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

Photo # NH 80011:  USS Towner underway, circa 1944-1945

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

USS Towner (AKA-77), 1944-1946

USS Towner, a 13,910-ton (full load displacement) Tolland class attack cargo ship, was built in 1944 at Wilmington, North Carolina, as a Maritime Commission C2-S-AJ3 type freighter. She was acquired by the Navy in late June 1944 and, following conversion, placed in commission in early December of that year. Towner transited the Panama Canal in January 1945 and went to the south Pacific in February. During the remaining months of World War II she engaged in training activities and carried cargo and personnel between U.S. bases from New Caledonia to the Philippines. In early September 1945, soon after the fighting had ended, Towner took troops and equipment to Japan for occupation duty. A second such voyage was made in October, after which the ship visited the Philippines, Okinawa, China, Guam, the south Pacific before steaming back across the Pacific to Seattle, Washington, where she arrived in late January 1946. In March and April Towner returned to the East Coast

Decommissioned and stricken from the Navy list in June 1946, Towner was laid up in the Maritime Commission's James River, Virginia, Reserve Fleet. Early in 1947 she was towed to Bath, Maine, for reconversion to a civilian freighter. Subsequently renamed Philippine Bear, Kaimana and Guam Bear, she was employed commercially until abandoned as a constructive total loss in March 1967.

This page features the only view we have concerning USS Towner (AKA-77), and provides information on other photographs of her that may be available from the National Archives.


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

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 80011

USS Towner
(AKA-77)

Underway, circa 1944-1945.

Courtesy of James Russell.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 53KB; 740 x 595 pixels

 


In addition to the images presented above, the National Archives appears to hold other photographs of USS Towner (AKA-77). The following list features some of these views:

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-290555
    USS Towner (AKA-77) wnderway in the vicinity of New York City, 7 December 1944. Photographed from an aircraft based at Naval Air Station New York.
    High aerial view, taken from directly ahead of the ship.

  • Photo #: 80-G-290556
    As 80-G-290555, but starboard bow aerial view. Towner is painted in pattern camouflage, which another source has identified at Measure 32, Design 13F.

  • Photo #: 80-G-290557
    As 80-G-290556, but starboard broadside aerial view.

  • Photo #: 80-G-290558
    As 80-G-290556, but starboard stern high aerial view, relatively tight on the stern.


  • Photo #: 80-G-496021 (**)
    USS Towner (AKA-77) sails from Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, for Seattle, Washington, 23 January 1946. She is flying a long "homeward bound" pennant from her mainmast top. Starboard stern aerial view. The ship is painted dark overall (presumably Camouflage Measure 21), with large white numbers ("pa77") on her quarter.
    (**): This Photo number is not certain, as the numeral "0" is quite indistinct on the "visual aid" card we have.


    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 image presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


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    Page made 9 October 2006