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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
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Photo # NH 98659:  USS Salinan underway at sea during the later 1960s or early 1970s

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

USS Salinan (ATF-161), 1945-1978

USS Salinan, a 1330-ton Abnaki class fleet tug, was built at Charleston, South Carolina. Commissioned in November 1945, a few months after the end of World War II, she served in the Atlantic Fleet area for her entire career. For over two decades, beginning in March 1946, Salinan was based at Key West, Florida, assisting the Navy's anti-submarine warfare development efforts with her capabilities for towing, salvage, diving support, fire fighting, rescue and torpedo recovery. In January 1967 her homeport was changed to Mayport, Florida, where she continued her important support work for the Navy, and for the space rocket base at Cape Kennedy. Among her many jobs was towing drydock sections of USS Los Alamos across the Atlantic Ocean in 1976. At the beginning of September 1978, USS Salinan was decommissioned and transferred to Venezuela, in whose navy she served into the Twenty-First Century as Contralmirante Miguel Rodriguez.

This page features nearly all the views we have related to USS Salinan (ATF-161).


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 #: NH 83818

USS Salinan (ATF-161)


Photographed during the 1950s or 1960s.

Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, 1975.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 46KB; 740 x 475 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 98659

USS Salinan (ATF-161)


Underway at sea during the 1960s or early 1970s.

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

Online Image: 110KB; 740 x 610 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 98660

USS Salinan (ATF-161)


Underway at sea during the 1960s or early 1970s.
Note what may be a target raft on her after deck.

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

Online Image: 126KB; 740 x 610 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 98805

USS Salinan (ATF-161)


Underway, circa 1968.
The original caption reads: "Salinan (ATF-161) underway, displaying the array of heavy towing and lifting gear which forms her 'main battery'. The basic mission of seagoing tugs such as Salinan is to salvage and tow other ships of the fleet that have been damaged in battle or by weather. They can serve as the flagship of a salvage unit assigned to a specific task, and are frequently called on to tow floating drydocks and other non-self-propelled craft long distances."

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

Online Image: 86KB; 740 x 605 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 98806

USS Salinan (ATF-161)


Photographed during a dependent's cruise, 18 May 1968.

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

Online Image: 86KB; 740 x 605 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 98807

USS Salinan (ATF-161)


View of the ship's port bridge, taken during a dependent's cruise, 18 May 1968.

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

Online Image: 105KB; 740 x 610 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 88036

USS Salinan (ATF-161)


At Mayport, Florida, circa mid-1978.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 92KB; 740 x 605 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 88037

USS Salinan (ATF-161)


At Mayport, Florida, circa mid-1978.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 80KB; 740 x 605 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 88038

USS Salinan (ATF-161)


At Mayport, Florida, circa mid-1978.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 81KB; 740 x 600 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 98816

USS Salinan (ATF-161)


Boatswain's Mate 1st Class Crumpler prepares to trip the pelican hook on a towing line, circa the early or middle 1970s.

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

Online Image: 101KB; 740 x 525 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 98817

USS Salinan (ATF-161)


In port, with an SH-3 "Sea King" helicopter on her deck, June 1976. She had recovered the helicopter from seventy feet of water after it crash landed and sank ten miles off the coast of Ponte Vedra, southeast of Mayport, Florida. The aircraft belonged to Helicopter Antisubmarine Squadron One (HS-1), based at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Florida.

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

Online Image: 92KB; 515 x 765 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 98425

USS Los Alamos (AFDB-7)


A section of floating drydock Los Alamos under tow by the fleet tug Salinan (ATF-161), 1976.
In July-August 1976 Salinan and USS Shakori (ATF-162) towed a dry dock section from Charleston, South Carolina, to Holy Loch, Scotland. Salinan and USS Papago (ATF-160) towed other Los Alamos sections back to the U.S. from Holy Loch in October-November 1976.

Photograph received from USS Salinan in 1978.

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

Online Image: 100KB; 740 x 590 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 71928-KN (color)

USS Salinan (ATF-161)

Jacket patch of the ship's insignia, received from USS Salinan in 1970. The emblem had been used since at least 1962.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 137KB; 600 x 675 pixels

 


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


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Page made 9 September 2003