Ship Index

Army Ships

Modified 30 March 2008 with brief explanation of the "QS" designation.

HARBOR BOAT DESIGNATIONS WITH EXPLANATORY NOTES
[From undated typewritten list (possibly 1942-43) in NARA Record Group 336]

B	Barge or Lorcha	L	Distribution Box Boat
BB	Balloon Barge	LT	Large Tug, over 100'
BBP	Balloon Barrage Leader	M	Motor Mine Yawl
BC	Cargo Barge (Med. 110'-130')	MP	Mine Planter
BCS	Cargo Barge (Sm. 45' - 60')	AMP	Mine Planter (Army)
BCL	Cargo Barge (Large - 210' or more)	MT	Motor Towboat (Sm. 26')
BD	Derrick and Crane Barges	MTL	Motor Towboat (Large, over 26')
BDP	Pontoon Derrick Barge	OB	Outboard Launch - Detachable Motor
BK	Knocked-down barge	QBM	Outboard Motor - Stationary Motor
BG	Gasoline Barge	P	Rescue Boat 42', 83', 104', Picket Boat
BSP	Self-propelled Barge	Q	Launch, more than 60'
BW	Water Barge	R	Rowboat
BTL	Truck Lighter	SG	Swamp Glider
C	Navy Type Launch (Obsolete designation)	ST	Tug (Small - under 100')
CL	Landing Boat
D	Dory and Dinghie	T	Freight & Passenger Vessel 65'
F	Cargo Vesse1 99' Steel	TKL	Tank Lighter
FA	Cargo Vessel (Air Corps)	TP-TH	Freight & Passenger Vessel (Sm. - under 100')
FT	Freight & Passenger Boat 115'	V	Speed Boat
FP*-FH	Freight and Passenger Boat over 100'	Y	Tanker - 176'
G	Marine Tractor
H	150' Retrieving Vessel - Air Corps Boat
HA	Hoisting or Retrieving Vessel
JR	Radio Controlled Boat
J	Launch up to 50' which includes: Ambulance Boat Launch (Navy type) Motor Sailer ?? (obscured in copy) Boat Shallow Draft Boat Skiff Speed Boat Utility

I suppose one could have some trivia fun with some of these. "What kind of army vessel would one designated as BB-63 be? Some sort of an Army battleship?" No, far from it. Such a vessel would be a small, unpowered barge for carrying a barrage balloon such as those seen in photos floating over the Normandy beaches -- a far cry from the naval vessel BB-63, the USS Missouri.

* * *

Army FP/FS Vessels is an exception to my intent of not getting into Army types beyond Mine Planters and cable ships.

The FP type became the Army FS types. Some of these were acquired by Navy from Army to become the Navy AKL type. One of these vessels was the USS Reluctant in the 1955 film Mr. Roberts with Henry Fonda in the title role. I expect the Army crew of some of these little freighters in backwater areas might have known very well what the line in the movie about sailing "From tedium to apathy and back again, with an occasional side trip to monotony" really meant.

"Slowbell" has a page on his really enjoyable site about the fictional USS Reluctant of the Movie Mr. Roberts. We had long known it was an ex Army FS type that had become a Navy AKL that was used. There was one great mystery -- the little extra deck that was the stage for all activities related to The Palm Tree! There are a number of things "wrong" with the ladders, most glaringly the ladder to the deck hatch cover that just cannot be on a working ship. We had a few e-mail discussions on the subject then it faded. Meanwhile "Slowbell" got busy. It turns out that the set builders had to do fewer modifications than we'd ever thought. See how at A Movie Seastory that Bugged Me.

Some ex-FP/FS vessels were given other Navy classifications. Perhaps the most famous of all these ships was the U.S. Army cargo ship FP-344, (1944-1966), Later renamed FS-344, acquired by the Navy in April 1966 and renamed the USS Pueblo (AGER 2).

Comments and Questions

Since adding this page about a month ago several people have contacted me with comments that appear to be related to these Harbor Boat Service craft that I do not cover on the main Army Ships pages. Some have been simple questions while others have provided brief comments about the service. One dealt with a 104-foot air rescue vessel that had been converted to a "Q" category used as local transport in the Philippines:

During WWII, I and nine others manned a 104' long, 140 ton, mahogany hulled, modified aircraft twin engine ship named the QS-19. I believe that 34 of these ships were built, originally to serve in the Atlantic for air-craft rescue. They had a stern A-frame to lift fighter planes, a center hold with body baskets and a big reefer for blood and medical supplies.

Unfortunately they were too slow (18 knots) to save any pilots or planes as the planes had already sunk. Some were sent to the Pacific where they were used for inter island communication. This is where the 369th Harbor Craft Unit came in. The QS-19 made weekly circuits to islands in the Philippines from just after the Leyte invasion until our crew was relived in Feb. of 1946. We worked for the Military Police, who were in effect the government of the Islands, carrying official mail, passengers and sometimes cargo.

As soon as we got the ship, we stripped it of its guns, gasoline fired furnace, and medical equipment. We had a super record for reliability, even though sister ships were seldom operable. The aircraft engines had over 1,200 operational hours on them, without over-haul, something our employer couldn't see the need for. The ship also leaked, and we couldn't go to dry-dock.

None of our crew had any special training, we all had been around small boats, that was all. Such was our part of the USTC.

I have tried to find archive material on the Harbor Craft Units and the QS ships, to no avail. Do you have any suggestions. I could write a small book on our adventures. Many of my company mates were college students, yanked out of the ASTP. While we bitched, we later learned that a much larger group were thrown into the Battle of the Bulge with little combat training. Luckily us army sailors didn't sink our ship.

I believe this was probably one of the 104' Army Aircraft Rescue Boats built by Casey Boat Building Company, Inc. of Fairhaven, MA. Even though I replied to the writer within hours I was unable to get through. I've only gotten "The following addresses had permanent fatal errors ----- <[sender]@home.com> (reason: 550 <[sender]@home.com>... User unknown)" in repeated attempts. I'd like to hear more and I also hope the book gets written if for no other end than to be placed in a public educational setting as I urge in Capture History.

2008 Update: The "QS" question has come up several times since. QS-19 was a variant of the "P" rescue version, Design 235 (Boat, Rescue, Gasoline, Wood, 104') which itself was probably patterned on the British Fairmile Rescue Moror Launch (RML), a variant of the workhorse Motor Launch (ML). This was, as described, not entirely successful as an air rescue craft over the long ranges involved outside the European Theater. The variant was the QS, Design 235-C (Boat, Supply, High Speed, Gasoline, Wood, 104'), with hull numbers QS 2-34 and QS 33-78). Some of the "P" boats may have been drafted for fast supply as well. To add confusion, the Australian built Fairmile ML design was used in SWPA by the U.S. Army (often with Australian crew) as a high speed supply vessel designated "FS" with the numbers followed by an "A" as in "FS 8A."

A question of another e-mail raises an interesting larger question. The sender, a collector, found an old uniform with Army Air Corps collar insignia and a "Navy style PT boat shoulder patch in place of a typical Air Corp division patch." He'd thought it a modified uniform until reading one of the other pages mentioning "crash boats." Now my question:

We know that for the very small craft an Army "boat" company would man a little fleet. To see today's arrangement see Chapter two of Army FM 55-50. What about the much larger ocean capable vessels such as the "F" type cargo vessels and "Y" type tankers? Those were crewed by military people, though on occasion it appears they also had civilian mariners as in the large transports. What was their unit designation? Somehow I cannot quite see several of them, roaming the seas and being assigned to a company. A battalion? Special unit? Did they have a distinctive patch or vessel emblem?

I'm also interested in the large transports with respect to emblems and such. I've been increasingly struck by how much today's MSC heritage lies with the Army transports. A friend and I were laughing just the other night about a menu from a U.S.A.T. of 1944 looked like those MSTS/MSC menus we knew. "Roast Stuffed Young Tom Turkey" and the menu's layout could be off a ship we knew decades later. MSTS/MSC ships have emblems. I believe all are "unofficial" emblems that appear on patches, plaques, mugs, and other items for use both as semiofficial gifts to VIP visitors and sale in the ship's store. What about the Army transports? MSTS/MSC emblems are not covered well in collections or publications, but they do turn up. I've found nothing on U.S.A.T. Equivalents.

One other e-mail illustrates both manning of an "F" type and an innovative way of getting home at war's end when transport was so short:

After the atomic bomb was dropped on Japan, I had the points to return to the USA but transportation was very scarce, so I managed to come home as a deck officer aboard a very small Army Transport ship (FS 533) out of Saipan in the Marianna Islands. Total crew was 12 men. It was like coming home in a yacht compared to the troopship Zoella Lykes that brought me to Saipan from Seattle. This small ship was crewed by Army officers of the Army Transport Corps. [Ex Lieutenant W. J. Uhlich]

I appreciate such communications and hope to one day assemble them into a more orderly form. Life on the troop transports from the viewpoint of the "passenger" is fairly well covered in all its misery. Coverage is fairly sparse for the other vessels. I'd like to see more.

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Copyright © 2002 by Ramon Jackson
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