"Operation Steel Pike I", visiting ports of Málaga and Gibraltar. In June 1965 she participated in a three-month deployment to the Caribbean area during the later stages of the Dominican Republic crisis, making practice amphibious landings at Vieques Island. After completion of overhaul in February 1966 followed by refresher training and amphibious training, Hermitage transported a marine battalion to the Caribbean in May. Through 1967 she continued in her assignment to the Atlantic Fleet. NDD Ceará (G-30) Hermitage was decommissioned on 2 October 1989. She was transferred to the Brazilian Navy as Navio de Desembarque de Doca (Dock Landing Ship) NDD Ceará (G30) the same day. The ship was sold outright to Brazil and struck from the US Naval Vessel Register on 24 January 2001. The name came from one of the Brazilian states which had been used to name a monitor in the late 1800s --Brazilian monitor Ceará—and then a modern mother-ship for submarines built by Italy in the early 1900s. During her Brazilian Navy service, Ceará undertook sealift missions to transport Brazilian Army and Marine Corps vehicles and supplies between Port-au-Prince and Rio de Janeiro in support of Brazil's MINUSTAH contingent. In the Comissão Haiti XXI voyage in April 2015, the ship suffered 'engine problems' that left her adrift 500 nautical miles away from Belém, off the coast of French Guiana. The ship was eventually towed back to the port of Belém for repairs and her original mission was completed by the Navio de Desembarque de Carros de Combate (Landing Ship, Tank) NDCC Almirante Saboia. While on port, a small scale fire erupted in one of the vessel's habitable compartments, causing no casualties and no significant damage. The ship left Belém in 1 August 2015, arriving in Rio de Janeiro by 27 August. By March 2016, the Brazilian Navy decided to have the ship decommissioned by the 29th of April that year. In June 2021, the vessel was sunk as part of the live fire exercise Operation Missilex 2021 off the coast of Rio de Janeiro and Cabo Frio, which involved the frigates Liberal and Independência firing their Mark 8s and testing the Brazilian-made MANSUP anti-ship missile, as well as Mk. 82 bombs and strafing runs from A-4 Skyhawk fighters and a Mk. 48 torpedo launched from the submarine Tupi. References External links USS Hermitage Association Thomaston-class dock landing ships Ships built in Pascagoula, Mississippi 1956 ships Vietnam