USS Aeolus (ARC-3)
USS Aeolus began service as, an built by the Walsh-Kaiser Co., Inc. of Providence, Rhode Island. In 1954 she was converted into a cable repair ship to support Project Caesar, the unclassified name for installation of the Sound Surveillance System SOSUS. Aeolus was the first of two ships, the other being USS Thor (ARC-4), to be converted into cable ships. Aeolus performed cable duties for nearly thirty years, from 1955 to 1973 as a commissioned ship and from 1973 until 1985 as the civilian crewed USNS Aeolus of the Military Sealift Command. The ship was retired in 1985 and sunk as an artificial reef in 1988.
USS ''Turandot'' (AKA-47)
USS Turandot was decommissioned on 21 March 1946, struck from the Navy list on 17 April 1947, and placed in the reserve fleet on 25 June.USS ''Aeolus'' (ARC-3)
On 4 November 1954 the ship was removed from the reserve fleet for conversion to a cable repair ship. The conversion was performed at the Key Highway yard of the Bethlehem Steel Co. in Baltimore, Maryland. The ship was renamed Aeolus, designated ARC-3, on 17 March 1955 and commissioned on 14 May 1955. The Navy crew consisted of nine officers and 196 enlisted personnel with civilian cable or survey personnel as required.Function
Aeolus was converted to support the installation of the Sound Surveillance System and other defense cable projects. The system and name were at the time classified with the unclassified name Project Caesar being given to the installation and support of the system. The ship was principally used to transport, deploy, retrieve and repair cables and to conduct acoustic, hydrographic, and bathymetric surveys under Project Caesar. Civilian specialist are involved during cable or surveying operations for the technical work.Service history
Aeolus worked in the Atlantic and Caribbean during 1955–56; in the Pacific during 1956–59; and returned to the Atlantic and Caribbean during 1959–62. During 1962–73 she worked principally in the Atlantic, with occasional temporary assignments to the Pacific.In early 1973 the ship underwent a ten-month refit at the Boston Naval Shipyard in anticipation of transfer to the Military Sealift Command later that year. new, up to date, cable machinery along with ship's service generators and auxiliary equipment was installed. The distilling plant was replaced by a new, larger capacity, system. The engineering plant and boilers were overhauled. Changes to both ship's work and habitable spaces addressed work and habitability issues.
On 23 November 1969 the ship began recovering the SNAP-7E nuclear power source off Bermuda. The ship had deployed the nuclear powered acoustic source, built for the Navy by the United States Atomic Energy Commission, in 1964 in of water with two anchors connected to the device by of line. SNAP-7E had failed prematurely and the AEC had requested recovery for examination to identify the failure. Aeolus, on the third pass over the line connecting the lighter anchor to the device, began retrieval. The heavy lift was successful with a maximum tension of. The device was checked for radiation leaks before being secured on board for transport to a facility in Rhode Island.
After returning from European waters on 21 September 1973 the ship was prepared for decommissioning and turn over to the MSC. On 1 October 1973 Aeolus was transferred to MSC operating with a civilian crew as USNS Aeolus until May 1985 when deactivated for lay up in the Maritime Administration's National Defense Reserve Fleet in the James River near Ft. Eustis, Virginia.
During her career, Aeolus received three Meritorious Unit Commendations.