USS Naubuc (AN-84)

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USS Naubuc (YN-109 / AN-84 / YRST-4) was a Cohoes-class net laying ship built for the U.S. Navy during World War II. Named for a town in Connecticut, she was laid down on 31 December 1943 by the Marine Iron and Shipbuilding Company in Duluth, Minnesota; launched 15 April 1944; and commissioned 15 March 1945. Her original job was to lay and tend anti-submarine nets to protect ships and harbors.

After a brief shakedown on the East Coast, Naubuc sailed to the West Coast, reaching Pearl Harbor in July 1945 and then operating in the Pacific around Eniwetok and Leyte to lay and tend nets until the end of the war. She returned to the United States and was decommissioned at Seattle on 6 September 1946, joining the reserve fleet. Struck from the Navy List on 1 September 1962, she was transferred to the Maritime Administration and placed in the National Defense Reserve Fleet. Reacquired in 1967, she was rebuilt as a Salvage Craft Tender (ARST–4) in 1968 and renamed USNS Naubuc. The conversion replaced her propulsion and added four diesel engines and thrusters to improve station-keeping for cable work, shortening her length to 105.5 ft and increasing displacement to 873 tons.

As USNS Naubuc, she operated under the Military Sealift Command, supporting underwater cable projects. In 1970 she helped install the Long Range Acoustic Propagation Project (LRAPP) test bed off Bermuda, and in 1971 she supported CURV III during recovery work in the Azores. Her later duties included supporting underwater recovery operations near the Tongue of the Ocean, off Andros Island. Naubuc was struck from the Navy List again on 1 September 1975 and sold for scrapping.

Specifications:
- Class & type: Cohoes-class net laying ship
- Displacement: 775 tons (873 tons after conversion)
- Length: 168 ft 6 in (51.36 m) original; 105.5 ft (32.2 m) after conversion
- Beam: 33 ft 10 in (10.31 m)
- Draft: 10 ft 10 in (3.30 m)
- Propulsion: Diesel-electric, four 12-cylinder diesel engines with four thrusters
- Speed: 12.3 knots
- Crew: 46
- Armament: 1 × 3"/50 caliber gun; 4 × 20 mm AA guns