TOMAHAWK T-AO 88

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.

Escambia Class Fleet Oiler Keel Laid 1 June 1943 - Launched 10 October 1944 USS TOMAHAWK AO-88 Commissioned 16 April 1944 - Decommissioned 6 January 1946 Struck from Naval Register 21 January 1946 USNS TOMAHAWK T-AO-88 Placed in Service 6 January 1946 - Placed out of Service September 1961 Transferred to Maritime Commission September 1961 SEATRAIN MAINE (Commercial Service) Sold July 16 1966 to Hudson Waterways Corp and renamed Converted to Container Ship May 1967 Her forepart became part of SEATRAIN WASHINGTON Her midship section became part of SEATRAIN OHIO Her aft machinery section was retained as SEATRAIN MAINE MAINE (Commercial Service) Renamed 8 August 1978 Assigned to MARAD Ready Reserve Fleet (RRF) March 21 1978 Reactivated during Desert Storm / Desert Shield 28 August 1990 Laid up May 24 1991 in National Defense Reserve Fleet, Texas Group Sold 13 March 2008 for scrap

 

Conflicting History Data

NavSource and Wikipedia disagree on the following two points:

1. NavSource says: "Her forepart became part of SS Seatrain Washington (USNS Mission San Diego T-AO-121), the midship section became part of SS Seatrain Ohio (USNS Mission San Jose T-AO-125) and the aft machinery section was retained as SS Seatrain Maine". This implies that the ship was broken up and some parts were sent elsewhere.
   Wikipedia says the opposite: "She was subsequently lengthened using sections of two other T2 tankers, the Mission San Jose and Mission San Diego"


2. NavSource says the ship was: "sold for scrapping, 13 March 2008, to ESCO Marine, Brownsville, TX." while
   Wikipedia says: "Still at Beaumont [Texas] as of 2010, her ultimate disposition is unknown."

 

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 Tomahawk AO-88 Covers Page 1    (1945)

 

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

 

Locy Type 2z

1945-12-18

Add-on cachet by Michael Hebert (Mh Cachets)

 

Locy Type 9efu

1945-12-18

Add-on cachet by Michael Hebert (Mh Cachets)

 

Locy Type P USCS Postmark Catalog Illus. T-46

1945-09-04

Sailor's mail. Tokyo Bay

 

Locy Type LDPS 2z

1946-01-02

Last Day of Postal Service, cachet by Tazewell G. Nicholson

 

Locy Type LDPS 9efu

1946-01-02

Last Day of Postal Service, cachet by Tazewell G. Nicholson

 

Other Information

USS TOMAHAWK earned the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal w/ 6 Battle stars, the World War II Victory Medal, the Navy Occupation Service Medal (with Asia clasp) and the Philippines Liberation Medal during her Naval career.

NAMESAKE - A river in Wisconsin

 

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