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USS San Pablo (AVP-30, later AGS-30), 1943-1971

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USS San Pablo, a 1,760-ton small seaplane tender, was built at Seattle, Washington, and was commissioned in March 1943. In June 1943 she departed the West Coast for the Southwest Pacific. Beginning at Noumea, she helped establish a series of advanced seaplane bases which supported operations in New Guinea and adjacent islands. She remained continuously active in this theater until November 1944, when she moved to the Philippines to support operations around Leyte. Experiencing numerous kamakaze attacks on nearby ships during December, she remained in the Philippine theater through the end of the war. She returned to Bremerton, Washington, in November 1945 and was decommissioned and placed in reserve in January 1947.

San Pablo was one of two AVPs reactivated in September 1948 for service as hydrographic survey ships. She and her sister Rehoboth (AVP-50) were converted during reactivation but were only reclassified AGS-30 and AGS-50 respectively in August 1949. Between early 1949 and late 1968 she alternated between the North Atlantic and the Caribbean studying a wide range of oceanographic topics including salinity, sound reflectivity, and bottom profile mapping. She was decommissioned in May 1969 and sold for scrap in September 1971.

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