USS Granville S. Hall (YAG-40)

USS Granville S. Hall off the coast of Oahu, 8 November 1965
History
United States
Name: SS Granville S. Hall
Namesake: Granville S. Hall
Operator: Coast-Wise Lines
Builder: J. A. Jones Construction
Launched: 24 October 1944
Sponsored by: Mrs. Isabelle Gabriel
In service: October 1944
Out of service: June 1952
Fate: National Defense Reserve Fleet
Name: YAG-40
Operator: US Navy
Acquired: May 1953
In service: May 1953
Out of service: 1957
Fate: San Diego Reserve Fleet
Name: USS Granville S. Hall (YAG-40)
Operator: US Navy
Acquired: May 1962
Commissioned: 20 October 1962
Struck: May 1971
Fate: sold for scrapping in March 1972
General characteristics As built
Type: Liberty ship cargo vessel
Displacement: 11,600 tons
Length: 442 ft (135 m)
Beam: 57 ft (17 m)
Draft: 28 ft (8.5 m)
Speed: 10 kn (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement: 8 to 15

Granville S. Hall was a liberty ship named after Granville S. Hall. She was built at the J. A. Jones Construction Company in Florida and launched in 1944 to serve as a civilian cargo ship. In 1953 she was acquired by the United States Navy for use as a miscellaneous auxiliary service craft under the designation YAG-40. As YAG-40 she took part in Operation Castle before being laid up again in 1957. Reactivated in 1962, she was commissioned as USS Granville S. Hall (YAG-40) and participated in Project SHAD and Project 112. She was scrapped in 1972.

Service history

Originally a liberty ship named Granville S. Hall she was launched under Maritime Commission contract on 24 October 1944 by the J. A. Jones Construction Company in Panama City, Florida. She was sponsored by Mrs. Isabelle Gabriel; and placed in service the same month for cargo ship duty with Coast-Wise Lines. She operated with Coast-Wise until 1952 when she entered the National Defense Reserve Fleet at Suisun Bay in California.

Granville S. Hall was taken out of reserve in May 1953, and transferred to the US Navy and designated YAG-40. She was fitted out with scientific instruments of all kinds, including nuclear detection and measurement devices which enabled her to explore fallout areas and carry out ship decontamination tests. Granville S. Hall was also equipped with remote control devices which allowed her to be operated by a small crew in a sealed hold, and thus making her able to explore fallout areas of heavy concentration. She took part in the Operation Castle atomic bomb tests from March to May 1954 and other radioactivity and remote control tests. She was placed in the San Diego Reserve Fleet in late 1957.

Reactivated again in May 1962, she was placed in commission 20 October 1962 as USS Granville S. Hall (YAG-40) near San Francisco, California with Lieutenant Commander H. W. Kepler in command. Granville S. Hall and her sister ship, George Eastman were ordered to Pearl Harbor Hawaii arriving there 24 November for underway training. Following completion of training she resumed her scientific work.

During the remainder of the 1960s, AG-40 served as a floating laboratory and administrative command ship during Project SHAD ("Shipboard Hazards & Defense") and Project 112, where their mission was to evaluate the effectiveness of shipboard detection and protective procedures against biological/chemical warfare agents and to determine the distance released agents could travel. A measure of Plutonium contamination on Johnston Atoll was another mission for the ship. During the remainder of the decade, she served in connection with Project SHAD ("Shipboard Hazards & Defense"), an investigation of the threats posed to Navy ships by chemical and biological agents. These missions ended in the early 1970s and, in May 1971 after a rescue mission to the La Balsa expedition, Granville S. Hall was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register and turned over to the Maritime Administration. She was sold for scrapping in March 1972.

References

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