Figure 1: USS Tangier (AV-8) off Mare Island, California, circa August 1941. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 2: USS Tangier (AV-8) anchored off Mare Island, California, circa August 1941. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the US National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 3: USS Tangier (AV-8) anchored off Mare Island, California, circa August 1941. Note OS2U seaplanes on deck, aft. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the US National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 4: Japanese bomb explodes some twenty feet off the starboard side of USS Tangier (AV-8), forward of the bridge, during the Pearl Harbor air raid, 7 December 1941. The original photograph was in the CinCPac report of the Pearl Harbor attack, 15 February 1942, Volume 3. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 5: Damage to glass windows on USS Tangier’s (AV-8) bridge, caused by a Japanese bomb that exploded off the starboard side during the Pearl Harbor air raid, 7 December 1941. The original photograph was in the CinCPac report of the Pearl Harbor Attack, 15 February 1942, Volume 3. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 6: USS Utah (AG-16) capsizing off Ford Island during the attack on Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941, after being torpedoed by Japanese aircraft . Photographed from USS Tangier (AV-8), which was moored astern of Utah. Note colors half-raised over fantail, boats nearby, and sheds covering Utah's after guns. Official US Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 7: USS Curtiss (AV-4) on fire after she was hit by a crashing Japanese dive bomber. Photographed from USS Tangier (AV-8). USS Medusa (AR-1) is at right. Timbers floating in the water (foreground) may be from USS Utah (AG-16), which had been sunk at her berth, astern of Tangier. Note weathered paintwork on Curtiss and Medusa. The original photograph was in the CinCPac report of the Pearl Harbor attack, 15 February 1942, Volume 3. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 8: USS Tangier (AV-8) anchored at Noumea, New Caledonia, 14 April 1942. She has a PBY-5 and an OS2U-2 on the seaplane deck, aft. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 9: USS Tangier (AV-8) at anchor, circa 1942-1943. The radar tower over the bridge and the small funnel extension were probably fitted during a refit at Oakland, California, in July to September 1942. US National Archives photo # 19-N-40106, RG-19 LCM, a US Navy Bureau of Ships photograph now in the collections of the US National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 10: Broadside view of USS Tangier (AV-8) off San Francisco, 17 February 1944. Mare Island Navy Yard photo # 1056. Courtesy Darryl Baker. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 11: USS Tangier (AV-8) in the south Pacific area, July 1944. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 12: USS Tangier (AV-8) anchored in the south Pacific area, July 1944. Note PBY patrol seaplane flying past, beyond her bow. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 13: USS Currituck (AV-7) (upper), and USS Tangier (AV-8) (lower), moored at Morotai (now part of Indonesia) in October 1944, while supporting seaplane operations there in connection with the Leyte invasion. Note aircraft rescue boats tied up alongside Tangier and OS2U floatplanes on both ships' seaplane decks. Official US Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 14: SS Detroit berthed at Bremerhaven, Germany, July 1971. She used to be USS Tangier (AV-8). Courtesy Gerhard L. Mueller-Debus. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 15: SS Detroit berthed at Bremerhaven, Germany, July 1971. She used to be USS Tangier (AV-8). Courtesy Gerhard L. Mueller-Debus. Click on photograph for larger image.
Named after an island and a sound in the lower Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, the 11,760-ton USS Tangier was the lead ship in a class of three seaplane tenders. Built by the Moore Dry Dock Company at Oakland, California, the ship was originally being built as a civilian steamer named Sea Arrow until it was purchased by the US Navy on 8 July 1940 and renamed Tangier (AV-8). The ship then was converted into a seaplane tender and commissioned on 25 August 1941. The ship was approximately 492 feet long and 69 feet wide, had a top speed of 18.4 knots, and had a crew of 1,075 officers and men. Tangier was armed with one 5-inch gun, four 3-inch guns, and eight 40-mm guns.
Shortly after being commissioned in August 1941, Tangier completed her shakedown cruise and was assigned to act as the seaplane tender for Patrol Wing (PatWing) 2, based at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Tangier arrived at Pearl Harbor on 3 November and was moored just aft of the former battleship USS Utah (AG-16), which was serving as an antiaircraft training ship. For the next month, Tangier tended to numerous seaplanes that were based at Pearl Harbor.
At 0755 on the morning of 7 December 1941, the first of two waves of Japanese aircraft attacked the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. Tangier was still anchored aft of Utah, but managed to shake off the initial surprise of being attacked and went directly to general quarters. Within three minutes after the start of the attack, Tangier’s antiaircraft guns started firing at the oncoming Japanese aircraft. Tangier’s gunners claimed to have shot down three Japanese aircraft and scored a hit on a Japanese midget submarine which had penetrated the harbor’s defenses. Tangier and her sister seaplane tender, USS Curtiss (AV-4), continued firing at the submarine until the destroyer Monaghan (DD-354) arrived and sank the submarine with depth charges. During the attack, Curtiss was hit by a bomb and by an enemy plane that crashed right into it. Tangier sustained only minor damage from a bomb that exploded next to the ship. By 0920, the skies were clear of Japanese warplanes, but most of the Pacific fleet was in ruins. Tangier began rescuing crewmen from Utah, which capsized in front of her.
Roughly a week after the attack, Tangier was attached to a small task force sent to reinforce the beleaguered American Marine garrison on Wake Island. The task force, though, was recalled to Pearl Harbor after the island fell to the Japanese on 23 December 1941. In February 1942, Tangier was sent to the South Pacific and was based at Noumea, New Caledonia. She spent the next three months there and her seaplanes played a supporting role in the Battle of the Coral Sea, which took place in May 1942. On 20 June, Tangier was relieved in New Caledonia and headed back to the United States for an overhaul. After making a stop at Pearl Harbor, Tangier arrived at San Francisco, California, on 15 July.
Once her overhaul was completed in September 1942, Tangier was sent again to the South Pacific. From February to August 1943, Tangier carried cargo to various bases and tended to seaplanes. In August, Tangier returned to Pearl Harbor and for the next few months she transported aviation supplies from Pearl Harbor and the United States to American Samoa and New Caledonia. Tangier arrived in San Diego, California, on 3 December 1943 for another overhaul.
On 21 February 1944, Tangier headed west again. From March 1944 until June 1945, Tangier moved from bases in Australia, New Guinea, and the Philippines, assisting seaplanes attached to the US Seventh Fleet and to General MacArthur’s forces. On several occasions, the seaplane tender had to fight off Japanese air attacks during her trek across the Pacific. Tangier was sent back to the United States for yet another overhaul on 27 June 1945 and arrived at San Francisco on 20 July. The ship was being overhauled when the war ended in the Pacific in August 1945, but was sent back to the Far East to support American occupation forces in Japan and China from October 1945 to March 1946. Tangier then made the long trip back to the United States, went through the Panama Canal, and arrived at Norfolk, Virginia, in late April. She then was sent to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for de-activation. USS Tangier was decommissioned in Philadelphia in January 1947 and remained in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet until 17 November 1961, when she was sold to the Union Minerals & Alloys Corporation for scrapping. But the corporation must have received a good offer for the tough old ship, because the company resold Tangier to the Sea-Land Service in 1962. This company overhauled and converted Tangier into a car carrier/container ship and re-named her SS Detroit. Detroit served until 1974 when she was sold for scrap for the last time.
