Ashland (AV 21) Class: Photographs
| These photographs were selected to show the original configuration of this class and major subsequent modifications. For more views see the former NHHC (now Hyperwar) Online Library of Selected Images and the NavSource Photo Archive. |
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USS Albemarle (AV 5) P6M conversion An artist's rendering dated 28 January 1955 of the SCB 134 conversion of Albemarle that was funded in the Fiscal Year 1956 conversion program. The tender is shown supporting two of the large aircraft, one being hauled out on a stern ramp and one moored to a servicing boom to starboard. The conversion began on 15 August 1956. Photo No. None Source: U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command (UA 437) |
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USS Ashland (LSD 1) On 1 November 1956 this LSD was transferred to the control of Commander, Naval Air Forces, Atlantic, for alterations enabling her to tend aircraft to support Arctic operations. She is shown here on 10 April 1957 with a P5M-2 seaplane in her docking well. By July 1957 she was configured to handle six P5M-2 aircraft. Photo No. 80-G-1015448 Source: U.S. National Archives, RG-80-G |
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USS Albemarle (AV 5) In January 1958, probably at Guantanamo Bay for shakedown training after the first phase of her SCB 134 conversion at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard between early 1956 and her recommissioning on 21 October 1957. Her stern was extensively modified with a well for the seaplane recovery ramp but the ramp itself and the seaplane servicing boom were not installed because of delays in receiving purchased components. Photo No. USN 1033848 Source: U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command (L-file) |
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USS Ashland (LSD 1) P6M conversion An artist's rendering of the SCB 186 conversion of an LSD to a tender for the P6M jet seaplane. This option began to gain favor in mid-1957 when doubts on the effectiveness of the lifting device in the AV 5 conversion made docking type tenders like the LSD appeared more promising. The LSD is shown supporting two of the aircraft, one in her docking well and one moored to a servicing boom to starboard. Photo No. None Source: U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command (UA 437) |
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USS Ashland (LSD 1) P6M conversion A design sketch of the SCB 186 conversion design dated 16 September 1957, when the LSD conversion was called AVD 15. The sketch shows the cradles and cradle tracks that were needed to bring the aircraft into the docking well, a system with less engineering risk than the recovery ramp in the AV 5 conversion. It also shows support for the initial mission of the aircraft, long-range minelaying. Photo No. None Source: U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command |
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USS Albemarle (AV 5) In the Azores on 21 August 1958 after a second round of conversion work at Philadelphia between April and July 1958, apparently for more modifications to the stern. By January 1959 she was no longer to have the ramp installed, and the full conversion of an LSD to an AV to provide a docking capability for the Seamaster program was ordered on 11 February 1959. The conversions of Albemarle and Ashland were both cancelled on 29 July 1959, and CNO ordered that further work on Albemarle be limited to plating over the stern well and final acceptance trials. The entire P6M program was cancelled on 21 August 1959. Photo No. USN 1044231 Source: U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command (DANFS) |
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