HANOVER APA 116

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.

Bayfield Class Attack Transport Keel Laid (Date unknown) - Launched 18 August 1944 Acquired by US Navy 31 March 1945 USS HANOVER APA-116 Commissioned 31 March 1945 - Decommissioned 11 May 1946 Returned to Maritime Commission 12 May 1946 Struck from Naval Register (Date unknown) HAWAIIAN WHOLESALER (Commercial Service) Sold 1947 to Matson Navigation Co. and renamed. Ship 'official number' is 252633 VENTURA (#3) (Commercial Service) Transferred 1961 to Oceanic Steamship Co, a Matson subsidiary, and renamed VENTURA (Commercial Service) Sold, 21 January 1971, to Pacific Far East Lines, name retained ENTU (Commercial Service) Sold, 6 April 1972, to Excelsior Marine Corp. and renamed Sold for scrap to Taiwan in 1972

 

Conflicting History Data

There is considerable confusion regarding the ship's naming history.

• Navsource (https://www.navsource.org/archives/10/03/03116.htm) seems to get it right based on corroborating data in Department of Commerce Annual List of Merchant Vessels of the United States (https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AMH/USMM/Annual_List/) The scanned pages are rather poor, especially in later years, but search for merchant vessel "official number" 252633 or the ship name (or partial name since the OCR can be VERY poor at times) or Matson.


• Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Hanover) lists Matson Navigation Company and Oceanic Navigation Company Ships page (http://www.usmm.org/matson.html) as a data source but that source incorrectly associates HAWAIIAN WHOLESALER with U.S.S. TODD (AKA-71). Seems rather odd that Matson's own data would be wrong. One possibility is that starting with the 1962 issue of the merchant vessels list, HAWAIIAN WHOLESALER is listed as a former name along with TODD and VENTURA (#2) for official number 252493. Is this perhaps a data entry error where someone confused VENTURA (#2) and VENTURA (#3)?


• Navsource for USS TODD (https://www.navsource.org/archives/10/02/02071.htm) also incorrectly gives HAWAIIAN WHOLESALER as a name for USS TODD but this is NOT corroborated by the annual merchant vessel list pre-1962 (see previous bullet point). TODD was bought by Oceanic Steamship in 1947 and named VENTURA (#2) before being sold to Sea Land in 1961 and renamed CHATHAM. The TODD / VENTURA #2 / CHATHAM merchant vessel official number is 252493

 

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 Hanover APA-116 Covers Page 1     (1945-1946)

 

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(n)

1945-12-19

Note:

 

Locy Type 2z

1945-04-23

Note:

 

Locy Type 9ef(nu)

1946-05-07

Note:

 

Locy Type LDPS 2(n)

1946-05-08

Last Day of Postal Service, according to the USCS Postmark Catalog, is 9 May 1946. Is this cover early or is the catalog incorrect?
From the Bob Govern collection.

 

Other Information

USS HANOVER 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 (w/ Asia clasp) during her Naval service.

NAMESAKE - A county in Virginia.

The ships sponsor was Mrs. Stanley M. Bebler.

 

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