Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
USS ZEILIN AP-9
The second Zeilin (AP-9)-started by the Newport News
Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. near the end of World War I as
an Army troop transport but completed as SS Silver State,
a combination passenger liner and cargo carrier for
mercantile service-served during the 1920's and 1930's on
the West Coast-to-Far East circuit, first with the Pacific
Steamship Line, then with the Admiral Orient Line, and
finally with the Dollar Line. Renamed SS President Jackson
on 23 June 1922, she served under that name until acquired
by the Navy in July 1940. Renamed Zeilin and designated
AP-9, she was converted back to a troop transport at Todd-
Seattle Drydock Co. and was commissioned on 3 January 1942,
Capt. Pat Buchanan in command.
Following shakedown training along the west coast, Zeilin
made a round-trip voyage from San Diego to Samoa and back
between 13 April and 17 June to carry garrison troops to
those islands. On 8 July, she again departed the west coast
and steamed via Pearl Harbor to the Fiji Islands. At
Suva, she prepared for the invasion of the Solomon
Islands. Early on the morning of 7 August, she arrived off
Guadalcanal with Task Force (TF) 62, the South Pacific
Amphibious Force. However, her troops did not land on the
first day of the invasion; and, when they did, it was not on
Guadalcanal. On the 8th, she sent the marines of the 3d
Defense Battalion ashore to help the 2d Marines root out
small, but stubborn, enemy defense forces from Tulagi,
Gavutu, and Tanambogo. Upon completing her disembarkation,
the transport got underway for Noumea, New Caledonia.
For the next two months, she made the circuit between
Noumea, New Caledonia; Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides; and
Wellington, New Zealand. On 9 October, she departed Noumea
to carry troops and supplies to the Solomons. Arriving off
Guadalcanal on the 11th, Zeilin began unloading off Lunga
Point. Still there on the 13th, she witnessed successive
enemy air raids on Henderson Field, but she and the other
transports escaped attack because the Japanese airmen
seemed to feel that the airfield was the only important
target. However, the enemy ashore thought otherwise; for,
that same day, a shore battery dropped several salvoes
around Zeilin; but she escaped damage. She returned to
Noumea on 17 October and proceeded from there to Espiritu
Santo. From the latter port, Zeilin set a course back to
Guadalcanal on 9 November and arrived off Lunga Point two
days later.
This time, Japanese airmen found her more attractive. She
began unloading early that morning; and, while she did so,
five enemy dive bombers plunged down toward her. During the
brief encounter, the transport suffered three damaging near
misses, one of which made a glancing hit on her starboard
side but exploded some 20 to 25 feet below the surface. As
a result of these blows, Zeilin shipped a considerable
amount of water and suffered cracked plates and a broken
propeller shaft. Though damaged and listing, the ship
remained in the area performing her duties until later that
month. On 26 November 1942, the ship was re-designated an
attack transport APA-3. She carried casualties to Espiritu
Santo and then sailed via Tutuila, Samoa, back to the
United States. She arrived in San Pedro, Calif., on 22
December to begin repairs at the Terminal Island Navy Yard.
Zeilin completed repairs early in March 1943 and began
operations along the west coast. On 17 April, she departed
San Diego for Alaskan waters. After a six-day stop at San
Francisco, she continued on and arrived in Cold Bay, the
rendezvous point for the Attu invasion force, on 1 May. By
11 May, she was off the southern coast of Attu, ready to
put her troops ashore at Massacre Bay. After the initial
landings, slow progress ashore held up the transport's
unloading operations, and Zeilin was forced to remain off
Attu until the 16th. The next day, she put into Adak for a
five-day layover before heading back to San Diego, where
she arrived on 31 May.
Through the summer months of 1943, she operated along the
west coast-mostly between San Diego and San Francisco. In
August, she returned to Adak, arriving there on the 5th
and remaining until the 26th. She returned to San Diego on
2 September and prepared to head back to the southwestern
Pacific. Departing the west coast near mid-month, Zeilin
steamed to Pearl Harbor, where she stopped for five days
before continuing on-via Funafuti and Espiritu Santo-to
Wellington, New Zealand. The attack transport remained
there from 17 October to 1 November, at which time she
moved to Efate where the Tarawa attack force
concentrated and practiced for Operation "Galvanic."
On 13 November, Zeilin departed Efate in company with the
task force and set course for the Gilbert Islands. She
arrived off Betio-the islet of Tarawa Atoll that was the
first and primary objective of the assault -during the
night of 18 and 19 November. Early the following morning,
she began unloading her marines, members of the 2d
Battalion, 2d Marines, into landing craft for their assault
on Beach Red 2. At about 0615, while she was still
transferring troops to the boats, they received a
foretaste of the mauling in store for them when a shore
battery straddled Zeilin and her assault craft with
shells. Neither ship nor troops suffered any injury; but,
while Zeilin maintained that clean record during the
operation, her passengers were soon to be cut to ribbons as
they waded the 700 yards across ankle- to knee-deep foul
ground between the edge of the reef and the actual shore.
Zeilin returned to Pearl Harbor at the beginning of
December to reload for the Kwajalein phase of the Marshall
Islands assault. She got underway again on 22 January 1944
in company with the Southern Attack Force with elements of
the Army's 7th Division-old friends from Zeilin's Aleutians
service-embarked. On the night of 30 and 31 January,
Southern and Northern Attack Forces separated-the northern
unit headed for its objectives, Roi and Namur Islands up
north, while the southern force zeroed in on Kwajalein
Island and nearby islets.
Zeilin and her colleagues reached the transport area off
boomerang-shaped Kwajalein Island at about 0545 on the
morning of 31 January. The invasion force, however, passed
up the main objective on 31 January, preferring instead to
take and consolidate positions on the islets located to
the west in order to support the main effort scheduled for
1 February. While Zeilin and the other attack transports
sent some of their troops against Ennylabegan and Enubuj,
high-speed transports Manley (APD-1) and Overton (APD-23)
landed the 7th Division Reconnaissance Troop on the
islets, Gehh and Ninni. Encountering only light resistance,
the troops secured all their first-day objectives by early
afteroon and began preparations-in particular the landing
of divisional artillery on Enubuj-for the main assault the
next morning. During the afternoon and evening of 31
January, Zeilin and the other transports transferred
soldiers to LST's for the assault itself and, during the
night, moved to their assigned stations some 7,500 yards
west of Kwajalein Island.
At 0900, troop-laden landing craft charged the beaches on
the western end of the island. For a time, they delayed
about 200 yards from shore to allow naval gunfire to lay
down one last barrage and then resumed their advance,
reaching the beaches at 0930. Soon after the assault force
charged ashore, the unloading of their equipment and
supplies began. After initial success, the troops ashore
advanced slowly, but Zeilin unloaded rapidly and, by the
evening of 2 February, had just about completed the task.
During the succeeding 36 hours, the 7th Division pushed the
Japanese into shrinking pockets of resistance; and, though
the island had not been completely subdued, no doubt
existed as to the final outcome. Thus, Zeilin set a course
for Funafuti, where she arrived on 8 February.
For the next three months, the southwestern Pacific once
again became her theater of operations. She carried
troops and supplies for units operating in the Solomon
Islands and for MacArthur's forces, then leapfrogging up
the back of the New Guinea bird. During those months, she
visited Guadalcanal and Bougainville in the Solomons,
Espiritu Santo, Milne Bay and Cape Sudest on New Guinea,
and the newly conquered Admiralty Islands. On 10 May, she
returned to Guadalcanal to prepare for the invasion of
the Mariana Islands.
Zeilin departed the Solomons on 4 June as a unit of the
Southern Attack Force (TF 53) whose specific target was
to be Guam. The transport-with marines of the 1st
Provisional Brigade embarked-arrived near the Marianas at
mid-month and waited in an area 150 to 300 miles east of
Guam for its assault scheduled for the 18th, three days
following initial landings on Saipan. The operation,
however, suffered two postponements: the first caused by
the Battle of the Philippine Sea and the second by the
unexpectedly bitter opposition which the Americans
encountered on Saipan and Tinian. Part of the force was
dispatched to Eniwetok to await the arrival of the 77th
Division from Hawaii to bolster the Guam force. Zeilin and
her marines, however, remained in the Marianas area for
another five'days as a floating reserve.
When it became apparent that the 1st Provisional Brigade
was not needed to bolster the Saipan force, those
transports too headed for Eniwetok, departing the Marianas
area on 30 June and entering the lagoon at Eniwetok on 3
July. Fifteen days later, Zeilin left the lagoon,
rendezvoused with the transports carrying the troops from
Hawaii, and shaped a course for the Marianas. Zeilin
arrived off Guam on ",2 July, the day after the initial
assault on that island. She remained in the area only four
days-unloading marines, equipment, and supplies-and then
departed the Marianas. After an overnight stop at Eniwetok
on 29 and 30 July, she continued on to Pearl Harbor where
she arrived on 7 August. The attack transport remained at
the Hawaiian base for three days, then headed for the
west coast. On the 18th, she arrived in San Francisco
where a three-month's overhaul restored her to top
fighting trim by the begining of the last week in
October.
On 21 October, the attack transport stood out of San
Francisco to return to the war in the western Pacific. She
entered the port of Finschhafen-located on the northeastern
coast of New Guinea almost directly across the Dampier
Strait from New Britain-on 6 November. She briefly plied
the waters off the New Guinea coast, visiting Langemak and
Hollandia before heading for Noumea, where she arrived on
the 22d. At Noumea, she began preparations for the invasion
of Luzon. There, she loaded elements of the Army's 25th
Infantry Division and headed for Guadalcanal where, during
December, soldiers and ships rehearsed the impending
landings. She and her sister ships completed those
exercises just before Christmas and, on Christmas Day,
headed for Manus in the Admiralty Islands. Zeilin and her
consorts remained there from 29 December 1944 until 2
January 1945, at which time they got underway for Luzon.
Zeilin's embarked troops formed a part of the first
reinforcement echelon for the San Fabian phase of the
invasion rather than of the initial assault force. She
arrived off the San Fabian beachhead on 11 January, two
days after the initial landings.
Her out-bound voyage proved more exciting. Zeilin completed
the disembarking of troops and the unloading of their
attendant supplies and equipment by the evening of the
12th. That night, she formed up with a fast transport convoy
and headed for Leyte. The next morning, just after the
beginning of the forenoon watch, a single Japanese plane
pounced on the convoy. Swooping down from a low cloud, the
kamikaze bore in on Zeilin's port quarter. He feigned a
bank at Mount Olympus (AGC-8) steaming astern of Zeilin,
but quickly resumed his original course. Surprise and the
feint at Mount Olympus rewarded the suicide pilot with
success. He made it through the fire of Zeilin's after 40-
millimeter mount, his 'right wing struck the port kingpost
and boom serving No. 6 hatch . . ." while the fuselage ". .
. swung inboard under the radio antenna and crashed the
starboard side of the housetop." At that point, his payload-
a cache of incendiary missiles constructed out of %-inch gas
pipe-showered the decks and started a number of scattered,
but small, fires. Damage topside was extensive at the
point of impact. The superstructure deck was blown away,
deck framing was bent and buckled, and several staterooms
were completely destroyed. The plane's engine pierced the
superstructure deck and the outboard bulkhead and ended up
in one of the landing boats. Worst of all, the attack cost
the ship seven men killed outright, three declared missing,
and 30 injured. The damage, however extensive, was not
fatal, and Zeilin continued on her way with the convoy.
After temporary repairs at Leyte, she got underway for
Ulithi on 16 February and entered the lagoon on the 18th.
She participated in the Iwo Jima campaign briefly in early
March, making a voyage to that island between 9 and 16 March
to bring in reinforcements to that island. Later that
month, she departed the western Pacific to return to the
United States for permanent repairs. After five days at
Hawaii, from 12 to 17 April, she continued on to San
Francisco where she arrived on the 23d.
Following a two-month repair period, Zeilin departed San
Francisco on 30 June. She spent the week of 1 to 8 July
at San Diego and then headed north to Seattle. On the 23d,
she departed the west coast to return to the western
Pacific. The attack transport stopped at Eniwetpk on 4
to 7 August then moved on to Ulithi. Hostilities in the
Far East ceased on 15 August; and Zeilin exited Ulithi
lagoon two days later, bound for Okinawa. At Okinawa from
the 21st, she got underway again on the 29th, bound for
Leyte, and spent most of the month of September
transporting passengers and cargo between points in the
Philippine Islands. In October, she carried the Army's
106th Regimental Combat Team to occupation duty at Jinsen,
Korea. From there, she headed back to the United States.
Following stops at Ulithi and Guam, she arrived in San
Francisco on 14 November. Shuttle voyages along the west
coast between the ports of San Diego, San Francisco, San
Pedro, Bremerton, and Seattle occupied her for the
remainder of 1945 and during January 1946. On 4 February
1946, she departed San Pedro and set her course for the
east coast. After transiting the Panama Canal on the 14th,
she resumed her voyage on the 15th and arrived in Hampton
Roads, Va., on the 21st. On 19 April 1946, Zeilin was
decommissioned at Portsmouth, Va. Her name was struck
from the Navy list on 5 June 1946. She was transferred to
the Maritime Commission on 3 July 1946 for disposal but was
not sold until 4 May 1948 when she was delivered to
American Shipbreakers, Inc., for scrapping.
Zeilin earned eight battle stars for her World War II
service.