VILLALOBOS IX 145

Ship Name and Designation History

This section lists the names and designations that the ship had during its lifetime. The list is in chronological order.

Villalobos Class Mobile Station Tanker Built 1911 at Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Co., Newport News, VA Launched February 4 1911 WILLIAM F. HERRIN (Commercial Service) Delivered March 20 1911 to the Associated Oil Co. Lloyd's Register of Shipping 1912-1914 editions list the owner as Associated Transportation Co. before switching to Associated Oil Co. in the 1915-1929 editions Official Number: 208373 COLORADO (Commercial Service) Purchased 1928 by Società Anonima di Navigazione «Perseveranza» of Genoa and renamed Purchased 1938 by Società Anonima di Navigazione Petroleum of Genoa Impounded on 7 June 1940 by the US Marshall in San Juan, Puerto Rico due to a pending lawsuit Interned on 10 June 1940 by the US Government after Italy entered WWII Engines and boilers sabotaged by the Italian crew in late March / early April 1941 Ownership transferred to the US Maritime Commission Towed by U.S. Coast Guard cutters Unalga and Acacia to Galveston, Texas for repairs TYPHOON (Tanker) Renamed mid-1941 while being repaired Registered under the Panamanian flag and placed under the management of the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey Acquired by U.S. Navy October 19 1943 from the Maritime Commission's War Shipping Administration USS VILLALOBOS IX-145 Officially renamed 3 November 1943 but continued to be referred to as TYPHOON for some time Placed in service February 10 1944 as a "mobile station tanker" (i.e., a tanker to be used as a mobile fuel depot at remote naval bases) Commissioned Miscellaneous Unclassified (IX) October 1944 Decommissioned February 16 1946 Struck from Naval Register February 26 1946 Returned to her Italian owners Maritime Petroleum Society and Navigation Co., Genoa, Italy on August 31 1948 but likely never used for commercial service again Possibly scrapped in the far east 1948-49

 

Naval Covers

This section lists active links to the pages displaying covers associated with the ship. There should be a separate set of pages for each name of the ship (for example, Bushnell AG-32 / Sumner AGS-5 are different names for the same ship so there should be one set of pages for Bushnell and one set for Sumner). Covers should be presented in chronological order (or as best as can be determined).

Since a ship may have many covers, they may be split among many pages so it doesn't take forever for the pages to load. Each page link should be accompanied by a date range for covers on that page.

1. Covers Page 1     (DATE RANGE)

 

Postmarks

This section lists examples of the postmarks used by the ship. There should be a separate set of postmarks for each name and/or commissioning period. Within each set, the postmarks should be listed in order of their classification type. If more than one postmark has the same classification, then they should be further sorted by date of earliest known usage.

A postmark should not be included unless accompanied by a close-up image and/or an image of a cover showing that postmark. Date ranges MUST be based ONLY ON COVERS IN THE MUSEUM and are expected to change as more covers are added.
 
>>> If you have a better example for any of the postmarks, please feel free to replace the existing example.

 

Postmark Type --- Killer Bar Text	Postmark Date	Thumbnail Link To Postmark Image	Thumbnail Link To Cover Image

 

Locy Type 2z

1945-04-27

Note:

 

Other Information

TYPHOON received three battle stars for her World War II service

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons...
American Campaign Medal Bottom Row - Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (3) - World War II Victory Medal - Philippine Liberation Medal

NAMESAKE - Ruy Lopez de Villalobos
Villalobos was a 16th century Spanish navigator and explorer, and was given command of a force sent out by the Viceroy of Mexico to explore unknown islands in the southern seas of the Pacific. On November 1 1542, Villalobos departed Mexico with five ships. In the course of his voyages, he discovered the Palaus, or the Western Caroline islands; and navigated the Philippine Archipelago, discovering them and naming them in honor of the reigning Spanish monarch, King Philip II. In 1546, the intrepid explorer died at Ambon, in what is now Indonesia

 

Additional Naming History Sources

Con la pelle appesa a un chiodo March 3 2016 blog post provides an excellent history of the ship. It is in Italian but Google Translate does a good job.

 

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