page_title: USS Humboldt (AVP-21)
section_title: North Atlantic operations
hierarchical_section_title: USS Humboldt (AVP-21) / United States Navy service / North Atlantic operations
caption_attribution_description: The U.S. Navy Barnegat class seaplane tender USS Humboldt (AVP-21) at Bahia, Brazil, in April 1945. Note the Martin PBM Mariner of patrol bombing squadron VPB-203 aft of Humboldt.
context_page_description: USS Humboldt (AVP-21) was a United States Navy Barnegat-class small seaplane tender in commission from 1941 to 1947 that served in the Atlantic during World War II. She was briefly reclassified as a miscellaneous auxiliary and redesignated AG-121 during 1945. After the war, she was in commission in the United States Coast Guard as the cutter USCGC Humboldt, later WHEC-372, from 1949 to 1969,
context_section_description: Humboldt headed north on 1 July 1943, arriving at Boston, Massachusetts, on 17 July 1943 to take up new duties in the North Atlantic Ocean. Departing on 23 August 1943, she carried supplies and parts to U.S. Navy fleet air wings in Newfoundland, Iceland, and the United Kingdom. She continued this dangerous duty, often sailing unescorted, into the early months of 1944, occasionally sailing to Casablanca in French Morocco as well.
  Humboldt was at Casablanca in late May 1944 when she heard that a German submarine had torpedoed the escort aircraft carrier USS Block Island (CVE-21) and the destroyer escort USS Barr (DE-576) in the Atlantic, sinking Block Island and damaging Barr. Humboldt steamed out to help with survivors and to escort Barr to safety.
  Humboldt was soon underway again, this time to bring an experienced U.S. Navy submarine officer to rendezvous with the escort aircraft carrier USS Guadalcanal (CVE-60) hunter-killer group, which had just captured the U-505 in an epic encounter on 4 June 1944.
  Humboldt continued to bring supplies to aviation squadrons in the Azores and North Africa until 22 March 1945.
caption: USS Humboldt with a PBM Mariner flying boat of VPB-203 at Bahia, Brazil, in April 1945.
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