Builder: New Jersey Shipbuilding Company, Barber, New Jersey
Commissioned: 3 April 1944
Decommissioned: 25 March 1946
Disposition: Unknown
Length: 158' 6" oa
Beam: 23' 3"
Draft: 2' 8" (forward), 5' 3" (aft -- beaching condition)
Displacement: 216 tons (light); 234 tons (beaching condition); 389 tons (full load)
Propulsion: 8 x GM diesels; twin shafts (4 diesels per shaft); 1,600 hp; twin variable-pitch propellers
Range: 4,000 @ 12 knots
Top Speed: 15.5 knots
Complement: 3 officers, 21 enlisted
Troops: 188
Cargo capacity: 75 tons
Initial armament: 4 x 20mm (single-mount): 1 forward, 1 amidships, 2 aft; 2 x .50 caliber; 2" plastic splinter armor on gun shields, conning tower, and pilot house.
Coast Guard Commanding Officers
LTJG Miles Warner, USCGR
History: Flotilla 35, Group 104, Division 208
The USS LCI(L)-583 was built by the New Jersey Shipbuilding Company of Barber, New Jersey and first commissioned there on 3 April 1944 with a Navy crew. After shakedown and amphibious training at Solomon's Island, Maryland, she left Norfolk on 3 May 1944, for Bizerte, Tunisia where she reported to LCI(L) Flotilla 4, Group 10, being later transferred to Flotilla 28, Group 19. After another period of intensive training she began hauling troops between Anzio, Pizzuoli, Salerno, Nisidia and Civitavecchia. On August 15th she landed troops at Cavaliers Bay on the French Riviera and followed this by a number of trips with troops from Pozzuoli to the coast of Southern France.
On 24 November 1944, she departed Oren for Norfolk, where she arrived on 11 December 1944. After an overhaul period at the Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Virginia the 583 moved to Lambert's Point, Norfolk, Virginia, where her officers and crew were relieved by Coast Guard personnel on 16 January 1944. Next day she started for San Diego, California, which she reached on 11 February 1945 via the Canal Zone. From then until 20 April 1945 she was engaged in training maneuvers around the island of San Nichols and San Clemente, California. On April 20th she left San Diego in company with Group 104, Flotilla 35, and reached Guam on 26 May 1945, via Pearl Harbor and Eniwetok.
On 30 May 1945 she departed for Saipan to C.T.U. 94.7.2 for duty in the escort pool. Here she remained until she reported to the Harbor Director, at Eniwetok on August 12th, where she maintained an inter-atoll ferry schedule and made trips to Roi, Kwajalein and Tarawa, transporting passengers and light cargo. From 1 November 1945, to late in November, 1945, she was assigned to duty under Commander Marshall-Gilbert Area, with operations based on the Kwajalein area.
She reached Pearl Harbor on 12 December 1945, on her way home, stopping at San Diego before reaching Long Beach on 1 February 1946. She was decommissioned at San Pedro on 25 March 1946.
Sources
LCI(L) file, Coast Guard Historian's Office.
United States Coast Guard. The Coast Guard At War. V. Transports and Escorts. Vol. 2. Washington: Public Information Division, Historical Section, U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters, May 1, 1949, pp. 117-130.