USS ABSD-1 Large Auxiliary Floating Dry Dock
Auxiliary Floating Dock, Big (AFDB), composed of ten Advance Base Sectional Docks (ABSD) each 165′ wide, 93′ long, 75′ deep, with a total lifting capacity of 90,000100,000 tons when fully assembled.
Construction was undertaken in 1942/43 at four US shipyards, Everett-Pacific Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co, Everett WA; Chicago Bridge & Iron Co at Eureka CA, also Morgan City LA; and Pollack-Stockton Shipbuilding Co, Stockton CA. Commissioned at Everett, Washington State USA in May 1943.
Deployed to Espiritu Santo in the South Pacific, initially as an 8-section dry dock in late 1943 and completed to 10-sections by April 1944, to undertake repair work on vessels ranging from landing craft to battleships and aircraft carriers engaged in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater of operations. Relocated in April 1945 to the Leyte Gulf in the Philippines to continue ship repairs until February 1946.
