The USS Mackinac (AVP-13) was a United States Navy Barnegat-class small seaplane tender built for World War II service. Laid down on 29 May 1940 at Puget Sound Navy Yard in Bremerton, Washington, she was launched on 15 November 1941 and commissioned on 24 January 1942. She measured approximately 213 feet in length, with a beam of about 34 feet, and displaced around 1,600 tons. Her construction emphasized seaworthiness and reliability, qualities characteristic of the Barnegat class. During her wartime service, Mackinac played a vital role in the Pacific Theater. After shakedown, she departed for Pearl Harbor in May 1942, and soon after arrived in the South Pacific, where she established seaplane bases on Malaita and Vanikolo Island to support the Guadalcanal campaign. She was actively involved in setting up and tending to seaplane operations, often operating under threat from Japanese forces, including shelling incidents and air raids. Mackinac participated in key campaigns across the Gilbert and Marshall Islands, including Tarawa, Makin, Eniwetok, and Kwajalein, providing vital support for seaplane patrols and rescue missions, such as towing a downed PBY Catalina crew to safety in November 1943. In 1944, she moved to Saipan amid intense combat, and later supported operations at Peleliu and Ulithi. During the Okinawa campaign in 1945, she provided air-sea rescue and bombardment support from Kerama Retto and Okinawa. After Japan's surrender, Mackinac served in occupation duties in Sagami Bay, Tokyo, until early 1946. She received six battle stars for her wartime service. Post-war, she was decommissioned in 1947 and transferred to the Coast Guard in 1949, where she was renamed USCGC Mackinac (WAVP-371). As a Coast Guard cutter, she served primarily in the Atlantic Ocean from New York, performing weather reporting, search and rescue, and law enforcement until her decommissioning in 1967. She was reclassified as a high endurance cutter (WHEC-371) in 1966 and notably earned the Eastern Area Vessel Performance Award in 1967. Ultimately, the Navy used her as a target ship and sank her off Virginia in 1968, demonstrating her durability even under intense naval fire.

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