personnel, hauling supplies and cargo, or occasionally for towing fuel barges and water craft, to bases along the coasts or to nearby islands. Design 216 (Boat, Supply, Diesel, Steel, 99') Design 225 (Boat, Supply, Ice-Breaker, Diesel, Steel, 102'), Three design number 225 vessels were built by Equitable Equipment Company in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1942, they most likely operated in Alaska or in Greenland waters. Retrieving Vessel Eleven of these small ships were built for the U.S. Army Air Corps/Army Air Forces in late 1942 through mid 1943. The official designation was "Design No. 210, 150 Foot Steel Diesel Retrieving Vessel", sometimes termed "Aircraft Retrieving Vessel" in later references. Name format was "U.S. Army" over "H.A.# NAME" as indicated by a builder's model. Dimensions were 158' 3" LOA × 32' beam (moulded) at deck × 8' draft powered by two 300 hp diesels, and was equipped with a 30-ton jumbo lift boom along with regular cargo booms and had a cargo capacity of 500 measurement tons. These vessels were primarily used as supply ships, that could retrieve aircraft if needed. H.A. 2 Morrow H.A. 3 Van Nostrand H.A. 4 Miller H.A. 5 Beck H.A. 6 Colgan H.A. 7 Chandler H.A. 8 Bane H.A. 9 Bower H.A. 10 Stone H.A. 11 (unknown) H.A. 12 (unknown) Schooners SWPA CP Fleet, Army CS ships provided communications relays and acted as command posts (CP) for forward elements ashore. CSM (Maintenance) ships, in addition to acting as CS ships, were also equipped for radio repair operations to supply floating maintenance. CSQ (Quarters) ships acted as floating dormitories. CSN (News) ships were used by civilian reporters. Wawona C.A. Thayer Coringle (S-31) Tuhoe (S-132) Argosy Lemal (S-6) Harold (S-58, CS-3) Geoanna (IX-61, TP-249, S-382, CS-1) Volador (IX-59, TP-248, S-385, CSM-1) Cable laying ships The Army had a history of submarine cable work by the time of World War II operations, dating back to the 1899-1900 period. Much of this work had been in relation to communications with far flung Army forces in the Philippines and Alaska. The Army Signal Corps used a number of cable ships for that work including Burnside, Romulus, Liscum, Dellwood and two vessels intimately associated with the Coast Artillery Corps controlled mine work at the coastal fortifications; Cyrus W. Field and Joseph Henry. That cable laying capability had been allowed to deteriorate to the point that the Army had to charter the C.S.