Pacific ships

Photos and the story

Libra

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TypeCargo ship (AK)
HullAK-53
FateAfloat. Cargo ship. Reclassified AKA-12 on 1 February 1943. Decommissioned 19 April 1948. Recommissioned 28 August 1950.
Command

Laid down, displacement, length, beam, draft, speed, and complement are not stored for each hull, so this table leaves them out.

Libra
USS Libra (AKA-12) underway in Hampton Roads, 11 August 1952. She had been AK-53 at the Guadalcanal landings. U.S. Navy photograph. Public domain.

USS Libra was a United States Navy cargo ship, designated AK-53. She took part in the landings on Guadalcanal and Tulagi on 7 August 1942. That day she served as a cargo ship in Transport Division B, off Beach Red, with William Bartlett Fletcher, Jr., in command. On 1 February 1943 the Navy reclassified her AKA-12, the hull designation for an attack cargo ship. Off Rendova on 30 June 1943, Libra took the torpedoed McCawley in tow.

Libra survived the war. The Navy decommissioned her on 19 April 1948, and she was recommissioned on 28 August 1950.

The pictures on this page are the originals.