USS Orvetta (IX-157)

USS Orvetta (IX–157) was built for the US Shipping Board as Tampa in 1920 by the Oscar Daniels Co., Tampa, Fla. and acquired by the United States Navy on a bareboat charter from the Maritime Commission 4 April 1944. She was renamed Orvetta and converted for military service as a barracks ship by the Matson Navigation Co., San Francisco; and commissioned 7 June 1944, Lt. Comdr. G. L. Armstrong, in command.

History
Name:	USS Orvetta
Builder:	Oscar Daniels Company Tampa, Florida
Yard number:	9
Laid down:	12 June 1919 as Tampa
Completed:	February 1920
Acquired:	4 April 1944
Commissioned:	7 June 1944
Decommissioned:	End of 1946
Stricken:	10 June 1947
Fate:	Sold for scrap, 1949
General characteristics
Type:	Design 1027 ship
Displacement:	12,940 long tons (13,148 t) full
Length:	418 ft (127 m)
Beam:	54 ft (16 m)
Draft:	28 ft (8.5 m)
Speed:	9.5 knots (17.6 km/h; 10.9 mph)
Armament:	1 × 3"/50 caliber gun 1 × 40 mm gun

By 18 June Orvetta had reported for duty with Service Force, Pacific. She operated first with ServRon 8, headquartered at Pearl Harbor. Then, as the war moved west and north from the south Pacific, she shifted to ServRon 10 to provide housing facilities at advanced bases. By the end of the war she was in the Philippines, anchored in San Pedro Bay.

Following the signing of the official surrender documents, Orvetta steamed north to Okinawa, thence to Shanghai, arriving 30 September. She remained at Shanghai until 10 May 1946 when she was taken in tow by USS Serrano for return to the Philippines. Arriving at Subic Bay 18 May she continued to serve as, a barrack ship until decommissioned at the end of the year.

Struck from the Naval Register 10 June 1947, she was returned to the Maritime Commission, at Subic, 26 January 1948. Four months later she departed for the United States and was sold for scrap in early 1949.