Figure 1: USS Current (ARS-22) underway, date and location unknown. US Navy photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 2: USS Current (ARS-22) underway, date and location unknown. US Navy photograph. Click on photograph for larger image. 
Figure 3: USS Current (ARS-22) underway, date and location unknown. US Navy photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 4: USS Current (ARS-22) underway, date and location unknown. US Navy photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 5: USS Current (ARS-22) during salvage operations of a Japanese World War II era midget submarine at Keehi Lagoon just outside Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, 6 July 1960. This submarine has been designated by the Navy as "Midget D." It was launched from its mother submarine I-18 at 0215 on the morning of 7 December 1941. Photograph courtesy of Joe Radigan MACM USN Ret. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 6: Aft view of USS Current (ARS-22) at the Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, California, 28 March 1946. Current was being overhauled at Mare Island from 1 to 31 March 1946. Forward of her from left to right are: USS Lipan (ATF-85), USS Deliver (ARS-23), and USS Preserver (ARS-8). Mare Island Navy Yard photograph No. 1241-46. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 7: Amidships view of USS Current (ARS-22) at the Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, California, 28 March 1946. The sterns of USS Deliver (ARS-23) and USS Preserver (ARS-8) are seen forward of Current. Mare Island Navy Yard photograph No. 1242-46. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 8: USS Current (ARS-22) and USS Abnaki (ATF-96) underway off the Hawaiian Islands, 22 November 1953. US Navy photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
The 1,530-ton USS Current (ARS-22) was a Diver class rescue and salvage ship that was built by the Basalt Rock Company at Napa, California, and was commissioned on 14 June 1944. The ship was approximately 213 feet long and 39 feet wide, had a top speed of 15 knots, and had a crew of 120 officers and men. Current was armed with one 3-inch gun, two twin 40-mm guns, and four .50-caliber machine guns.
After being
commissioned, Current left San
Francisco, California, on 6 August 1944 and, after making a stop a Pearl
Harbor, Hawaii, eventually made her way to Ulithi Atoll in the Caroline
Islands, arriving there on 14 October 1944. Ulithi was an enormous American
naval base which acted as a forward supply depot, repair facility, and staging
area for the Navy’s western Pacific operations. Approximately 700 ships could
fit in its gigantic lagoon, which served as an anchorage for every type of ship
imaginable. Many severely damaged ships were also sent to Ulithi for temporary
repairs before making the long journey back to the United States. Here Current set up shop and assisted a
number of damaged warships that were returning from major battles throughout
the area. Current performed some of
her most important salvage work on USS Houston
(CL-81) and USS Canberra (CA-70),
keeping both ships afloat after they sustained severe damage from Japanese
aircraft off the coast of Formosa (now Taiwan). The repairs on both ships
lasted from 19 October to 14 December 1944. On 11 March 1945, Current also provided major assistance
to the aircraft carrier USS Randolph
(CV-15), which was hit by a Japanese suicide plane (or kamikaze) while at
anchor at Ulithi. Attacks like the one on Randolph
showed just how dangerous being anchored in a forward naval base could be.
Current eventually left Ulithi and, after
making a brief stop at Leyte in the Philippines, steamed on to provide
assistance to the warships involved with the amphibious invasion of Okinawa. Current arrived off Okinawa on 2 June
1945 and began salvage operations on many of the ships that were damaged by
Japanese air attacks. Current
remained at Okinawa even after the war ended and stayed there until 5 January
1946, when she was ordered to return to the United States. After stopping at
Sasebo, Japan, for fuel and provisions, Current
started her long journey back to the United States, arriving at San
Francisco on 27 February.
From 15 April
1946 to 22 July 1947, Current was
assigned to JTF-1 as part of Operation “Crossroads,” the atomic weapons tests
in the Marshall Islands. The ship returned to San Diego, California, on 23
August 1947 and was decommissioned and placed in reserve on 9 February 1948. Current was re-commissioned on 10
October 1951 and on 7 December left Long Beach, California, and arrived at
Pearl Harbor a week later. Current
spent all of 1952 in the Far East, assisting a wide variety of vessels during
the Korean War. On her way back to the United States after this deployment, Current carried out an extensive and
successful salvage operation on the merchant ship SS Quartette off Midway Island from 23 December 1952 to 6 March 1953.
Later that year, Current returned to
Korea and in a daring operation refloated the stranded LST-578 at Cheju. She also completed a lengthy and difficult
operation to salvage SS Cornhusker
Mariner, which had gone aground off Pusan.
During her
next Far Eastern deployment in 1954 and 1955, Current was attached to the Taiwan Patrol, which included visits to
Japanese ports. Current also
participated in the “Passage to Freedom” evacuation of refugees from North
Vietnam. Operation Passage to Freedom
was the term used by the United States Navy to describe its transportation from
1954 to 1955 of 310,000 Vietnamese civilians, soldiers, and non-Vietnamese
members of the French Army from communist North Vietnam to South Vietnam. The
French military transported an additional 500,000 people.
Current was then sent back to the United
States for an overhaul and to be converted for operations in the Arctic. Current arrived at Seattle, Washington,
on 25 June 1955. After her overhaul and conversion was completed, Current carried construction equipment
and materials into poorly charted waters along the northern coast of Canada and
Alaska from 15 July to 30 September. After that, she steamed to Pearl Harbor
for repairs. Current eventually left
Pearl Harbor and steamed to Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands to inspect
the work on mooring buoys from 16 January to 22 February 1956. She returned to Seattle
on 29 June to join a convoy carrying supplies to stations of the Distant Early
Warning Line from 15 July to 10 September.
The Distant Early Warning Line,
also known as the DEW Line or Early Warning Line, was a system of
radar stations in the far northern Arctic region of Canada, with additional
stations along the north coast and Aleutian Islands of Alaska, in addition to
the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland. It was set up to detect incoming
Soviet bombers during the Cold War and provide early warning of a land-based
invasion. After completing this mission, Current
returned to Pearl Harbor.
In 1957, Current was sent to the western Pacific
and participated in a mine-recovery training exercise around the Marianas
Islands. She also surveyed and blasted a channel in Scarborough Shoal in the
South China Sea and salvaged aircraft and ships off the coast of Japan. After
returning to Pearl Harbor and working there for a few months, Current was sent back to the Far East to
patrol with destroyers off Japan and to conduct operations with the Seventh
Fleet in the Taiwan Straits from October 1957 to February 1958.
From July to
December 1958, Current participated
in diving training missions at Pusan, Korea, and salvaged several ships and
aircraft in Japanese waters. In March and April 1959, Current carried passengers to Samoa where her divers worked on a
sunken hulk. In November she went back to the Far East for duty until March
1960, when she returned to Pearl Harbor and remained based there for several
years. Current went on to serve six
tours of duty in Vietnam between 1965 and 1971, assisting countless numbers of
ships.
Current was decommissioned for the last time
on 28 April 1972 and was struck from the Naval Register of Ships on 1 June
1973. She was sold for scrapping on 27 June 1975. USS Current received two battle stars for her service in World War II,
three battle stars for her service during the Korean War, and six campaign
stars for her service during the Vietnam War. Few know of the existence of salvage
ships, let alone the important jobs they do. That is, of course, unless you are
on a ship in desperate need of assistance. Salvage ships also remove sunken or
partially sunken ships from coastlines, harbors, and channels, preventing them
from becoming hazards to navigation. No major fleet can operate efficiently
without them.
