USS Altair ( AD - 11 ) USS " Altair " ( AD - 11 ) was the lead ship of a class of two destroyer tender s . She was named for " Altair " , the brightest star in the constellation Aquila . Service history . United States Shipping Board , 1919 – 1921 . " Altair " was laid down as the steel - hulled , single - screw freighter ID - 4156 " Edisto " under a United States Shipping Board ( USSB ) contract on 18 December 1918 at Seattle , Washington , by the Skinner and Eddy Corporation . Launched on 10 May 1919 , " Edisto " came under naval scrutiny in the 13th Naval District , being given the identification number ( Id . No . ) 4156 and initially earmarked for potential service as a collier . After a brief period of operation by the USSB , " Edisto " was transferred to the Navy by executive order on 29 October 1921 and renamed " Altair " on 2 November 1921 . Classified as a destroyer tender , AD - 11 , the ship was delivered to the Navy on 5 December 1921 and commissioned at the New York Navy Yard the following day , 6 December 1921 , Commander James H . Comfort in command . Destroyer tender , 1921 – 1939 . Converted to a destroyer tender at the New York Navy Yard , and equipped with surplus and salvaged machine tools and shop equipment selected from dismantled Navy and Army war plants in the demobilization after World War I , " Altair " underwent her metamorphosis in nine months and then fitted out at her conversion yard into late November , 1922 . She then proceeded to the west coast of the United States via Newport , Rhode Island ; Hampton Roads and the Panama Canal Zone , reaching San Diego , California , on 17 December 1922 . She was assigned to Destroyer Squadron 12 , Destroyer Squadrons , Battle Fleet — a unit of 19 destroyers ( one " leader " and three six - ship divisions ) operating at that time with 84 % complements as part of the " rotating reserve . " From 1922 to 1939 , " Altair " followed her charges and provided support services wherever required ( jobs which varied from simple repairs to reblading turbines ) . During this time , to have her own capabilities maintained , she underwent yearly upkeep at the Mare Island Navy Yard . As an example of her following the fleet to ply her vital trade , in 1925 , " Altair " supported her assigned destroyers in Hawaiian waters during joint Army - Navy maneuvers designed to test the defenses of that Pacific base , and that summer and autumn , when the United States Fleet carried out its Australian cruise , " Altair " visited Tutuila , Samoa ; Port Phillip , Australia and Lyttelton , New Zealand , during the course of her voyage . In 1926 , the events in Nicaragua prompted the dispatch of a sailors and marines from ships of the Special Service Squadron and , later , from other ships in the fleet . However , " as the danger points moved inland " , the Secretary of the Navy ' s report for 1928 states , " it became advisable to use marines for this duty . " Accordingly , a marine expeditionary force , some 3 , 000 - men strong , was dispatched to Nicaragua early in 1927 . " Altair " participated in this troop lift , when she and the destroyer tender transported Marine Observation Squadron 1 and a rifle company from San Diego to Corinto , a port on the west coast of Nicaragua , reaching their destination 16 February 1927 . The destroyer tender then resumed her operations providing services to the destroyers of Squadron 12 , accompanying them to Narragansett Bay for tactical exercises before ultimately returning once more to San Diego . World War II . 1939 – 1941 . When World War II broke out in Europe in the autumn of 1939 , " Altair " was tending Destroyer Squadrons 4 and 6 , of Destroyer Flotilla 2 , Battle Force , still based on San Diego . In March 1940 , however , to service the destroyers of the Hawaiian Detachment sent to Pearl Harbor in December of the previous year , " Altair " was shifted to " Pearl . " En route to her new duty station she served as plane guard for Navy Consolidated PBY Catalina flying boat s being ferried to Oahu , arriving at Pearl Harbor on 16 April 1940 . She tended destroyers there through the end of the year 1940 and into 1941 as the fleet based permanently on Pearl Harbor following the conclusion of Fleet Problem XXI . 1941 – 1943 . Overhauled at Mare Island Navy Yard from 6 April to 6 June 1941 , " Altair " returned to Pearl Harbor on 26 June . For the next three months the destroyer tender discharged her duty there until she departed Hawaiian waters on 30 September for the west coast . Pausing briefly at San Diego from 12 – 18 October , the ship pushed south , transited the Panama Canal on 2 – 3 November 1941 , and arrived at her new duty station , Hamilton , Bermuda , on 11 November 1941 , to provide support for destroyers operating on patrols in the North Atlantic . After the Japanese attack upon the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor brought the United States into World War II , " Altair " maintained a routine of carrying out upkeep and repair work on Atlantic Fleet destroyers at Bermuda that continued into the summer of 1942 . Underway for San Juan , Puerto Rico , on 3 July 1942 , escorted by the destroyers and , " Altair " arrived at her destination on the 6th , detaching the two destroyers and picking up another , , which escorted the tender of Trinidad , where she arrived on 11 July . Except for brief periods at Aruba and Curaçao , in the Dutch West Indies , in early September , " Altair " tended destroyers at Trinidad through mid - July 1943 . 1943 – 1946 . Following an availability at the Norfolk Navy Yard , " Altair " reported to Commander , Operational Training Command , Atlantic Fleet , on 21 August 1943 and soon resumed active tender operations at Bermuda , this time in support of the destroyer and destroyer escort shakedown group ( Task Group 23 . 1 ) until shifted to Guantanamo Bay , Cuba , where she arrived on 11 March 1945 . Providing tender services at Guantanamo Bay until 3 May 1945 , " Altair " then proceeded back to the Norfolk Navy Yard to be prepared for service in the Pacific theater . While the ship proceeded on her voyage , Germany surrendered unconditionally and the European war came to an end . Prepared for " distant service " , " Altair " emerged from the Norfolk Navy Yard on 26 July and set course for the Pacific . Arriving in the Panama Canal Zone on 4 August , the ship remained there for the next eleven days while World War II in the Pacific , hastened to a conclusion by the explosion of two atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki , came to an end . " Altair " sailed for Pearl Harbor on 15 August 1945 . " Altair " reached Pearl Harbor on 6 September 1945 and provided tender services to small ships and craft into the early spring of 1946 . She departed Hawaiian waters for the last time on 27 April 1946 and reached San Francisco , California on 8 May , slated for disposal within the 12th Naval District . Decommissioning and disposal . Decommissioned at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard ( formerly the Mare Island Navy Yard ) on 21 June 1946 , " Altair " was transferred to the Maritime Commission on 8 July 1946 and her name struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 21 July 1946 . Laid up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet ' s Suisun Bay , California , berthing area , the ship remained there until sold on 9 March 1948 to the Basalt Rock Company , which subsequently removed her from government custody and scrapped her .