OTHER DUTIES

Net Tenders were well suited in performing duties other then those involved in Net Laying and Maintenance. Other assignments given them were:
    Cargo Service
    Salvage Duties
    Buoy & Mooring-Laying & Maintenance
    Tug Duties and other assignments.

Many ship histories mentions Cargo Service, Salvage, Buoy and Tug duties but does not give details. Some known assignments are given in the following paragraphs.

Cargo Service:
On 20 May 1944 USS Anagua AN-40 reached Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska.There she began her assignment of tending nets.

Because there was not enough Net Maintenance work, the ship was assigned duties hauling cargo, passengers and supplies, other then Net Gear, to various bases and outposts in the Aleutian chain. She also made several trips hauling supplies to a Coast Guard weather station on St. Matthew Island, located 500 miles north of Dutch Harbor in the Bearing Sea.

USS MULBERRY AN-27 spent 3 years in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. In 1944 this ship and USS Eucalyptus AN-16 installed nets at Kulak Bay near Adak (See story on pages 24 and 25). The Eucalyptus returned to the U.S. in July 1944 and was assigned duty in the San Francisco Bay area for the duration of the war. Mulberry remained in the Aleutians were she tended nets and carried cargo and transported military personnel.

SALVAGE DUTIES:
In October & November 1944 USS SILVERBELL AN-51, while at San Pedro Bay in the Philippines, did a lot of repair work on battle damaged LSM's, LST's and LCI's. George Burkett, a Motor Machinist and Ships Diver, said he had no idea how many props they changed on these landing craft. They did this until enough repair ships arrived to take over.

In the fall of 1945 USS ELDER AN-20 made a sounding survey of the North Channel between Corregidor and Bataan and in September began plotting the position of known wrecks in Manila Harbor.

In 1945 USS SILVERBELL AN-51 went to Corregidor and retrieved gold and silver that the Philippine Government had sunk before the Japanese took over.


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