U.S. Navy

Repair Ships (AR)

The Navy's floating shipyards. Repair ships carried machine shops, foundries, welding equipment, and heavy cranes — everything needed to fix a warship thousands of miles from the nearest drydock. From Pearl Harbor to Okinawa, from Korea to Vietnam, AR crews patched torpedo holes, fabricated replacement parts from raw steel, and rebuilt machinery under combat conditions. They turned remote anchorages into operational shipyards, keeping the fleet in the fight when sending ships home for repair would have taken them out of the war for months.

World War I & Interwar Period 1913 - 1939

USS Prometheus (AR-3)

First Purpose-Built Repair Ship

The Navy's first vessel designed from the keel up as a repair ship. Prometheus set the template for every AR that followed — machine shops, foundries, electrical workshops, and forges packed into a single hull. She proved that a fleet operating thousands of miles from home could sustain itself afloat, a concept that would become critical in the next war. Read more

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USS Vestal (AR-4)

Pearl Harbor Medal of Honor Ship

Cmdr Cassin Young

Moored alongside USS Arizona on December 7, 1941, Vestal took two bomb hits and was showered with burning debris when Arizona's magazine detonated. Commander Cassin Young, blown overboard by the blast, swam back to his ship and ordered her underway to save the crew. He received the Medal of Honor. Vestal was repaired and spent the rest of the war restoring battle-damaged ships across the Pacific — the repair ship that had to repair herself first. Read more

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World War II - Floating Shipyards 1940 - 1945

USS Vulcan (AR-5)

Vulcan-Class Lead Ship

Lead ship of her class and one of the most prolific repair ships in Navy history. Vulcan repaired hundreds of vessels across both the Atlantic and Pacific during World War II, then continued through the Korean War. Her machine shops and foundries could fabricate nearly any part from raw steel, turning remote anchorages into functioning shipyards. Read more

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USS Ajax (AR-6)

Served in both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters during WWII, keeping destroyers and escorts in the fight against U-boats before shifting to support the island-hopping campaign. Ajax continued serving through Korea and Vietnam, logging over four decades of service keeping the fleet operational. Read more

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USS Hector (AR-7)

Hector-Class Lead Ship

Lead ship of the Hector-class repair ships, built to sustain the Pacific Fleet at forward anchorages far from any shipyard. At Ulithi, Manus, and other remote atolls, Hector patched battle damage, rebuilt superstructures, and fabricated replacement parts so ships could return to the fight without the long voyage home. Read more

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USS Jason (AR-8)

Converted Collier

Originally a collier converted to meet the desperate wartime need for repair ships. Jason served at forward bases across the Western Pacific, where her heavy cranes and workshop spaces turned open anchorages into makeshift shipyards. When a destroyer limped in with a torpedo hole below the waterline, Jason's crew had her patched and underway within days. Read more

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USS Delta (AR-9)

WWII / Korea / Vietnam

One of the longest-serving repair ships in the fleet, Delta saw action across three wars. From the anchorages of the Pacific in WWII through the harbors of Korea and the rivers of Vietnam, she kept ships fighting when they otherwise would have been sidelined for months waiting on a stateside drydock. Read more

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USS Alcor (AR-10)

A converted merchant vessel pressed into service as the Pacific War demanded more repair capacity than purpose-built ships could provide. Alcor's conversion included full machine shops, welding facilities, and heavy lift capability — proof that American industrial ingenuity could turn a cargo hull into a floating factory. Read more

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USS Rigel (AR-11)

From Destroyer Tender

Originally classified as a destroyer tender, Rigel was reclassified as a repair ship and served throughout the Pacific War. Her long career demonstrated the Navy's constant need to adapt vessels to meet operational requirements — a floating workshop that earned her keep at every anchorage she served. Read more

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USS Briareus (AR-12)

Auxiliary Repair Ship

Named for the hundred-handed giant of Greek mythology, Briareus lived up to her name with dozens of specialized repair shops working simultaneously on multiple ships. At forward Pacific anchorages, her crew fabricated parts, welded hull plates, and rebuilt machinery around the clock to keep the fleet moving west. Read more

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USS Cadmus (AR-14)

Auxiliary Repair Ship

Named for the mythological founder of Thebes, Cadmus brought civilization to remote Pacific anchorages in the form of machine shops, foundries, and electrical repair facilities. Her crew could diagnose a problem at dawn and have a custom-fabricated replacement part installed by nightfall. Read more

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USS Pandemus (AR-18)

Auxiliary Repair Ship

Entered service in the final year of the war when the fleet was pushing deep into Japanese home waters. Pandemus joined the massive repair and logistics fleet at forward anchorages that kept hundreds of warships operational during the final campaigns — Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and the preparations for the invasion of Japan. Read more

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USS Xanthus (AR-19)

Auxiliary Repair Ship

Named for the divine horse of Achilles from Greek mythology, Xanthus carried the fleet forward by keeping damaged ships in fighting condition. Her specialized workshops handled everything from hull repairs to radar calibration, ensuring ships spent days in repair instead of months in a stateside yard. Read more

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USS Dionysus (AR-21)

Auxiliary Repair Ship

Named for the Greek god of wine and festivity, Dionysus brought something better to the fleet — the ability to fight another day. At Pacific forward bases, her repair crews worked around the clock patching hulls, rewiring electrical systems, and overhauling engines on ships that otherwise would have been out of the war for months. Read more

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Cold War & Beyond 1945 - 1995

USS Klondike (AR-22)

Klondike-Class Lead Ship

Lead ship of the last class of dedicated repair ships built for the Navy. Klondike arrived too late for WWII but proved her worth during Korea and decades of Cold War forward deployments. Her class represented the peak of the repair ship concept — self-contained floating shipyards capable of sustaining a fleet anywhere in the world. Read more

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USS Help (AR-23)

Auxiliary Repair Ship

Carried a name that summed up the entire repair ship mission in a single word. Commissioned near the end of WWII, Help served in the immediate post-war period supporting the massive demobilization and decommissioning effort that shrank the Navy from thousands of ships to hundreds. Read more

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USS Markab (AR-23)

Named for the brightest star in the constellation Pegasus, Markab guided damaged ships back to fighting condition across both oceans. Originally converted from a cargo vessel, she served through WWII, Korea, and into the Cold War era — nearly three decades of keeping the fleet ready for whatever came next. Read more

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USS Midas (AR-24)

Auxiliary Repair Ship

Named for the king whose touch turned everything to gold, Midas turned broken ships into battle-ready warships. Commissioned at the tail end of the war, she served in the post-war Pacific during the occupation of Japan, keeping the remaining fleet in fighting shape during the transition to peacetime. Read more

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USS Culebra Island (AR-25)

Auxiliary Repair Ship

Named for the Puerto Rican island that served as a Navy training area for decades. Culebra Island was one of the last repair ships commissioned during WWII, serving through the post-war drawdown. She represented the massive wartime shipbuilding program that produced specialized vessels by the hundreds to support the fleet. Read more

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USS Granville S. Hall (AR-27)

Auxiliary Repair Ship

One of the final repair ships to join the fleet before the war ended. Granville S. Hall served during the occupation period, maintaining the ships that projected American power in the post-war Pacific. Her brief service was emblematic of the thousands of auxiliary vessels built in anticipation of an invasion of Japan that the atomic bomb made unnecessary. Read more

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20

Repair Ships

4

Wars Served

1

Medal of Honor

80+

Years of Service