was equipped with the brand new CXAM radar, the first production radar system deployed on United States Navy. She was protected by four 5"/38 dual purpose guns, 16 40 mm AA guns, and 12 20 mm anti-aircraft guns. Service history 1941 Albemarle remained at Philadelphia, fitting out, through mid-January 1941. Underway for Newport, Rhode Island on the morning of 28 January, the seaplane tender arrived at her destination on the 30th, and loaded torpedoes. She sailed the following day for Norfolk, Virginia, arriving on 1 February and, over the ensuing days, remained in that area, loading bombs and pyrotechnics and calibrating her degaussing gear, before she sailed on her shakedown cruise on the afternoon of 6 February, setting course for Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. The seaplane tender shifted thence to Havana on the morning of 18 February, and over the days which followed her captain made the usual formal calls dictated by diplomatic protocol. In Havana harbor, Albemarle dressed ship for Washington's Birthday, her 21-gun salute to the American national holiday returned gun-for-gun by the Cuban gunboat Yarn. On the morning of 24 February, the ship got underway for the Panama Canal Zone. Diverted while en route, Albemarle anchored in the harbor at San Juan, Puerto Rico, on the morning of 28 February, and that afternoon received the official call of Rear Admiral Raymond A. Spruance, Commandant of the 10th Naval District. That same day, she embarked 91 men from Patrol Squadron (VP) 51 and VP-61 from VP-52 for temporary duty and transportation, and sailed for Norfolk on the morning of 2 March. While en route, Commander Mullinnix was relieved as commanding officer by Commander H. B. Sallada. Albemarle moored at Pier 7, Naval Operating Base (NOB), Norfolk, on the afternoon of 5 March, but lingered there for less than a day, getting underway the following afternoon for Philadelphia. She returned to the Philadelphia Navy Yard and spent the rest of March there, undergoing post-shakedown repairs. The seaplane tender departed Philadelphia on 6 April, and arrived back at Norfolk the following afternoon; there she took on board depth charges and depth bombs. She sailed for Newport on the morning of 10 April, and soon after standing out into international waters past the Virginia Capes, met her escort for the trip – six "flush-deck" destroyers, one of which was the ill-fated . That afternoon she fueled two of her escorts, and