ORCA AVP 49

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.

Barnegat Class Small Seaplane Tender Keel Laid 13 July 1942 - Launched 4 October 1942 USS ORCA AVP-49 Commissioned 23 January 1944 - Decommissioned 31 October 1947 Recommissioned 15 December 1951 - Decommissioned March 1960 Reactivated 1961 for conversion to Training Ship ETHIOPIA A-01 Transferred to Ethiopia January 1962 and renamed During Eritrean revolution in 1991 ETHIOPIA escaped to Yemen Sold for scrap in 1993

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 incarnation of the ship (ie, for each entry in the "Ship Name and Designation History" section). 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. USS Orca AVP-49 Covers Page 1     (1944-1958)

 

Postmarks

This section lists examples of the postmarks used by the ship. There should be a separate set of postmarks for each incarnation of the ship (ie, for each entry in the "Ship Name and Designation History" section). 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

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1st Commissioning 23 January 1944 to 31 October 1947

 

Locy Type 2z

1944-05-02

Censored, WWII use

 

Locy Type 9efu

1946-02-03

Note:

 

Locy Type SL

1947-09-02

Postmarked from San Francisco CA on Sept. 2 1947. Cacheted cover.

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2nd Commissioning 15 December 1951 to March 1960

 

Locy Type FDPS 2r

1952-01-10

Add-on cachet by Wolfgang Hechler

 

Locy Type 2r

1953-12-28

Note:

 

Locy Type 2t(n+u)

1958-09-02

Note:

 

Locy Type 9efu

1952-08-16

Note:

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In Service with ETHIOPIA

 

Locy Type 2t(n+u)

1965-03-21

N/A

Welcome to Norfolk, HMS Ethiopia. Cachet by Tazewell G. Nicholson

 

Other Information

USS ORCA earned the Combat Action Ribbon (3 awards), the Presidential Unit Citation Ribbon, the China Service Medal, the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal w/ 4 Battle stars, the World War II Victory Medal, the National Defense Service Medal and the Philippines Liberation Medal (2 awards) during her Naval career.

NAMESAKE - A Bay near Cordova, Alaska, Latin form of orc—the grampus or killer whale.

The ships sponsor was Mrs. J. W. Reeves, Jr.

Three ships of the US Navy have borne the name ORCA - USS K-3 SS-34 (Named ORCA when keel laid, name changed during construction), USS Orca SP-726 and USS Orca AVP-49.

 

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