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NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive

USS Medusa (AR-1)

International Radio Call Sign:
November - Echo - Mike - Charlie NEMC

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Precedence of awards is from top to bottom, left to right
Top Row - Combat Action Ribbon (retroactive, 7 December 1941, Pearl Harbor) - American Defense Service Medal (with Fleet clasp) - American Campaign Medal
Bottom Row - Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (1) - World War II Victory Medal - Philippines Liberation Medal

Medusa Class Fleet Repair Ship:

Laid down, 2 January 1920, at Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, WA.

Launched, 16 April 1920

Commissioned USS Medusa (AR-1), 18 September 1924, CAPT. R. T. Menner in command

USS Medusa was at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941

During World War II USS Medusa was assigned to the Asiatic-Pacific Theater

Decommissioned, 18 November 1947 at Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, WA.

Struck from the Naval Register, date unknown

Transferred to the Maritime Commission for disposal

Final Disposition, sold for scrapping, 24 August 1950, to Ziedell Shipwrecking Co., Portland, OR.

USS Medusa (AR-1) received one battle star for World War II service

Specifications:
Displacement 10,620 t.(lt) (13,000 t.(lim)
Length 484' 5"
Beam 70' 3"
Draft 20' 6"
Speed 16 kts.
Complement

Officers 54

Enlisted 786
Largest Boom Capacity 20 t.
Armament

six single 3"/50 cal dual purpose gun mounts

two twin 40mm AA gun mounts
Propulsion

one Navy Yard Puget Sound Parsons-type turbine

two Thorny boilers, 210psi, Sat.

double Parsons-type Main Reduction Gears

Ship's Service Generators

one turbo-drive 100Kw 120V D.C.

three turbo-drive 300Kw 120V D.C.

single propeller, 7,000shp

Size	Image Description	Source Contributed By
58k	*USS Medusa* (AR-1)** at anchor, circa 1920s, location unknown.	Robert Hurst
120k	*USS Medusa* (AR-1)** moored pierside at Melbourne, Australia, during the fleet visit in 1925. Photo by the late Allan Greene	Chris Howell, with copyright permission
153k		Chris Howell, with copyright permission
53k	*USS Medusa* (AR-1)** at anchor, circa 1925, location unknown.	Robert Hurst
97k	*USS Medusa* (AR-1)** at anchor, date and location unknown. The well deck amidships with its large cargo booms provided space for loading stores, facilitated access to ships alongside, and served as a boat gangway. US Naval History and Heritage Command, Photo # NH 69800	Mike Green
132k	Dutch submarine *K XIII* in Navy Yard Mare Island Dry Dock #2, 4 September 1926. *USS Medusa* (AR-1)** is in the background. Navy Yard Mare Island photo	Darryl Baker
102k	*USS Medusa* (AR-1)** moored, date and location unknown. US National Archives photo # 80-G-466212, a US Navy photo now in the collections of the US National Archives	US National Archives
62k	*USS Medusa* (AR-1)** at anchor, date and location unknown. US Navy photo # NH 83333.	Jon Burdett and John Chiquoine
100k	*USS Medusa* (AD-1) in Balboa Harbor, Panama Canal Zone, 24 April 1934. From the bottom to the top of the photo several US Navy and British ships are present including USS Zane (DD-337)** and another destroyer alongside USS Melville (AD-2), *USS Medusa* (AR-1), USS Litchfield (DD-336), HMS Exeter and another destroyer nested with USS Truxtun (DD-229)*. US Navy photo # NH 60813* from the collections of the US Naval Historical Center.	US Naval Historical Center
121k	*USS Curtiss* (AV-4) afire after she was hit by a crashing Japanese dive bomber. Photographed from USS Tangier (AV-8). USS Medusa (AR-1) is at right. Timbers floating in the water (foreground) may be from USS Utah (AG-16), which had been sunk at her berth, astern of Tangier. Note weathered paint work on Curtiss and Medusa*. The original photograph was in the CinCPac report of the Pearl harbor Attack, 15 February 1942, Volume 3, in 1990. US Naval History and Heritage Command photo #: NH 96660*	Robert Hurst
87k	*USS Medusa* (AR-1) at her mooring in Peal Harbor soon after the Japanese raid of 7 December 1941. The damaged USS Curtiss (AV-4)*, is moored to starboard of USS Medusa* Note that *USS Curtiss* (AV-4)** has been fitted with an air search radar. US National Archives photo # 80-G-32733, a US Navy photo now in the collections of the National Archives	US Naval Historical Center
105k	*USS Medusa* (AR-1)** moored behind torpedo nets at Pearl Harbor circa early 1942. She still has her original armament of four 5"/51 and two 3"/50 AA guns. US National Archives, RG-19-LCM, Photo # 19-N-29121, a US Navy Bureau of Ships photo now in the collections of the US National Archives.	Mike Green
109k	*USS Medusa* (AR-1) underway circa early 1943. Medusa** was at Pearl Harbor until April 1943 when she departed for the Southwest Pacific. US National Archives, RG-19-LCM, Photo # 19-N-45951, a US Navy Bureau of Ships photo now in the collections of the US National Archives.	Mike Green

USS Medusa Memorabilia
Ship's Service 5 cent token (front) Contributed by Tommy Trampp	Ship's Service 5 cent token (back) Contributed by Tommy Trampp

For more photos and information about USS Medusa, see;
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships

Commanding Officers

Crew Contact And Reunion Information
U.S. Navy Memorial Foundation - Navy Log

Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
Pearl Harbor Action Report

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This page is created and maintained by Gary P. Priolo

Last Updated 22 February 2013