By Bob Davidsson
Four ships sharing the names of cities in Palm Beach County - the first USS Jupiter (Langley), USS Lake Worth, USS Palm Beach and a second USS Jupiter - were commissioned by the U.S. Navy and served the nation in World War I, World War II, the Korean War, as well as the Cold War.
Under Navy ship naming conventions established during the early 20th century, combat stores ships and auxiliary vessels, commissioned prior to the end of World War II, were named for U.S. cities. If a warship was sunk in combat or decommissioned, as in the case of the first USS Jupiter, the vessel's moniker was transferred to a replacement ship.
Two of the combat auxiliary vessels bearing local names were sunk by German Luftwaffe and Imperial Japanese Navy dive bombers during World War II, a third became an artificial reef, and the fourth received six battle stars in World War II and seven battle stars during the Korean conflict.
USS Jupiter (Langley)
The first USS Jupiter (AC-3) was a Navy collier during World War I. After decommissioning at the war's end, it was rebuilt and converted to become America's first aircraft carrier under a new name of USS Langley (CV-1).
The USS Jupiter was launched on Aug. 14, 1912. The Jupiter was the first electronically-propelled ship in the U.S. Navy. It also holds the distinction of being the first vessel to steam through the Panama Canal from the Pacific to the Caribbean Sea soon after the opening the new waterway.
The USS Jupiter was assigned to the Atlantic Fleet Auxiliary Division during World War I. After the war, her conversion to an aircraft carrier was authorized by the Navy on July 11, 1919. The ship's name was changed to Langley, an aviation pioneer, in 1920 and recommissioned as "Carrier Vessel One (CV-1)" March 22, 1922 at the Norfolk, Va. Navy Yard.
As the first Navy vessel fitted with a flight deck, the USS Langley conducted experiments in the new area of military seaborne aviation during the 1920s. America's first successful carrier plane take offs and landings were conducted on the Langley.
In 1924 the USS Langley joined the Pacific Battle Fleet and for the next 12 years conducted flight training for aviators in California and Hawaii. With the launching of two new fleet carriers, USS Lexington and USS Saratoga, the Langley was overhauled a second time. It became a seaplane tender in 1937.
At the outbreak of World War II, the Langley was stationed in the Philippines. She became a scouting vessel and aircraft transport for the combined American-British-Dutch-Australian (ABDA) fleet, assembled to defend the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) from Japanese invasion.
On the morning of Feb. 27, 1942, three waves of Japanese VAL dive bombers attacked the Langley and its two escorting destroyers near Tjilatjap Harbor. The seaplane tender avoided hits during the first two air strikes, but was rocked by five explosions sustained from the third wave of bombers.
The Langley went dead in the water but refused to sink. To avoid capture by the Japanese, the tender was dispatched and sent to the bottom of the Java Sea by two torpedoes and nine 4-inch shells fired from its escorting destroyers.
USS Palm Beach
Before its sailing days ended, the USS Palm Beach served as a U.S. Army transport, a Navy spy ship and a drug smuggling vessel, then became an artificial reef still viewed today as a tourism attraction in the Cayman Islands.
The USS Palm Beach began its career as a U.S. Army Camano class light cargo ship named the "Armond Peterson (FS 217)". It was delivered to the Army Transportation Service in December 1944, and used as a supply ship and troop transport during the final months of World War II.
The U.S. Navy acquired the "Armond Peterson" and renamed it the USS Palm Beach (AKL-45) on June 18, 1966. It was converted to a Banner class "environmental research ship (AGER-3)" at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and commissioned into service on May 13, 1967.
The USS Palm Beach was deployed to the North Sea and also toured the Mediterranean during its two-year career with the U.S. Navy. Technical research ships were used by the Navy to gather intelligence and intercept wireless communications from hostile nations during the height of the Cold War in the 1960s.
The USS Palm Beach was the sister ship of the USS Pueblo, which was captured by North Korea while spying off its coast on Jan. 23, 1968, and remains a captive vessel today. The capture of the "Pueblo" compromised the missions and technical equipment used by other AGER "research ships" such as the USS Palm Beach.
The Palm Beach was decommissioned and struck from the Naval Register Dec. 1, 1969. The vessel was sold and resold in 1969-70, eventually acquired by a Panamanian company and renamed the "M/V Oro Verde".
The "Oro Verde" became involved in drug smuggling activity in the Caribbean. It ran aground in the Cayman Islands. Instead of salvaging the vessel, the Cayman government sank it as an artificial reef for scuba divers.
USS Lake Worth
The USS Lake Worth was a born-again vessel given a second life after sinking in a Baltic Sea storm. Like many resurrected ships, it bore a sailor's superstition of a bad luck vessel, which became reality during World War II when it was sunk a second time by a Stuka dive bomber.
The freighter "War Banner" was built by the Detroit Drydock Company in 1917, but renamed the USS Lake Worth by the U.S. Navy before completion. It was commissioned on Feb. 26, 1918, and used as a supply ship during World War I.
When the war ended, the USS Lake Worth was decommissioned Aug. 2, 1919 and returned to the United States Shipping Board for disposal. She was sold to Lloyd Royal Belge of Antwerp, Belgium, in 1920 and renamed the "Phoenicier".
While approaching the harbor of Memel, Germany, from Blyth, England, with a full load of coal, the "Phoenicier" grounded and sank during a gale. After resting on the bottom of sea for seven months, the freighter was raised and towed into the port of Memel.
The ship was declared a "constructive total loss" and sold to Stelp and Leighton, Ltd. of London in July 1924. However, the vessel was repaired, brought back to life, and renamed the "Amberstone".
The former USS Lake Worth was sold again in 1928 to J.A. Haarberg of Bergen, Norway, and received yet another identity as the "Orland". After sailing 12 years as a Norwegian merchant ship, the vessel met its demise a second and final time on April 29, 1940.
During the German invasion of Norway, a Luftwaffe air raid off Midsund, Norway, claimed the "Orland" as one of it victims. Today, the vessel rests at the bottom of a Norwegian fjord.
The Second 'USS Jupiter'
The second Navy ship named the USS Jupiter (AK-43) more than made up for the loss of the original USS Jupiter/Langley with a distinguished war record as an auxiliary military cargo ship in both World War II and the Korean conflict.
It was built in 1939 under a Maritime Commission contract and christened the "Flying Cloud". The Aldebaran class cargo ship was acquired by the Navy June 19, 1941 and commissioned as the second USS Jupiter on Aug. 22, 1942.
During World War II, the USS Jupiter was assigned to the Asiatic-Pacific Theater and participated as a Navy support vessel in six campaigns: the Gilbert Islands (Tarawa) operation in 1943, the capture of Saipan in the Mariana Islands, the occupation of Caroline Islands in 1944, the Leyte landings in the Philippines, the Iwo Jima assault in February 1945, and the capture and occupation of Okinawa in June 1945.
The ship was designated as a "Jupiter Class Aviation Stores Issue Ship (AVS-8)" on July 31, 1945, becoming the model for a new class of munitions vessels for the Navy. Following World War II, the USS Jupiter joined the "Occupation and China Service" in the Far East for two years before it was laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet in San Diego.
With the outbreak of the Korean War, the USS Jupiter was recommissioned Oct 10, 1950 and served as a Naval support vessel throughout the conflict. It would win seven battle stars while stationed off the coast of Korea. When peace accords were signed in 1953, the Jupiter once again joined the Occupation Service in the Far East.
The ship was decommissioned in June 1964 and mothballed with the National Defense Reserve Fleet at Olympia, WA. The second USS Jupiter was struck from the Naval Register on Aug. 1, 1965.
(c.) 2015.
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