If the name does not sound familiar to you World War Two
Veterans its because this is the name it was given when I was
introduced to this 63ft boat. You may know it as a Crash Boat,
Emergency Rescue Boat, Air Sea Rescue boat, and as the plaque
on the boat reads ARB. I know for you military people that ARB
in WWII meant Battle Damage Repair Ship, but that's the name
given by the builders of these boats.
Let me tell you how I was introduced to these boats. I joined
the Sea Scout Ship Tiger Shark 1978, and they had a 63ft AVR,
and I took to it like ducks take to water. Also in the Sea
Scouts was the Farrallon, Compass Rose, Sea Witch, Chaser, and
the Revenge where all 63ft AVR's. You really need to see these
boats to appreciate them. That's one of the reasons I started
this page was to let you know about them, and second was to
gather any information I could about these boats before all
the records are gone.
The Navy, Army Air Corps, and Army Corps of Engineers used
them. So if you have any information on these boats during
WWII please let me know (boat #, area of operation, squadron
#, combat stories, logbooks, pictures, manuals), you can use
my E-mail at the bottom of this page.
SSS Tiger Shark
63'ARB
No. C-36301
Built for the Navy by
Fellows and Stewart
Wilmington, Calif.
Sept. 1944
Bureau Plan No. 603100
Hull No. C36301
AVR Blueprints of the
Deck Plan AVR Blueprints of the Inboard
Plan & Profile AVR Blueprints of the
Outboard Plan AVR Aircraft Rescue
boat at high speed (size 353KB) AVR1 Stern view of three boats underway. AVR2 Port quarter view underway AVR3 Port bow underway (good photo from a
magazine) AVR4 Crash boat gose to the
rescue of a downed PBY. The U.S.S. Guadalcanal
CVE-60
in the background June 19, 1945. (size
356KB)
Thanks to David Ford for the next 4
photos. AVR5 Pictures of 4 AVR's
160(B70) 152(B66) 153(B67) 154(B68) Photo taken from 155(B69)(size
1.25MB) AVR6 Model 152 Under
construction(size 955KB) AVR7 All the people at Miami Boat Yard who
helped build it.(size 2.43MB) AVR8 Model 292 (flush deck) Russian Patrol
Craft (Sub Chaser)(size 1.13MB)
Sea Scouts
TIGER SHARK A photo of
the Tiger Shark on the Sacramento Delta just coming off Steamboat Slough NORTHLAND The boats are on the Sacramento River, at
steamboaters landing. They are the SSS Northland and the SSS Marion J Byne
(Belmonster). Photo was sent to me by Shaun boatswain's mate on the Northland
SURF (EX-WIN-DEE) S.S.S. Neptune
Web-Page Thanks to Nate Eckler Executive Officer, S.S.S. Neptune for the
following web-page 63' AVRs
and 104' ASRs ready for deployment at the Stephens Bros. Museum. Photo
courtesy of the Haggin Museum Compass Rose Thanks
to Dave Stanberry of the Compass Rose. The one in the cradle was taken at Mare
Island 8/78 and the other one was taken in Petaluma 12/77 ...maybe 76.
Private
Orel Thanks to Gene Orloff for
this photo The background is Muir Glacier in Glacier Bay Seafarer Thanks to Gary Humphreys for this
nice picture of his AVR.
If anyone would like to contribute a photo of
his or her AVR please send me a scanned photo.
