USS Brunswick (ATS-3)

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USS Brunswick (ATS-3) was an Edenton-class salvage and rescue ship of the United States Navy, serving from 1972 to 1996. It was named after Brunswick, Georgia, and was the third ship to carry the name. The ship was built by Brooke Marine Ltd. in Lowestoft, England. It was laid down on 27 May 1968, launched on 14 October 1969, and delivered to the Navy in Norfolk, Virginia, on 21 November 1972, before being commissioned on 19 December 1972.

General characteristics: Brunswick displaced about 2,592 tons when light and 3,063 tons full load. It measured 283 feet in length, 59 feet in beam, and had a draft of 17 to 18 feet. The vessel could reach about 17 knots and carried a crew of 106. Armament consisted of two 20 mm guns and four 0.5-inch machine guns.

Service history: After fitting out, Brunswick operated mainly from Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Its first Western Pacific deployment began in 1974, including salvage training near Korea, operations around Singapore and the Philippines, and the tow of the former USS Oriskany to Bremerton in October 1974. The ship conducted salvage, towing, diving, and training missions around Hawaii, the Philippines, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and Subic Bay through the late 1970s and into the early 1980s. In October 1980 Brunswick rescued 27 Vietnamese refugees at sea and brought them to Subic Bay. The vessel continued similar deployments and training missions in the Western Pacific region through 1981 and beyond.

Brunswick was decommissioned on 8 March 1996 and transferred to South Korea on 29 August 1996 under the Security Assistance Program, where she served as ATS-28 Gwangyang. She was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 12 December 1996 and was scrapped in 2016. As Gwangyang, the ship participated in the 2010 salvage of the ROKS Cheonan (PCC-772).