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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
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Photo # NH 97986:  USS Valcour underway in the early 1950s.

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Valcour (AVP-55, later AGF-1), 1946-1977 --
Views of the ship taken in 1946-1960

USS Valcour, a 1,766-ton Barnegat class small seaplane tender, was built at Houghton, Washington, and was commissioned in July 1946. After shakedown training at San Diego, she proceeded to the East Coast in September 1946 for duty with the Atlantic Fleet. She then operated out of Norfolk, Va.; Quonset Point, R.I.; Cristobal, Canal Zone; and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba tending seaplanes through mid-1949.

Designated flagship for Commander, Middle East Force, Valcour departed Norfolk in August 1949 for the first of sixteen deployments to the Middle East. She returned to Norfolk in March 1950 and conducted a second tour as Middle East Force flagship between September 1950 and March 1951. In May 1951, while departing Norfolk for independent ship exercises, she suffered a steering casualty and veered across the bow of the collier Thomas Tracey. The ensuing collision ruptured an aviation gasoline fuel tank and started a raging fire that took the lives of 36 men. After a major firefighting and salvage operation, she was brought back into port the following day. Valcour then underwent an extensive overhaul, during which air conditioning was installed and her 5"/38 gun was removed to compensate for the added weight.

Between 1952 and 1965 Valcour deployed every year to the Middle East as one of a trio of ships that served alternately as flagship for Commander Middle East Force. Through 1961 Valcour followed a highly predictable schedule, departing Norfolk in January, relieving USS Duxbury Bay (AVP-38) upon arrival on station, being relieved by USS Greenwich Bay (AVP-41), and returning to Norfolk in August. Highlights of this service included the boarding, salvage, and return to its crew of the burning and abandoned Italian tanker Argea Prima in May 1955 and a visit to the Seychelles Islands in 1960. She was the first U. S. Navy ship to call there in 48 years. In around 1960 Valcour received some conspicuous equipment upgrades, including a tripod mast with a newer air search radar and a tall communications antenna which, with its deckhouse, replaced the quadruple 40mm gun mount on her fantail. She completed her fifteenth Middle East cruise in March 1965.

In a 1965 force realignment, Valcour's two running mates were ordered decommissioned and Valcour was selected to be the sole Middle East flagship. As such, she was reclassified AGF-1 in December 1965 and departed the United States for her new home port of Bahrain in April 1966. Though designated the permanent Middle East Force flagship in 1971, in January 1972 she was selected for inactivation. After relief as flagship by La Salle (AGF-3), in November 1972 she arrived in Norfolk following transits of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Valcour was decommissioned in January 1973. In March her stripped hulk was towed to Solomons Island, Md., where it was used by the Naval Ordnance Laboratory for electromagnetic pulse experiments. She was sold for scrap in June 1977.

This page features, or provides links to, all our views of USS Valcour (AVP-55, later AGF-1).

For additional views relating to USS Valcour, see:

  • USS Valcour (AVP-55, later AGF-1) -- Views of the ship taken in 1961-1973.
  • USS Valcour (AVP-55, later AGF-1) -- Events and Miscellaneous Photos.


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

    Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

    Photo #: 19-N-94952

    USS Valcour (AVP-55)


    Underway in Puget Sound on 3 July 1946, two days before commissioning.

    Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

    Online Image: 56KB; 740 x 645 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: 19-N-94953

    USS Valcour (AVP-55)


    Underway in Puget Sound on 3 July 1946, two days before commissioning.

    Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

    Online Image: 62KB; 740 x 645 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: 19-N-94951

    USS Valcour (AVP-55)


    Underway in Puget Sound on 3 July 1946, two days before commissioning.

    Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

    Online Image: 61KB; 740 x 595 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: 19-N-94949

    USS Valcour (AVP-55)


    Underway in Puget Sound on 3 July 1946, two days before commissioning.

    Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

    Online Image: 64KB; 590 x 765 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: NH 97986

    USS Valcour (AVP-55)


    Underway in the early 1950s.
    The ship lacks her 5"/38 gun, which was removed in 1951, but still displays a World War II-style small hull number. The quadruple 40mm gun mount on her fantail was probably added in a 1948 yard period.

    Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 52KB; 740 x 610 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 97987

    USS Valcour (AVP-55)


    Illuminated at night on 17 April 1954, probably in a Middle East port.
    Her hull number is larger than it was earlier in the 1950s.

    Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 51KB; 740 x 615 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 97988

    USS Valcour (AVP-55)


    Viewed from a taxiing seaplane in an undated photograph probably taken no later than 1960.
    An aviation insignia was added in the mid- or late-1950s adjacent to her hull number. Her main battery consists of two quadruple 40mm mounts, one forward and one aft, and two twin 40mm mounts amidships.

    Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 62KB; 740 x 615 pixels

     


    In addition to the images presented above, the National Archives appears to hold other views of USS Valcour (AVP-55). The following list features some of these images:

    The images listed below are NOT in the Naval Historical Center's collections.
    DO NOT try to obtain them using the procedures described in our page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions".



  • Photo #: USN 1042959
    Starboard view of USS Valcour (AVP-55) in 1946.

  • Photo #: 80-G-430105
    Aerial view of rescue operations on 14 May 1951 after the collision between USS Valcour (AVP-55) and the collier Thomas Tracy off Norfolk. Distant view of Valcour, showing her with heavy smoke coming from amidships. Another ship, presumably the Thomas Tracy, is seen somewhat closer to the camera, smoking from the bow.

  • Photo #: 80-G-430107
    Aerial view of rescue operations on 14 May 1951 after the collision between USS Valcour (AVP-55) and the collier Thomas Tracy off Norfolk. Distant view of Valcour, showing her with heavy smoke coming from amidships

  • Photo #: USN 1054875
    Port bow view of USS Valcour (AVP-55) at anchor. This photo, dated 24 May 1961, shows the new tripod mast and communications mast along with the aviation insignia next to the hull number.

  • Photo #: USN KN-11020 (color)
    Starboard view of USS Valcour (AVP-55) in June 1964. She lacks the aviation insignia next to the hull number visible in earlier photographs.

  • Photo #: USN KN-11336 (color)
    Starboard view of USS Valcour (AVP-55) underway at Norfolk, Virginia, on 20 July 1964.

  • Photo #: USN 1120572
    Low aerial port near broadside view of USS Valcour (AGF-1) departing Norfolk for Bahrain on 18 April 1966.

    Reproductions of these images should be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system for pictures not held by the Naval Historical Center.

    The images listed in this box are NOT in the Naval Historical Center's collections. DO NOT try to obtain them using the procedures described in our page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions".

  • For additional views relating to USS Valcour, see:

  • USS Valcour (AVP-55, later AGF-1) -- Views of the ship taken in 1961-1973.
  • USS Valcour (AVP-55, later AGF-1) -- Events and Miscellaneous Photos.


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


    Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

    Page made 7 June 2002