U.S. Navy
Landing Craft Repair Ships
Converted from LST hulls and fitted with machine shops, forges, welding equipment, and stockpiles of spare parts, the ARL fleet was purpose-built to solve a problem unique to amphibious warfare: landing craft broke faster than replacements could be shipped from the States. ARLs could beach themselves alongside damaged boats, and their crews could fabricate parts, weld shattered hulls, replace engines, and straighten ramps — all within range of enemy fire. Named mostly for figures of Greek and Roman mythology, these thirty-nine ships operated at every major amphibious landing from Normandy to Okinawa, turning wrecked boats back into fighting craft before the next wave hit the beach.
Pacific Theater — Island-Hopping Repair Fleet
1943 — 1945
ARL
ARL-1
1943
Commissioned
4,100
TONS
LST-10
Hull Origin
Pacific
Theater
First of her kind. Achelous was the prototype for every landing craft repair ship that followed — converted from LST-10 and fitted with machine shops, forges, and welding rigs to repair damaged landing craft at forward anchorages. Named for the Greek river god, she proved the concept at New Guinea and the Philippines, keeping the amphibious fleet running when the nearest real shipyard was thousands of miles astern. Every ARL that came after was built on lessons learned aboard Achelous.
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ARL
ARL-2
1943
Commissioned
4,100
TONS
LST-31
Hull Origin
3
Battle Stars
Named for the centaur son of Poseidon, Amycus spent the war where landing craft got chewed up — forward anchorages in the Solomons and Philippines. Her crew welded shattered ramps, replaced bent propeller shafts, and patched hulls holed by coral and Japanese fire. When a wave of LCVPs came back from a beach assault torn apart, Amycus had them seaworthy again before the next morning's run.
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ARL
ARL-3
1943
Commissioned
4,100
TONS
LST-490
Hull Origin
Pacific
Theater
Her mythological namesake was a Trojan warrior — fitting for a ship that spent her war in the thick of the Pacific campaign. Agenor operated at Leyte Gulf and Lingayen Gulf, repairing the constant stream of damaged landing craft that limped back from Philippine beaches. Her machine shops ran around the clock during invasion operations, fabricating parts that no supply chain could deliver fast enough.
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ARL
ARL-4
1943
Commissioned
4,100
TONS
LST-493
Hull Origin
2
Battle Stars
Named for the Greek figure of beauty and desire, there was nothing pretty about Adonis's work — cutting away mangled steel, hammering hull plates, and rebuilding the ramps that landing craft needed to disgorge men and tanks onto hostile beaches. She served in the western Pacific, supporting the relentless amphibious advance that left no island bypassed and no damaged boat behind.
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ARL
ARL-8
1944
Commissioned
4,100
TONS
LST-136
Hull Origin
Pacific
Theater
Named for the Roman water nymph who counseled kings, Egeria's counsel came in the form of welding torches and hull repair. Converted from LST-136, she operated in the western Pacific supporting the Philippines campaign. Her crew became experts at rapid turnaround — a crippled LCM alongside at dawn could be back in service by nightfall, patched well enough to survive another beach run.
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ARL
ARL-9
1944
Commissioned
4,100
TONS
LST-513
Hull Origin
Philippines
Operations
The shepherd whom the moon goddess loved — Endymion's crew loved nothing more than getting broken boats back in the water. Converted from LST-513 and deployed to the Philippines, she anchored in the contested waters around Leyte and worked on every type of landing craft the Navy had. Her repair logs read like a catalog of amphibious warfare damage: crushed ramps, flooded engine rooms, and hulls perforated by everything from small arms to artillery.
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ARL
ARL-10
1944
Commissioned
4,100
TONS
LST-516
Hull Origin
2
Battle Stars
Mother of Asclepius, the Greek god of healing — and healing was exactly what Coronis did for the Pacific amphibious fleet. She spent the last year of the war at Okinawa and the Philippines, patching the small craft that took the brunt of kamikaze attacks, shore battery fire, and the relentless punishment of coral reefs. Her crew treated hull wounds the same way a field hospital treated men — fast, practical, and good enough to fight again.
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ARL
ARL-11
1944
Commissioned
4,100
TONS
LST-535
Hull Origin
Okinawa
Operations
Named for the king of Thebes, Creon held court at Okinawa — the bloodiest amphibious campaign of the Pacific war. While kamikazes targeted the fleet destroyers on picket duty, Creon's crew worked on the landing craft that ferried supplies and reinforcements ashore through waters thick with floating debris and the constant threat of air attack. The repair work never stopped because the damage never stopped.
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ARL
ARL-15
1944
Commissioned
4,100
TONS
LST-302
Hull Origin
Iwo Jima
Operations
One of the few ARLs not named for a figure from classical mythology — Luiseno honors the Native American people of Southern California. She earned her reputation at Iwo Jima and Okinawa, the two most savage island battles of the Pacific war. Landing craft came back from the volcanic black sand beaches of Iwo Jima with hulls ground raw by the abrasive terrain. Luiseno's welders and machinists kept them running.
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ARL
ARL-15
1944
Commissioned
4,100
TONS
LST-549
Hull Origin
Pacific
Theater
Shared the ARL-15 designation with Luiseno after redesignation — the half-bull, half-man of Cretan legend lent its name to a ship that labored in the maze of Pacific island anchorages. Minotaur worked the forward repair stations where damaged LCIs and LCTs congregated after beach assaults, her crew navigating the labyrinth of hull damage, engine failures, and ramp malfunctions that defined amphibious warfare.
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ARL
ARL-16
1944
Commissioned
4,100
TONS
LST-547
Hull Origin
3
Battle Stars
Named for the Greek hero who was second only to Achilles — Ajax fought at Leyte, Lingayen Gulf, and Okinawa. Three battle stars for a repair ship says everything about where she operated: not behind the lines, but at the beachhead, anchored close enough to hear the gunfire. Her welders worked under blackout conditions while Japanese aircraft prowled overhead. Ajax brought the warrior's name to the unglamorous but essential work of keeping the amphibious fleet afloat.
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ARL
ARL-16
1944
Commissioned
4,100
TONS
LST-560
Hull Origin
Pacific
Theater
The Myrmidons were Achilles' fearless warriors at Troy — soldiers who followed orders without question. Myrmidon's crew embodied that spirit, sharing the ARL-16 designation after redesignation and carrying out the relentless, unglamorous work of amphibious repair. She anchored at forward bases where landing craft accumulated battle damage faster than new boats could be shipped from stateside yards.
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ARL
ARL-17
1944
Commissioned
4,100
TONS
LST-559
Hull Origin
Philippines
Operations
The king whose touch turned everything to gold had a namesake whose touch turned wrecked landing craft back into fighting vessels. Midas operated in the Philippines, where the sheer scale of MacArthur's amphibious campaign created an insatiable demand for craft repair. Every island assault consumed landing craft like ammunition — and Midas was the reload.
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ARL
ARL-17
1944
Commissioned
4,100
TONS
LST-548
Hull Origin
W. Pacific
Theater
Numitor was the rightful king of Alba Longa and grandfather of Romulus and Remus — a patriarch whose legacy outlived his reign. Numitor the ship shared ARL-17 with Midas through the Navy's redesignation process, and served the western Pacific fleet. Her legacy was measured in hull plates welded, engines rebuilt, and ramps straightened — the invisible work that kept the amphibious advance on schedule.
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ARL
ARL-18
1944
Commissioned
4,100
TONS
LST-548
Hull Origin
2
Battle Stars
King of Sparta, husband of Helen, the man whose grievance launched the Trojan War. Menelaus the repair ship launched no wars but sustained one — operating at Okinawa during the spring of 1945 when the kamikaze threat was at its peak. She repaired landing craft damaged by everything from suicide boats to shore artillery, keeping the supply line to the beachhead open while the battle raged ashore for eighty-two days.
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ARL
ARL-18
1944
Commissioned
4,100
TONS
LST-561
Hull Origin
Pacific
Theater
Sharing the ARL-18 designation with Menelaus, Pandemus carried the name of an ancient Greek figure into the forward anchorages of the Pacific. Her work was the same as every ARL — patch, weld, rebuild, and return damaged craft to service before the next assault wave needed them. In amphibious warfare, the margin between victory and disaster was often measured in how many boats could make the next beach run.
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ARL
ARL-20
1944
Commissioned
4,100
TONS
LST-955
Hull Origin
Vietnam
Later Service
Named for the Maryland river — one of the few ARLs not drawing from mythology. Patapsco served in the Pacific during WWII and was one of the rare repair ships to see action in a second war, supporting riverine operations in Vietnam two decades later. From Pacific island anchorages to the Mekong Delta, she proved that the ARL concept had legs far beyond the war that created it.
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ARL
ARL-20
1944
Commissioned
4,100
TONS
LST-563
Hull Origin
Pacific
Theater
Pentheus was the Theban king torn apart by the Maenads for defying Dionysus — a grim namesake for a ship whose job was putting torn-apart landing craft back together. Sharing ARL-20 with Patapsco through redesignation, Pentheus worked the Pacific anchorages where the amphibious repair fleet kept the island-hopping campaign supplied with serviceable boats.
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ARL
ARL-22
1944
Commissioned
4,100
TONS
LST-926
Hull Origin
Okinawa
Operations
Founder of Rome, raised by wolves — Romulus brought a conqueror's name to the conquest of the Pacific. She was at Okinawa for the largest amphibious assault of the Pacific war, where hundreds of landing craft hit the beaches on April 1, 1945, and dozens came back needing immediate repair. Romulus anchored in the transport area and worked through air raids, patching boats while the fleet around her fought off kamikazes.
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ARL
ARL-23
1944
Commissioned
4,100
TONS
LST-852
Hull Origin
W. Pacific
Theater
The satyrs of Greek myth were wild woodland spirits — Satyr the ship was anything but wild, running a disciplined repair operation in the western Pacific. Her machine shops turned out replacement parts that couldn't be sourced from any supply depot, and her hull repair teams became adept at improvising fixes from whatever materials were at hand. In the forward areas, ingenuity was the most valuable spare part.
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ARL
ARL-24
1945
Commissioned
4,100
TONS
LST-963
Hull Origin
2
Battle Stars
The Sphinx posed riddles — the only riddle Sphinx's crew solved daily was how to repair more craft with less time and fewer parts. Commissioned in early 1945, she arrived in the western Pacific in time for the final campaigns. At Okinawa and in Philippine waters, Sphinx worked alongside the fleet as the war ground toward its conclusion, repairing the boats that would have carried the invasion of Japan if the atomic bombs had not ended it first.
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ARL
ARL-26
1945
Commissioned
4,100
TONS
LST-828
Hull Origin
Pacific
Theater
Stentor was the Greek herald whose voice was louder than fifty men — this Stentor announced her presence through the roar of welding torches and the clang of steel on steel. A late-war commissioning meant she arrived in the Pacific as Japan's defeat became inevitable, but the amphibious fleet still needed maintenance. Occupation operations required functioning landing craft to move troops and supplies across a shattered empire.
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ARL
ARL-27
1945
Commissioned
4,100
TONS
LST-830
Hull Origin
Pacific
Theater
Tantalus was condemned to stand in water he could never drink beneath fruit he could never reach — his namesake ship's crew faced their own frustration, commissioned near the war's end and racing to the Pacific. She supported occupation operations in Japan, repairing the landing craft that carried American troops ashore to accept the surrender of an empire. The war ended, but the work did not.
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ARL
ARL-28
1945
Commissioned
4,100
TONS
LST-833
Hull Origin
Pacific
Theater
Typhon was the monstrous father of all Greek monsters — a fitting name for a ship born from the monstrous industrial output of wartime America. Commissioned in 1945, Typhon joined the Pacific fleet as the war entered its final months. She supported the occupation of Japan and the massive demobilization that followed, keeping landing craft operational as the Navy shifted from conquering an empire to administering one.
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ARL
ARL-29
1945
Commissioned
4,100
TONS
LST-835
Hull Origin
Occupation
Operations
The Roman name for Odysseus, the wanderer who spent ten years trying to get home from Troy. Ulysses the repair ship had a shorter odyssey — commissioned in the final months of the war, she deployed to the Pacific for occupation duty. Named for the most resourceful hero in classical literature, her crew embodied that resourcefulness, improvising repairs far from any supply base in the postwar Pacific.
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ARL
ARL-30
1945
Commissioned
4,100
TONS
LST-1131
Hull Origin
Vietnam
Later Service
Named not for a mythological figure but for the Askari — East African colonial soldiers. Askari had the longest career of any ARL, serving from WWII through the Vietnam War. In Vietnam, she supported riverine warfare operations in the Mekong Delta, repairing the brown-water Navy's patrol boats and river assault craft. From the Pacific island-hopping campaign to the rice paddies of Southeast Asia, Askari proved the repair ship concept across two generations of warfare.
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ARL
ARL-31
1945
Commissioned
4,100
TONS
LST-1132
Hull Origin
Pacific
Theater
Bellerophon rode Pegasus and slew the Chimera — a hero who aimed too high and fell. His namesake ship stayed grounded in the practical work of repairing landing craft, commissioned late in the war from LST-1132. She deployed to the western Pacific as Japan surrendered and supported the massive logistical effort of occupation, where thousands of landing craft were still needed to move men and materiel across the ruins of the Japanese empire.
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ARL
ARL-33
1945
Commissioned
4,100
TONS
LST-1134
Hull Origin
Pacific
Theater
The Chimera was a fire-breathing hybrid of lion, goat, and serpent — Chimaera the ship was her own kind of hybrid, an LST transformed into a floating machine shop. Commissioned in the final months of WWII, she arrived in the Pacific as the guns fell silent. Her contribution came during the occupation, when the Navy needed every functional landing craft it could muster to manage the logistics of victory across a vast ocean.
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European Theater — Normandy to Southern France
1944 — 1945
ARL
ARL-36
1944
Commissioned
4,100
TONS
LST-280
Hull Origin
Normandy
Operations
King Gordius tied the knot that only Alexander could cut — and Gordius the ship untied the knots of wartime damage along the Normandy coast. One of the few ARLs assigned to the European theater, she operated in the English Channel after D-Day, repairing the landing craft that sustained the buildup on the invasion beaches. Every ton of supply that crossed those beaches depended on functioning landing craft, and Gordius kept them in the water.
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ARL
ARL-37
1944
Commissioned
4,100
TONS
LST-1147
Hull Origin
ETO
Theater
Named for the Hindu king of the gods — lord of thunder and war. Indra served in the European theater, supporting operations along the French coast after the Normandy invasion. The English Channel in 1944 was a brutal operating environment for small craft — rough seas, tidal currents, underwater obstacles, and German mines destroyed and damaged landing craft at a staggering rate. Indra's crew fought the attrition war that kept the boats running.
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ARL
ARL-38
1944
Commissioned
4,100
TONS
LST-542
Hull Origin
S. France
Operations
Named for the Keris — the asymmetric dagger of Southeast Asian tradition, not Greek mythology. Keris served in the Mediterranean and supported Operation Dragoon, the invasion of Southern France in August 1944. While Normandy gets the history books, Dragoon was its own massive amphibious assault, and Keris kept the landing craft running along the French Riviera — beaches that looked beautiful and chewed up boat hulls just the same.
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ARL
ARL-38
1944
Commissioned
4,100
TONS
LST-1149
Hull Origin
ETO
Theater
Named for the Hindu deity — avatar of Vishnu, protector and sustainer. Krishna shared the ARL-38 designation with Keris and served in European waters, sustaining the Allied amphibious capability during the final push into Germany. When the fighting moved inland, the landing craft kept working — ferrying supplies across rivers and through shattered ports that conventional cargo ships could not enter.
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ARL
ARL-39
1944
Commissioned
4,100
TONS
LST-1151
Hull Origin
Normandy
Operations
Quirinus was the deified Romulus — Rome's founder ascended to godhood. His namesake ship served in the waters off Normandy, where the distinction between combat and support dissolved entirely. German E-boats, mines, and coastal artillery threatened every vessel in the Channel. Quirinus repaired landing craft while operating in waters that were still actively contested, her crew earning their combat pay with welding rods in hand.
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Late-War Commissions & Borneo Campaign
1944 — 1945
ARL
ARL-41
1945
Commissioned
4,100
TONS
LST-455
Hull Origin
Borneo
Operations
Greatest warrior of the Trojan War, brought down by a single arrow to his heel. Achilles the repair ship had no such vulnerability — she was built tough from LST-455 and deployed to the Southwest Pacific. She supported Australian amphibious operations at Borneo in mid-1945, one of the war's last major landings. While the rest of the fleet prepared for the invasion of Japan, Achilles kept the landing craft ready for whatever came next.
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ARL
ARL-42
1945
Commissioned
4,100
TONS
LST-456
Hull Origin
Pacific
Theater
Last of the line. Webber was the final landing craft repair ship commissioned, carrying a surname instead of a mythological name — a quiet departure from tradition at the end of a very long war. Converted from LST-456, she arrived in the Pacific as the atomic bombs fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Webber's war was the occupation, her peacetime service a bookend to the class that Achelous had started two years earlier.
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39
Landing Craft Repair Ships Commissioned
100%
Converted from LST Hulls
2
Theaters of Operation
1943–45
Commission Period