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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Photo #  NH 97829:  USS Rehoboth on 5 February 1957.

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

USS Rehoboth (AVP-50, later AGS-50), 1944-1970

USS Rehoboth, a 1,766-ton Barnegat class small seaplane tender built at Houghton, Washington, was commissioned in February 1944. Following shakedown training at San Diego, she transited to the East Coast, arriving at Norfolk in May. After two voyages to deliver aviation-related cargo and personnel to Europe, she reported for duty in Brazil. Between September 1944 and January 1945 she transported passengers and cargo between various Brazilian ports. She then resumed her support of naval aviation forces in Europe, completing at least two more round trip voyages by mid-June.

Rehoboth returned to the Pacific in August 1945. Arriving at Okinawa in October, she tended planes of an air-sea rescue squadron for two weeks. She then proceeded to Korea, where she operated a seadrome and tended aircraft for the next month. Moving on to the China coast, she tended aircraft in the Yellow Sea and at Shanghai through January 1946. Between February and August she operated seadromes and tended aircraft at Kobe and Sasebo, Japan. In late 1946 she made a cruise to the China Coast, Australia, and the Philippines. Returning to the United States from Japan in early 1947, she arrived at Philadelphia in April and decommissioned there in June.

Rehoboth was one of two AVPs reactivated in September 1948 for service as hydrographic survey ships. She and her sister San Pablo (AVP-30) were converted during reactivation but were only reclassified AGS-50 and AGS-30 respectively in August 1949. Rehoboth was equipped with a small laboratory and equipment to take Nansen casts, which measured the temperature and took samples of sea water at different depths and drilled core samples of the ocean bottom. Between early 1949 and 1955 she traveled over 300,000 miles performing oceanographic survey and special project work in the North Atlantic and adjacent areas, including the Caribbean, Mediterranean, Baltic, North, and Norwegian Seas.

Following an extensive overhaul at Philadelphia, Rehoboth arrived in the Pacific in February 1956 and commenced operations that ultimately covered much of the Pacific basin. Beginning in the eastern Pacific and Hawaiian region, she extended her activities to the Marshall Islands in 1958, the Western Pacific and the South American coast in 1960, the Northern Pacific in the early 1960s, the South China Sea in 1965, and the Philippine Sea in 1968. She returned from her final deployment in December 1969, was decommissioned in April 1970, and sold for scrap in September 1970.

This page features all our views of USS Rehoboth.


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-62332

USS Rehoboth (AVP-50)


Off Houghton, Washington, on 8 March 1944, about two weeks after commissioning.
She was completed with three 5"/38 guns, including an open mount on her fantail. Her camouflage scheme is probably Measure 32 Design 5D.

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

Online Image: 80KB; 740 x 615 pixels

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

 
Photo #: 19-N-62333

USS Rehoboth (AVP-50)


Off Houghton, Washington, on 8 March 1944, about two weeks after commissioning.
She was completed with three 5"/38 guns, including an open mount on her fantail. Her camouflage scheme is probably Measure 32 Design 5D.

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

Online Image: 79KB; 740 x 615 pixels

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

 
Photo #: NH 97827

USS Rehoboth (AVP-50)


Photographed off the Oregon coast in April 1944 soon after commissioning.
She was completed with three 5"/38 guns, including an open mount on her fantail. Her camouflage scheme is probably Measure 32 Design 5D.
Photographed by an aircraft from NAS Seattle, Washington.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the U.S. Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 88KB; 740 x 620 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 97828

USS Rehoboth (AVP-50)


Direct bow aerial view taken off the Oregon coast in April 1944 soon after commissioning.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the U.S. Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 124KB; 740 x 620 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 98798

USS Rehoboth
(AVP-50)

Photographed after her main armament was reduced to one 5"/38 gun in early 1945.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the U.S. Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 58KB; 740 x 615 pixels

 
Photo #: 80-G-413565

USS Rehoboth (AVP-50)


Moored with USS San Pablo (AVP-30) at Ponta Delgada, Sao Miguel Island, Azores, on 22 February 1949.
Both had been reactivated as surveying ships in 1948 although they retained their AVP classifications until August 1949.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 97KB; 740 x 605 pixels

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

 
Photo #: NH 97829

USS Rehoboth (AGS-50)


Photographed on 5 February 1957 by the San Francisco Naval Shipyard after a regular overhaul.
The ship lost her 5"/38 main battery but retained most of her smaller guns.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the U.S. Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 65KB; 740 x 615 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 97821

USS Rehoboth (AGS-50)


An undated view of the ship without armament.
She and most other U.S. Navy surveying ships were disarmed by late 1959.

Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 116KB; 740 x 605 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 97830

USS Rehoboth (AGS-50)


Underway in the Pacific Ocean on 2 July 1969.
Photographed by PH2 S. K. Tastor, USN.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the U.S. Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 168KB; 690 x 655 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 97831

USS Rehoboth (AGS-50)


Crewman making a Nansen cast off Wake Island.

Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 90KB; 580 x 765 pixels

 
Photo #: USN 1090430

USS Rehoboth (AGS-50)


Aerographers releasing a sounding balloon from the ship's fantail in the North Pacific on 10 September 1963.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph.

Online Image: 51KB; 740 x 620 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system as Photo # 428-N-1090430.

 
Photo #: NH 64700-KN

USS Rehoboth (AGS-50)


Insignia adopted in 1966.
The crest features a silhouette of the ship and a map of the Pacific Ocean, her theater of operations for the previous decade.

Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 90KB; 555 x 765 pixels

 


In addition to the images presented above, the National Archives appears to hold other views of USS Rehoboth (AVP-50, later AGS-50). 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 #: 80-G-455333
    USS Rehoboth (AVP-50) viewed broad on the starboard bow off Oregon in April 1944. This photo is in the same series as NH 97827-8, above.

  • Photo #: 80-G-1015867
    Starboard broadside view of USS Rehoboth (AGS-50) on 2 February 1957 after a regular overhaul at the San Francisco Naval Shipyard.

  • Photo #: 80-G-1015868
    Starboard quarter view of USS Rehoboth (AGS-50) on 2 February 1957 after a regular overhaul at the San Francisco Naval Shipyard.

  • Photo #: 80-G-1015866
    Port quarter view of USS Rehoboth (AGS-50) on 5 February 1957 after a regular overhaul at the San Francisco Naval Shipyard.

  • Photo #: USN 1055246
    Starboard near-broadside view of USS Rehoboth (AGS-50) operating off Oahu, Hawaii, on 1 June 1961.

  • Photo #: USN 1055247
    Starboard quarter view of USS Rehoboth (AGS-50) operating off Oahu, Hawaii, on 1 June 1961.

  • Photo #: USN 1056504
    Starboard bow aerial view of USS Rehoboth (AGS-50) operating off Oahu, Hawaii, on 1 June 1961.

  • Photo #: USN 1057708
    Port bow view of USS Rehoboth (AGS-50) operating off Oahu, Hawaii, on 1 June 1961.

    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".


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


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    Page made 26 January 2002
    New image added 31 December 2003