USS Nestor

USS Nestor (ARB-6), at anchor probably in Hampton Roads, Virginia, in July 1944.
History
United States
Name	LST-518 Nestor
Namesake	Nestor
Builder	Chicago Bridge & Iron Company, Seneca, Illinois
Laid down	13 September 1943
Launched	20 January 1944
Commissioned	24 June 1944
Decommissioned	29 November 1945
Reclassified	Battle Damage Repair Ship, 3 November 1943
Stricken	3 January 1946
Identification	Hull symbol: LST-518 Hull symbol: ARB-6 Code letters: NJLJ
Honors and awards	1 × battle star (World War II)
Fate	Sold for scrap, May 1947
General characteristics [1]
Class and type	LST-491-class tank landing ship Aristaeus-class battle damage repair ship
Displacement	1,781 long tons (1,810 t) (light) 4,100 long tons (4,200 t) (full)
Length	328 ft (100 m) oa
Beam	50 ft (15 m)
Draft	11 ft 2 in (3.40 m)
Installed power	2 × 900 hp (670 kW) Electro-Motive Diesel 12-567A diesel engines 1,700 shp (1,300 kW)
Propulsion	1 × Falk main reduction gears 2 × Propellers
Speed	11.6 kn (21.5 km/h; 13.3 mph)
Complement	20 officers, 234 enlisted men
Armament	1 × 3 in (76 mm)/50 caliber gun 2 × quad 40 mm (1.57 in) Bofors guns 8 × 20 mm (0.79 in) Oerlikon cannons
Service record
Operations:	Assault and occupation of Okinawa Gunto (16 April–30 June 1945)
Awards:	American Campaign Medal Asiatic–Pacific Campaign Medal World War II Victory Medal Navy Occupation Service Medal w/Asia Clasp

USS Nestor (ARB-6) was planned as a United States Navy LST-491-class tank landing ship, but was redesignated as one of twelve Aristaeus-class battle damage repair ships built for the United States Navy during World War II. Named for Nestor (in Greek mythology, the son of Neleus, the King of Pylos and Chloris), she was the only US Naval vessel to bear the name.

Laid down as LST-518 on 13 September 1943, by the Chicago Bridge and Iron Company of Seneca, Illinois; launched 20 January 1944; sponsored by Miss Rita Jenkins; converted by the Maryland Drydock Company of Baltimore, Maryland; and commissioned 24 June 1944.^[2]

Designed to make emergency repairs in forward areas to battle-damaged ships, Nestor left Norfolk 4 August 1944, for Guantanamo Bay, the Panama Canal, and Ulithi, arriving 21 October, to take up her primary mission. During the next five and a half months she acted as tender to small craft and repaired all types of naval vessels from battleships to LCIs.^[2]

Nestor left Ulithi 19 April 1945, for Kerama Retto, seized in the initial phase of the Okinawa campaign at Naval Base Okinawa, to serve as a base for the ships engaged in the main assault. Japanese air attacks, often by suicide plane, inflicted heavy damage on the fleet, and Nestor worked round-the-clock, often under fire herself, to help keep the fighting ships in action. As Okinawa itself became secure, Nestor entered Buckner Bay 10 July, and continued her vital services, which here included the tremendous task of building a cofferdam. Nestor was driven aground by wind and heavy seas in the devastating Typhoon "Louise" of 9 October, and had to be abandoned. She decommissioned on 29 November, was stricken on 3 January 1946, and her hulk was sold for scrap on 1 May 1947.^[2]

In November 1945 the CNO directed that the hulk be sunk or destroyed, but this was not done and she became one of around 15 Okinawa typhoon wrecks that were finally sold for scrap in two batches in May and November 1947 by the State Department's Foreign Liquidations Commission. Nestor along with LST-823, LST-826, three floating docks, and some smaller craft, were included in the May batch and were purchased by the Oklahoma-Philippines Company in what was referred to as the "Berry sale". The date of her scrapping is not known.

Nestor earned one battle stars for World War II service.

• Photo gallery of USS Nestor (ARB-6) at NavSource Naval History