USS Holland (AS-32)

USS Holland (AS-32) was a Hunley class submarine tender launched by the Ingalls Shipbuilding Company in Pascagoula, Mississippi on 19 January 1963. The first ever built specifically to service Fleet Ballistic Missile submarines (SSBNs),[2] she was sponsored by Mrs. John C. Stennis, wife of US Senator John C. Stennis and delivered to the Charleston Naval Shipyard, Charleston, South Carolina. Holland was commissioned on 7 September 1963, with Captain Charles W. "Gin" Styer, Jr. in command.

For other ships with the same name, see USS Holland.
USS Holland (AS-32)
History
United States
Class and type: Hunley class submarine tender
Name: USS Holland (AS-32)
Namesake: John Philip Holland
Awarded: 31 August 1961
Builder: Ingalls Shipbuilding Company
Laid down: 5 March 1962
Launched: 19 January 1963
Acquired: 30 August 1963
Commissioned: 7 September 1963
Decommissioned: 30 September 1996
Stricken: 12 May 2000
Fate: Sold for scrap 18 July 2013 [1]
General characteristics
Class and type: Hunley-class submarine tender
Displacement: 19,000 tons
Length: 599 ft (183 m)
Beam: 83 ft (25 m)
Draft: 23 ft 4 in (7.11 m)
Speed: 18 knots
Complement: 1,190
Armament: 2 x 5"

Holland departed Charleston on 14 October for shakedown training at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, returning to Charleston on 19 November. She commenced post-shakedown availability on 25 November.

While Holland was neither a submersible nor a combatant ship, she was a vital link in support of the United States first line of deterrence, the Navy's Polaris missile. She contained a complete machine shop and was capable of making any submarine repair other than major overhaul, including servicing and maintaining the nuclear power plants of Polaris-equipped submarines.

USS Holland at Apra Harbor, Guam, in 1993.
USS Holland at Hong Kong in 1993.

The opening of 1964 found Holland at Charleston, South Carolina, making preparations for deployment to the Polaris replenishment anchorage at Rota, Spain. She arrived in Rota 1 April and relieved Proteus (AS-19) as the fleet submarine tender shortly thereafter. Holland continued her service to the Polaris submarines until relieved 4 November 1966. Holland arrived at Charleston 22 November. There, she tended submarines of the Atlantic Fleet into 1969. In March of that year she returned to Rota for another tour of duty.

From November 1975 – January 1982 she served Submarine Squadron 14 at Holy Loch, Scotland. She was a key contributor along with Irish, British and other naval ships in the rescue of racing yachts caught in severe storm during the 1979 Fastnet Race.

Holland was decommissioned on 30 September 1996 and moored with the Reserve Fleet in Suisun Bay near San Francisco, California.

July 10, 2013 moved into dry dock at Mare Island for cleaning before being towed to Texas for scrapping. She has since been disassembled.

See also

References
  1. https://www.transportation.gov/fastlane/reserve-ship-uss-holland-leaves-suisun-bay
  2. Adcock, Al. U.S. Ballistic Missile Submarines (Carrolltown, Texas: Squadron Signal, 1993), p.22. Adcock, p.4, also credits mythical interwar Albacore and Trout classes, however.
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