The USS Beaver (AS-5) was a submarine tender serving the United States Navy from 1918 to 1946. Originally built in 1910 at Newport News, Virginia, by the Newport News Shipbuilding Co., she was a steel-hulled, single-screw freight and passenger steamer for the Union Pacific Railroad Company. Purchased by the Navy in July 1918 from the San Francisco & Portland Steamship Co., she was converted into a submarine tender at Mare Island Navy Yard and commissioned on October 1, 1918. Designed to support submarine operations, Beaver was equipped with a machine shop, electrical plant, battery shop, and refrigeration units. She carried a variety of small craft, including four motor launches, three motor boats, and five smaller vessels, to aid in submarine maintenance and boat services. Her initial duties involved escorting newly constructed submarines and serving as a tender to Submarine Division 14, primarily in the Pacific. Throughout her service, Beaver played a vital role in establishing and supporting submarine bases in Hawaii, the Caribbean, and the Philippines. She escorted submarines across vast distances, including trips through the Panama Canal and non-stop runs from Hawaii to Guam. Her operations included surveying potential submarine base sites, such as Wake Island, and supporting fleet exercises in the West Indies, California, and Asian waters. She was instrumental in tending submarines in Chinese waters and supporting American naval efforts in the Pacific during the interwar years. In the 1930s, Beaver was stationed at Pearl Harbor, tending to S-boats and participating in fleet exercises. She was modernized for improved overseas support before relocating to New London, Connecticut, in 1940, where she became part of the Atlantic Fleet. During World War II, she supported Atlantic and Caribbean submarine patrols, participated in Operation "Torch" off North Africa, and later moved to the North Pacific, establishing and supporting bases in Alaska. In 1945, she was converted into an internal combustion engine repair ship (ARG-19) and served in Japanese waters until May 1946. Decommissioned in July 1946 and sold for scrapping in 1950, USS Beaver’s extensive service highlights her importance as a mobile support vessel for submarine operations across the Pacific, Atlantic, and Asian waters during both world wars.

This description has been generated using GPT-4.1-NANO based on the Vessel's wikidata information and then modified by ShipIndex.org staff.