From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Career (US)
Ordered:	26 November 1984
Laid down:	23 March 1987
Launched:	15 September 1988
Commissioned:	17 November 1990
Status:	Active in service as of 2007
Homeport:	Sasebo, Japan
General characteristics
Displacement:	11,471 tons (light) 16,568 tons (full)
Length:	610 ft (185.9 m)
Beam:	84 ft (25.6 m)
Draft:	21 ft (6.4 m)
Propulsion:	4 Colt Industries, 16-cylinder diesel engines, 2 shafts, 33,000 shp (25 MW)
Speed:	20+ knots (37+ km/h)
Boats and landing craft carried:	5 LCACs or 21 LCM-6s
Complement:	22 officers, 391 enlisted Marine detachment: 402 + 102 surge
Armament:	2 × 25 mm Mk 38 cannons 2 × 20 mm Phalanx CIWS mounts 2 × Rolling Airframe Missile 6 × .50 caliber M2HB machine guns
Motto:	Tough, Tall, Tenacious

USS Tortuga (LSD-46) is a Whidbey Island-class dock landing ship of the United States Navy. She was the second Navy ship to be named for the Dry Tortugas, a group of desert coral islets 60 miles west of Key West, Fla., which were discovered in 1513 by Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon.

Tortuga was laid down on 23 March 1987, by the Avondale Shipyards, New Orleans, La.. The threat of Hurricane Gilbert in the Gulf of Mexico forced an early launching of the ship, as a precautionary measure, on 15 September 1988. On 19 November 1988, Mrs. Rosemary Parker Schoultz, the ship's sponsor, presided over the christening ceremony, breaking the traditional bottle of champagne over the bow of the ship. Tortuga was commissioned on 17 November 1990.

[history: 1991–2005]

In 2005, Tortuga was commanded by CDR Mark H. Scovill, homeported at NAB Little Creek, Virginia, and assigned to Amphibious Group 2 of the Atlantic Fleet.

On 29 September 2005 Tortuga and her crew were pulled from a training exercise and sent to New Orleans to become part of Joint Task Force Katrina. She was the first Navy ship to sail up the Mississippi following the hurricane and berthed on the West Bank of New Orleans Naval Station. The ship instantly became a major rally point for the scattered military and civilian forces across New Orleans. Tortuga's crew conducted rescue missions in the flooded Ninth Ward and assisted local officials from St. Bernard Parish. Crew members employed combat rubber raiding craft (CRRCs) which allowed them to search flooded areas with many underwater obstacles. As the crew rescued people from neighborhoods they were brought back to Tortuga with 7 and 11 meter RHIBs. Evacuees were processed, received medical attention, and were forwarded to their next destination at the earliest possible time. As water receded in New Orleans and the CRRCs became useless, the ship turned to serving the Army units camped out on the Naval Station, providing soldiers with hotel services that they could not get in the field.

On 14 October 2005, the U.S. Navy announced that Tortuga, would be forward-deployed to Sasebo, Japan to replace Fort McHenry (LSD-43). Tortuga arrived in Sasebo 31 March 2006 for turnover and assignment as part of the U.S. Navy’s Forward Deployed Naval Forces (FDNF). On 12 April the crews of the two ships completed an exchange-of-command process. Conducted in 12 days, the hull swap between Fort McHenry and Tortuga was the quickest in the history of the U.S. Navy. Tortuga's former crew departed Sasebo 13 April 2006 to return to Little Creek on board Fort McHenry.

USS Tortuga (LSD-46) moored pier side in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.

On 15 May, only a month following the swap, Tortuga departed for a three-month deployment. The deployment was centered around an annual exercise called Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) 2006. Tortuga joined a newly established task group (TG 73.5) reporting directly to Commander, Logistics Group WESTPAC out of Singapore. The group consisted of five ships, Tortuga, Hopper (DDG-70), Crommelin (FFG-37), Salvor (ARS-50), and USCGC Sherman (WHEC-720). The group visited and operated with the navies of Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, and Philippines.

• USS Tortuga, for other ships of the same name

• This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.

• USS Tortuga official website
• USS Tortuga at navsource.org
• USS Tortuga at nvr.navy.mil
• USS Tortuga at navysite.de
• LSD-46 Personnel Roster at HullNumber.com