Lake Union Drydock 8 (Ex - White Sands (ARD-20)) (Seattle, Washington)

 drydock  Add category

Presently in service as a commercial drydock at the Lake Union Drydock shipyard, Drydock #8 started its life as the 8th member of the ARD-12 Class Auxiliary Repair Docks built for the US Navy, laid down at the Pacific Bridge Co. shipyard in Alameda, CA in December 1943 and activated for service with the US Pacific Fleet in March 1944.

Towed from the US West Coast and into the Pacific Theatre of the Second World War, ARD-20 and her crew began their ship repair and support service at Seeadler Harbor, Manaus Island in August 1944 and remained stationed there until moving Northward to Morotai in April 1945. Moving Northward again to Manicani Island in the Philippines in July 1945 and staged to provide her services to the ships involved with the forthcoming invasion of mainland Japan, the end of hostilities brought ARD-20's battle damage repair career to a close. Remaining stationed in the Philippines for over a year tending to the tremendous amount of vessels engaged in occupation and repatriation duties, the ARD-20 and her crews were kept heavily occupied until finally being relieved and released for return stateside. Towed to San Pedro, CA via Guam and Pearl Harbor, ARD-20 was deactivated and placed into the Reserve Fleet in October 1947.

Remaining mothballed for the next eighteen years, the drydock was selected for modernization as part of the US Navy's deep submergence research programs and entered the Long Beach Naval Shipyard in October 1965 for conversion into a support ship for the Bathyscaph Trieste II. Re-entering service with US Pacific Fleet Submarine Force in September 1966, ARD-20 was formally given the name White Sands as she began her operations with her experimental Submarine in the Undersea Weapons Center near San Clemente Island in 1968.

Remaining paired with Trieste II for the next four years and engaging primarily in scientific and research missions, the White Sands most high-profile action came when she was ordered to transport and support Trieste II as it located and photographed the wreckage of the USS Scorpion (SSN-589), a nuclear-powered Submarine lost with all hands near the Azores in May 1968. Returning to San Diego in October 1969 following this deployment and resuming her support role, the White Sands remained in active service for a further five years before being deactivated for the final time September 1974.

Sold by the US Navy for scrapping, the former White Sands was granted a reprieve when it was purchased by the Marine Power & Equipment shipyard on Lake Union for use as a commercial drydock at their facility. Far too broad to fit through the Ballard Locks following her tow up the coast from San Diego, the drydock became the subject of a complex towing operation engineered by marine architects at J. Fisker-Andersen, the US Army Corps of Engineers, Foss Towing and Marine Power and Equipment to fit the outsize vessel through the Ballard Lock. Eventually settling on heavily counter-ballasting the vessel to produce an enormous Port list and thus reducing the drydocks beam, the first attempt to pass the lock on September 9th failed after a securing barge came loose. A second attempt on October 4th, 1975 succeeded in its goal in just four hours, with the former White Sands clearing the Ballard Lock with just enough clearance on the outbound tide to avoid being stranded. Towed to her current position thereafter, the drydock entered commercial service later that year.

www.navsource.org/archives/09/67/6720.htm
blog.friendsoftheballardlocks.org/2012/05/october-4-197...