As I love to do, I ran a deep search on the question. There are some good links to primary sources in the article here:
USNS Sappa Creek (T-AO-141) – Service History & Archival Information
Service History (up to 1959)
USNS Sappa Creek moored pierside (date and location unknown). This Suamico-class T2-SE-A1 fleet oiler was built in 1943 and served extensively through World War II and the Cold War. Initially delivered to the War Shipping Administration in October 1943, Sappa Creek operated in WWII under commercial charter – first shuttling fuel across the Atlantic to the UK and later supporting Pacific operations in the Marshalls, Marianas, and Carolines. After the war it carried oil from Gulf Coast ports to U.S. and European destinations. In April 1948 the ship was transferred to U.S. Navy ownership and placed in service with the Naval Transportation Service (and later the newly formed Military Sea Transportation Service, MSTS) as USNS Sappa Creek (T-AO-141). Marine Transport Lines, Inc. operated the tanker under contract for the Navy.
Under MSTS, Sappa Creek expanded its range worldwide. In 1949 it ran fuel cargoes to North Europe and, after MSTS stood up in late 1949, began longer voyages – e.g. a late-1949 run from Hamburg through the Mediterranean, via Suez to the Persian Gulf, then back to the U.S.. During the Korean War the oiler was vital in shuttling petroleum to support UN forces: it delivered fuel to Yokohama and Yokosuka, Japan, in late 1950 and early 1951 to supply operations in Korea. In mid-1950 it even made a delivery to Narsarssuak, Greenland, en route to Europe – and in August 1950 it offloaded at Greenland as part of Arctic resupply efforts. Notably, during a 1951 Arctic resupply mission (Operation Blue Jay to build Thule Air Base), Sappa Creek suffered a collision with an iceberg in heavy fog (its radar had malfunctioned) and severely damaged her bow. Despite this, the tanker continued its mission – an incident highlighting the hazards of Arctic operations. After repairs, Sappa Creek resumed peacetime service. In the early 1950s it often cycled between the U.S. West Coast, Pacific islands, and the Persian Gulf, carrying fuel to support U.S. bases and allies.
Interestingly, in 1949–50 the ship received a “Meccano deck” modification at Philadelphia Naval Shipyard – an open steel framework built above the main deck to carry crated aircraft. This added 12,000 sq. feet of cargo space and was used for ferrying planes during the Korean War era. By the mid-1950s, Sappa Creek was largely operating in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, with frequent runs to the Persian Gulf. Aside from a brief assignment hauling oil via the Mediterranean in late 1957, it spent 1953–1959 in continuous service shuttling fuel between the Gulf, Asia, and Pacific ports. There were no major combat operations in 1959, but the ship was still actively transporting petroleum for U.S. forces overseas. Finally, as newer tankers came online, Sappa Creek was retired from MSTS in late 1959. On 7 December 1959 she was placed out of service and returned to the Maritime Administration for layup in the National Defense Reserve Fleet at Suisun Bay, California. The ship remained in mothballs through the 1960s and was struck from the Navy list in 1961. Sappa Creek stayed in reserve until the mid-1970s, when she was sold for scrap – arriving at Terminal Island, CA in December 1975 to be dismantled.
Commanding Officer in 1959 (Captain / Master)
Identifying the ship’s captain in 1959 is challenging, as USNS Sappa Creek was not a commissioned warship but an MSTS vessel with a civilian merchant marine master. During its Navy service, the ship was crewed by civil-service or contract mariners from Marine Transport Lines rather than Navy officers. Official Navy histories and DANFS entries generally do not list the civilian masters of MSTS ships. As a result, sources like NavSource or NHHC omit crew names and focus on the ship’s movements. To find the captain of Sappa Creek in 1959, one may need to consult contemporary records or newspapers. Shipping news columns of the era sometimes reported vessel arrivals/departures along with the master’s name. Likewise, MSTS or Marine Transport Lines personnel rosters (if accessible) could list who was Master of the tanker in that year. The gCaptain forum inquiry that prompted this research noted that a neighbor only knew her father had been “captain of the USNS Sappa Creek in 1959”. Forum members suggested doing a genealogy search through historic newspapers for his name. As of now, no publicly available online document names the 1959 master of Sappa Creek. If his identity is needed, a focused search of 1958–59 port records (for ports like Yokohama, Pearl Harbor, or Persian Gulf terminals where Sappa Creek called) or Maritime Administration crew archives might yield a clue. Additionally, one could query the U.S. Navy Memorial’s Navy Log or veteran mariner associations to see if any former crew registered the captain’s name. In summary, the specific commanding officer in 1959 remains elusive in open sources – likely requiring dedicated archival research to uncover.
Crew Lists, Photos, and Archival Materials
Because Sappa Creek was government-owned but civilian-operated, crew lists are not readily published in standard Navy references. Any official crew rosters or ship logs from the 1950s would probably be held in National Archives or Maritime Administration files. Researchers can check the MARAD Vessel History Database, which confirms the ship’s basic details (ID No. 244391, T2 tanker specs, service dates) and provides scans of historical documents. For example, the MARAD records show the transfer and disposal dates and may include correspondence about the ship, though they currently offer “no historical narrative” on the site. Crew manifests might be found among those scanned documents or in MSTS quarterly reports if available. Another avenue is merchant marine archives – officers like the master would hold Merchant Marine licenses, so the Coast Guard’s Merchant Marine documentation center might have records of who was licensed as master of Sappa Creek. The Navy’s Military Sea Transportation Service annual reports (if obtainable) or internal newsletters from the late 1950s could also mention key personnel or award commendations to MSTS ship captains.
In terms of photographs and memorabilia, there are several rich sources. The NavSource Naval History site hosts a photo archive for USNS Sappa Creek, including at least one clear image of the tanker in service. Auke Visser’s Famous T-Tankers webpage on Sappa Creek likewise features images – for instance, a view of Sappa Creek at a Newport News pier alongside the tanker James Elwood Jones. These photos show the ship’s appearance (a typical T2 oiler with modifications) during its career. Archival photos from 1949 (available via National Archives and shared on forums) even show Sappa Creek in drydock receiving the “Meccano” deck – essentially a lattice of steel beams installed above the main deck to carry aircraft. Other images exist of the ship in action: during the 1951 Greenland mission when it struck an iceberg, a photograph was taken of Sappa Creek’s bent bow – a dramatic testament to that incident. (That image is noted in an Operation Blue Jay blog, and Sappa Creek is listed among the convoy vessels that participated in building Thule Air Base.) Collectors of naval covers will be interested that Sappa Creek even had postal covers/postmarks in the early 1950s; the Naval Cover Museum lists a 1950 cover and an example postmark from the ship’s time in the Marshall Islands.
For crew and family, there are a few avenues to find more. The Fleet Tankers Association sometimes helps connect veterans of Navy oilers, though many MSTS crews were civilian. The U.S. Navy Memorial’s Navy Log allows searching by ship and year, which could reveal entries for crew who served on Sappa Creek. As of this writing, no dedicated reunion group for Sappa Creek is known (since it was laid up by 1959), but it’s possible some former crew joined reunions for the Suamico-class or MSTS tanker sailors generally. Any personal diaries or literature from crew can also be valuable: notably, the celebrated poet Gary Snyder served as a wiper in Sappa Creek’s engine room in the mid-1950s. Snyder wrote a poem titled “The Sappa Creek” (quoted by a forum user) capturing the gritty life aboard the aging tanker. In his journals, Snyder recounts shipping out of Yokohama on Sappa Creek and “tramping around the Pacific and Indian oceans for nine months” in 1956–57. Such firsthand accounts provide a human perspective on the ship’s operations that official records don’t convey.
Further Research & External Mentions
Beyond the gCaptain thread that spurred this inquiry, USNS Sappa Creek does appear in other discussions and archives. We’ve mentioned the Operation Blue Jay narratives where the ship’s Arctic adventure is documented. There’s also a Wikipedia “List of T2 tankers” which notes Sappa Creek’s basic career milestones, though it provides no detail on 1959 beyond the transfer to MARAD. The ship’s namesake, by the way, is a small stream in Kansas/Nebraska – a typical practice of naming these oilers after “creeks”. For a deep dive, the Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC) has the official ship history (likely the source of NavSource’s text) which we’ve cited. Researchers could contact NHHC or the National Archives for MSTS deck logs or captain’s reports for late 1950s voyages. Additionally, the Marine Transport Lines company archives (if any survive or are held in a maritime museum) might list the masters of their vessels.
In summary, USNS Sappa Creek had a noteworthy run from WWII through 1959, ending her operational life just before the 1960s. While her 1959 captain’s name remains to be discovered in archival records, the ship’s service – from Pacific war zones to Arctic convoys – is well documented in naval history sources. Photos and memoirs enrich this story, giving us a window into the ship’s condition (“old rusty-belly thing,” as Snyder’s poem says) and the men who sailed her. Anyone seeking more might explore the references below or reach out to maritime history forums and archives for specific crew information.
Sources: Service history from NavSource/DANFS; timeline and disposition from Auke Visser’s T2 Tanker database; Operation Blue Jay anecdote; Gary Snyder’s journal excerpt; gCaptain Forum references; and Naval Cover Museum entry, among others. All inline citations provide direct references to the relevant content for verification.
