GORDONIA AF 43

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.

Adria Class Stores Ship Keel Laid September 1944 as MV Whale Knot Launched 30 November 1944 USS GORDONIA AF-43 Commissioned 14 May 1945 - Decommissioned 8 July 1946 Returned to the Maritime Commission 8 July 1946 Renamed MV Whale Knot and laid up in the Reserve Fleet Struck from the Naval Register, 8 January 1946 Operated commercially by the Matson Navigation Company during 1946-1948 Returned to the Maritime Administration Transferred to the US Army Transportation Command Returned to the Maritime Administration early 1949 Sold for scrapping 9 November 1973, delivered 17 December 1973, scrapped in 1974

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. USS Gordonia AF-43 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 2 F. P. O. San Francisco

1946-06-26

The ship had no postal facilities.

 

Other Information

USS GORDONIA earned the China Service Medal, the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, the World War II Victory Medal and the Navy Occupation Service Medal (with Asia clasp) during her Naval career.

NAMESAKE - Gordonia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae, related to Franklinia, Camellia and Stewartia.

 

---

 

If you have images or information to add to this page, then either contact the Curator or edit this page yourself and add it. See Editing Ship Pages for detailed information on editing this page.

 

---

Copyright 2024 Naval Cover Museum