Over the next few months, Asterion underwent an extensive overhaul,
involving the strengthening of her whole structure and modification of her
armament. Steaming to New London, Connecticut, on 4 September, Asterion
operated with American submarines, in training. After returning briefly to
New York, from 18 to 20 September, she resumed her training at New London
before proceeding back to New York for post-shakedown availability. During
the ensuing weeks, on 14 October 1943, Admiral King decided that--since the
"Q-ship" effort had achieved nothing--Asterion should be
assigned to other duties. On 16 December 1943, the venerable auxiliary and
erstwhile "tramp" was ordered to proceed to Boston, Massachusetts,
where she reported to the Commandant, lst Naval District, for transfer to
the Coast Guard.
Turned over to that service and commissioned by it at Boston on 12 January
1944, Asterion (given the designation WAK-123) was converted for
service as a weather ship. Ten days later, on 22 January 1944, her name was
struck from the Naval Vessel Register. Based at Boston, Asterion
performed duty as a weather patrol ship on Atlantic stations 3 and 4 until
decommissioned on 20 July 1944 because of "age, condition of hull and
machinery, and lack of speed." Turned over to the War Shipping
Administration for disposal in April 1946, Asterion was sold to the
Boston Metals Co. on 10 September 1946 and was subsequently scrapped.
Asterion (AK-63) earned one battle star for her World War II service.
SOURCES:
Cutter History File. USCG Historian's Office, USCG HQ, Washington, D.C.
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Washington, DC: USGPO.
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