USS Beaver ( AS - 5 ) USS " Beaver " ( AS - 5 ) — a steel - hulled , single - screw , freight and passenger steamer built in 1910 at Newport News , Virginia , by the Newport News Shipbuilding Co . for the Union Pacific Railroad Company — was purchased from the San Francisco & Portland Steamship Co . on 1 July 1918 ; given the classification Id . No . 2302 ; converted to a submarine tender at the Mare Island Navy Yard ; and commissioned there on 1 October 1918 , Lieutenant Commander James A . Logan in command . To prepare her to serve as mobile repair and maintenance facility for submarine squadrons , the yard workers installed a machine shop , electrical plant , battery shop , and refrigerator units inside the ship . Since her duties included providing boat services to submarines , the tender carried four motor launches , three motor boats , and five smaller craft . Transfer to Pacific and 1920 ' s . Assigned to the Pacific Station , her first service was to escort four of the newly constructed " O " - class submarines ( O - boats ) from San Pedro , California , to Coco Solo in the Canal Zone . There she was assigned as tender to Submarine Division 14 ( SubDiv 14 ) . At this time , because diesel submarines had limited range and were prone to engine failures , their operations were generally confined to the coastal waters off American submarine base s . Before the war , there was only one submarine tender in commission and only three submarine bases in operation : one at New London , Connecticut ; another at San Pedro , California , and the third at Coco Solo in Panama . In order to expand operations and provide bases for the growing numbers of submarines being built during World War I , the Navy commissioned " Beaver " and four other tenders and began looking for new base locations . In the Pacific , with Japan viewed as the major threat to American security , naval and military planners began building up the defenses of Hawaii and other possessions . In Hawaii , four F - boats had been stationed at Honolulu and at Kuahua Island in Pearl Harbor from 21 July 1914 . Their crews had built a small pier at the latter location before returning to the west coast on 14 November 1915 . In order to improve this facility and create a permanent submarine base at Pearl Harbor , " Beaver " received orders to Hawaii in early 1919 . She escorted six of the new R - boats from San Pedro to Oahu that spring , arriving at Kuahua Island in early July . The tender ' s crew then helped the submariners build an administrative building , a mess hall , and shops to service and overhaul the boats . The following year , " Beaver " was ordered east to tend Atlantic Fleet submarines . Departing the Hawaiian Islands on 18 February 1920 , she transited the Panama Canal and arrived at Cristóbal , Colón on 25 March . From there , she proceeded to Kingston , Jamaica , and Havana , Cuba , before arriving at Hampton Roads , Virginia on 10 April . After repairs at the Philadelphia Navy Yard from 12 April - 14 May followed by two weeks of liberty at New York , the tender then escorted submarines , , , and from New London to the Panama Canal from 3 – 27 June . She spent the next year operating on " detached service " , presumably providing repair and support services to submarines up and down the east coast . On 17 July 1920 , the Navy adopted the alphanumeric system of hull classification and identification , and " Beaver " was designated AS - 5 . The tender ' s only unusual duty came in September , when she assisted the unsuccessful attempt to salvage submarine that had sunk off the Delaware Capes on the 1st . In December 1920 , " Beaver " received orders to repeat her 1919 service by escorting six S - boats of SubDiv 18 to the Pacific . This time , however , she was to convoy them all the way to the Philippine Islands . After several months of preparation , the division sailed via the Panama Canal and San Pedro , California , to Hawaii . From there , the tender and her charges made the long non - stop run from Hawaii to Guam . After a stop for fuel and supplies at Apra , the division arrived off Sangley Point in Manila Bay on 1 December 1921 . Over the next six months , the tender ' s crew helped improve the submarine base at Cavite and supported local operations by the division ' s diesel boats . On 5 June 1922 , Beaver sailed for the west coast via the " Great Circle Course " across the central Pacific . In between visits to Guam and Hawaii , she paid a brief call at Wake Island on the 19th to make a survey of the island . One officer on the survey team , Lt . Cdr . Sherwood Picking from the aeronautical test laboratory in Washington , D . C . , later wrote , from " a strategic point of view , Wake Island could not be better located , dividing as it does with Midway , the passage from Honolulu to Guam into almost exact thirds . " The survey concluded that some dredging and blasting would be necessary for Wake Island to serve as a submarine base . After reaching San Pedro on 14 July , the tender received orders to continue on to the east coast . Departing San Pedro on the 25th , " Beaver " escorted eight H - boats and four L - boats south toward the Panama Canal . As the submarines were small , and suffered from engine breakdowns , the tender had to tow as many as three submarines at a time during the long stretches between ports . The convoy stopped at Magdalena Bay and Acapulco in Mexico and at Corinto , Nicaragua , before mooring at Coco Solo in the Canal Zone on 28 August . Following two weeks of repairs , the convoy transited the canal on 11 September and arrived at Hampton Roads , Virginia , via Key West , Florida , on the 29th . Assigned to SubDiv 17 , the tender spent the next six months operating in Atlantic waters . She escorted her submarine charges to Norfolk , Virginia , New York , Newport , Rhode Island , and Portsmouth that fall , before ending the year at the submarine base in New London . Transferred to SubDiv 11 , Beaver then convoyed that division to the West Indies in January 1923 for the annual " fleet problem " , the fleet maneuvers that served as the culmination of the training year . In February – March , in company with and , the submarine tender supported operations in the Gulf of Panama as the submarines attempted to " defend the Canal Zone " in war games against the Battle Fleet . In April , the Commander , Submarine Division , Pacific , transferred his flag from " Camden " to " Beaver " . The tender then joined SubDiv 16 , consisting of six of the new S - boats , and escorted them back through the canal and on to San Pedro , arriving there at the end of the month . On 9 June , " Beaver " and four of her S - boats sailed north for a cruise in Alaskan waters . This was the first visit by American submarines to this region , and the squadron spent nearly three months surveying the straits and coastal islands for a possible submarine base . In mid - August , after a stop at Vancouver , British Columbia , the squadron visited Astoria , Oregon , to look over a site contemplated for another submarine base . Finally , " Beaver " and her charges returned to San Pedro on 25 August . The tender supported local submarine operations off California for the remainder of the year . On 2 January 1924 , " Beaver " , in company with ten submarines of SubDivs 16 and 17 , steamed south from San Pedro for another fleet exercise in the West Indies . Unlike the previous spring , however , this time the submarines sailed in company with the Battle Fleet , which had been operating in the Pacific since the previous year . The submarines first made the long non - stop cruise to Balboa , Canal Zone , on the Pacific side of the transisthmian waterway . Then the entire force steamed thence through the canal to participate in extensive war games in the West Indies with the Scouting Fleet . In addition to operations at sea , the submarine divisions visited Haiti , the Virgin Islands , and Trinidad . The tender and her charges returned to San Diego , via the canal , in May 1924 and remained there through the end of the year . " Beaver " got underway from Mare Island , California on 14 April 1925 , bound ultimately for the Asiatic Station . In company with five submarines of SubDiv 16 , she first stopped at Honolulu for maneuvers with the Battle Fleet in Hawaiian waters . The following month , after turning over the flag of Pacific Submarines to " Savannah " , " Beaver " sailed for the Philippines with six S - boats of SubDiv 16 , arriving at Manila on 12 July . Over the next seven years , " Beaver " tended SubDiv 16 in Philippine and Chinese waters . As service on the Asiatic Station was influenced by the monsoon seasons , the tender followed a standard pattern of annual operations . In the spring and summer , she shifted base from Manila Bay to Tsingtao , China , and supported submarine cruises up and down the Chinese coast . These included stops at Hong Kong , Swatow , Amoy , Shanghai , Weihai , and Tientsin . From the latter port , leave parties often visited Peking . In the fall and winter , as the monsoons moved southwest toward French Indochina and the Dutch East Indies , the tender and her charges shifted back to the Philippines for operations out of Cavite . 1930 ' s . Before steaming to China in 1930 , " Beaver " led SubDiv 16 on a cruise through the southern Philippine Islands . Following port visits to Iloilo on Panay and Zamboanga on Mindanao , the submarine division then visited the Sultan of Sulu at Jolo , an island in the Sulu archipelago . On its return to Manila from China late that year , the division surveyed the unfamiliar waters off the east coast of Formosa . " Beaver " departed Manila on 1 May 1932 , in company with six S - boats from SubDiv 9 , and sailed for Hawaii , arriving in Pearl Harbor on the 30th . There , while submarines , , , , , and were placed in reserve commission , " Beaver " was reassigned to Submarine Squadron 4 ( SubRon 4 ) . For the next seven years , Beaver remained in Hawaiian waters , tending submarines during local operations and steaming occasionally to Wake Island , Midway , and French Frigate Shoals for deployment exercises . The tender also participated in every fleet exercise held in Hawaiian waters during the 1930s . She missed the last fleet problem in 1940 , however , as the tender was in San Diego during February for a major overhaul . Intended to improve her capability to support submarines overseas , " Beaver " s modernization also included the installation of new repair equipment and the latest communications gear . The tender sailed for the east coast in November 1940 , passing through the Panama Canal and arriving at her new home port of New London , Connecticut , at the end of that month . There , she joined the growing numbers of warships in the Atlantic following the September 1940 " destroyers - for - bases " deal between the United States and Britain . The agreement , which transferred 50 " overage " destroyers to the Royal Navy in exchange for 99 - year leases on bases in the Western Hemisphere , allowed American forces to move into particularly important islands in the West Indies . Over the next year , naval engineers and civilian contractors set up a network of seaplane and naval bases to protect the approaches to the Panama Canal . During 1940 , " Beaver " helped establish a submarine base at Gregerie Channel in St . Thomas , Virgin Islands , and operated at the seaplane base near Hamilton , Bermuda . She also served as temporary flagship for Atlantic Fleet submarines before becoming the tender for SubRon 7 based at New London in April . Following American entry into World War II on 7 December 1941 , " Beaver " led 11 R - boats to the seaplane base in Bermuda , arriving there on the 10th . For the next nine months , the tender alternated between Bermuda and New London , supporting submarine patrols along the Caribbean - Bermuda - New England shipping lanes and assisting antisubmarine training for American destroyers . World War II in the Atlantic . On 3 September 1942 , " Beaver " and six submarines formed SubRon 50 at New London , a special unit intended for Operation " Torch " — the planned November landings in French North Africa . In October , while five of her submarines sailed with Task Group 34 . 11 ( TG 34 . 11 ) for operations off North Africa , Beaver joined convoy HX 212 , bound for the United Kingdom . On 24 October , the 48 - ship convoy ran into a patrol line of German U - boats which closed to attack . Starting on the 26th , and continuing over the next two nights , seven U - boats attacked the convoy . Although the convoy escorts — including the Coast Guard cutter " Campbell " and three British Commonwealth corvettes — drove off most of the attackers , three merchant ships were sunk and another two damaged by U - boats that broke through the defensive screen . The rest of the ships , including " Beaver " , came under RAF air cover out of Iceland on the 28th and arrived at the Firth of Clyde on 1 November . The submarine tender then steamed to the naval operating base at Rosneath , Scotland , near Glasgow , where she established a temporary submarine base for SubRon 50 . After the squadron ' s submarines returned from " Torch " operations , where they had conducted reconnaissance patrols off the beaches , they were assigned patrol areas in the Bay of Biscay . Between December 1942 and March 1943 , the submarines searched for blockade runners out of neutral Spanish ports . Starting in April , they patrolled off Norway , Iceland , and then the mid - Atlantic , searching for enemy U - boats and waiting in case the German surface fleet broke out from its Scandinavian bases . World War II Pacific Service and fate . On 15 July 1943 , " Beaver " sailed for the United States and , after an uneventful passage , arrived in New York later that month . Needed to support the growing American submarine offensive in the Pacific , the tender got underway 10 days later for San Diego , via the Panama Canal . After a brief overhaul in San Diego , she sailed for Alaska on 20 September . Assigned to SubRon 45 at Dutch Harbor , " Beaver " furnished tender services to North Pacific Force submarines when they returned from patrols in the northern Kurils and the Sea of Okhotsk . Her crew also helped establish and run a submarine base at Attu . On 12 February 1944 , the tender returned to San Diego , where her crew set up a submarine training school in conjunction with the Navy ' s West Coast Sound School . " Beaver " remained at San Diego — tending S - boats during training operations — until late June 1945 . Ordered into drydock for conversion to an internal combustion engine repair ship , she was redesignated ARG - 19 on 25 June 1945 . Following two months of repair and conversion , she departed San Diego on 28 August for duty with the service force in occupied Japan . The ship remained in Japanese waters — tending the multitude of small craft in use by the Navy — until March , 1946 , when she crossed the China Sea and steamed up the Yangtze River in China and then on to the Wangpoo River where she remained until May , 1946 . She then returned to the west coast , anchoring in Puget Sound , in the state of Washington . I served aboard the Beaver during her voyage through the Pacific , to Okinawa , China and Japan . " Beaver " was decommissioned on 17 July 1946 and turned over to the War Shipping Administration for disposal on 5 August . Her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 15 August , and she was sold to the Boston Metals Corp . for scrapping on 28 August 1950 .