USS Guyandot
USS Guyandot was a gasoline tanker acquired by the U.S. Navy as Veedol No. 2 from Tidewater Oil to serve as a gasoline tanker. The tanker served in Mediterranean operations often under air attack. After postwar decommissioning January 1945 in Algeria and service with the French under lend-lease the tanker was purchased in March 1949 by France serving under the name Lac Noir.
Construction
Veedol No. 2 was built by Pusey and Jones Corporation, Wilmington, Delaware as hull 409, contract 1044, with keel laid 19 October 1929, launch on 4 March 1930 and delivery to Tidewater Oil on 15 May 1930. Registered dimensions were length between perpendiculars, beam with depth of. Registry crew was eighteen.The propulsion system consisted of two De la Vergne six cylinder diesel engines each developing 625 b.h.p. at 225 r.p.m. and driving a 410 kilowatt General Electric generator connected in series with a 1,000 horsepower electric motor driving a single propeller at up to 130 r.p.m.
The tanker was registered with U.S. Official Number 229673 and signal MHTF with home port of Wilmington, Delaware. The registered owner was Tide Water Associated Transport Corporation.
World War II service
The Navy identified a need for shallow draft tankers to support operations in shallow Mediterranean ports to support the advances in that area. Veedol No. 2 was one of three tankers specifically identified for purchase and limited conversion to arm the ships and provide crew quarters the Navy crews. On 22 March 1943 Veedol No. 2 was requisitioned by the War Shipping Administration for wartime service at Bayonne, New Jersey and simultaneously delivered to the Navy as purchaser of the vessel. The tanker was converted at Brewers Drydock, Staten Island and commissioned as Guyandot 17 April 1943.Taking on a full load of fuel oil, she sailed for Bermuda on 1 May as part of Convoy UGL.4; from there she was taken in tow to Oran, where she arrived 26 May. From Oran she sailed to Bizerte, Tunisia, arriving there 8 June; although under frequent air attack Guyandot worked unceasingly shuttling oil through the wreck-laden channel. Sailing to Tunis on 27 June, Guyandot began fueling ships for the Sicilian invasion and, after the assault in late July, carried high octane fuel to the newly taken port of Palermo, again under heavy air attack.