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| USN Safeguard Class Rescue and Salvage Ship 3,282 Tons 255' x 50' x 15' 6" 2 x 25mm chain guns 2 x 50 cal machine guns Crew: 6 officers, 94 enlisted  Dave Flinn 2015 |
Ship History Built by Peterson Builders at Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. Laid down September 16, 1983. Launched July 28, 1984. Commissioned June 14, 1986 as USS Salvor (ARS-52), the third vessel in the Safeguard class of rescue and salvage ships along with USNS Grasp (T-ARS-51), USNS Safeguard (T-ARS-50) and USNS Grapple (T-ARS-53). During June 2006, USS Salvor (ARS-52) entered the Gulf of Thailand and divers from Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit 1 (MDSU-1) conducted six days of dives on the shipwreck found the previous year. For six days to survey and photographed the shipwreck to confirm the identity. More evidence was documented including the twin 5" gun mount plus "Manitowoc" on the propellers. The documentation was sent to underwater archaeologists for further review and the U.S. Navy confirmed to be USS Lagarto (SS-371). Decommissioned on January 19, 2007 and that same day transfered to Military Sealift Command (MSC) and recommissioned as USNS Salvor (T-ARS-52). During January 2015, Salvor operated in Simpson Harbor off Rabaul in Papua New Guinea (PNG) with a team of U.S. Navy divers led by JPAC underwater archaeologist Dr. Andrew Pietruszka. During a two month mission, anchored near TBF Avenger 24264 to conducted an underwater investigation then lifted the wreckage out of the water to recover remains aboard the vessel. Afterwards, the wreckage was placed back into Simpson Harbor at roughly the same location it crashed to the west of the Rabaul Yacht Club. During January to February 2018, Salvor operated in Palau with a team from Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) with Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit One (MDSU-1). During this mission, Salvor anchored on a fighter aircraft that crashed in 1944 found near Arakabesan Island (Ngerekebesang) in Palau. The team spent weeks excavating the area in search of remains, lifting sand to the surface. During July 2018 Salvor operated from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands divers from Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit One (MDSU-1) plus personnel from the U.S. Army and the Marshall Islands conducted a joint operation to remove oil from the shipwreck of Prinz Eugen (USS Prinz Eugen IX 300) to protect the marine ecosystem. Divers cut holes in the hull to access the fuel bunkers and pumped 250,000 US gallons of fuel into oil tanker Humber and removed an estimated 97 percent of the fuel aboard to protect the marine ecosystem. In early December 2018 Salvor operated in Madang Province in Papua New Guinea (PNG) with a team from Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) and Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit One (MDSU-1) conducting dives on the crash site of B-24D 'Heaven Can Wait' 42-41216 in Hansa Bay that was found in October 2017 by Project Recover to prepare for a remains recovery mision. During late November 2022 until early December 2022, Salvor operated in the Solomon Islands to search for missing personnel to investigate a possible aircraft wreck. Aboard was a team from Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) including Meghan Mumford and Rich Wills and Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit One (MDSU-1). The team used umbilical divers, hardhat divers and dredge basket to collect sediment. During the mission, On November 21, 2022 an official from Solomon Island National Museum was aboard to observe operations. On November 23, 2022 two representatives from the Department of State visited: Charge d'Affaires for Papua New Guinea Joe Zadrozy and Charge d'Affaires for Solomon Islands, Russell Comeau. During March 2023 departs Singapore bound for Hansa Bay to with a team from Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) and Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit One (MDSU-1) to conduct an underwater remains recovery operation at the crash site of B-24D 'Heaven Can Wait' 42-41216. References MarineTraffic - Salvor IMO: 8434374 Navy Vessel Register - USNS Safeguard (T-ARS 52) US Navy Military Sealift Command - Rescue and Salvage Ships US Navy Military Sealift Command - USNS Salvor via Wayback Machine March 7, 2009 NavSource - USNS Safeguard T-ARS-52 (photos) Facebook - Mobile Diving Salvage Unit One Live Science "Remains of US Pilot from WWII Found at the Bottom of Pacific Ocean" March 5, 2018 Fox News "Remains of US pilot from WWII found at the bottom of Pacific Ocean" March 9, 2018 Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS) Search: Salvor (photos) Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS) DPAA and MDSU Company 1-6 Conduct Dive Operations near Solomon Islands November 19-21, 2022 Contribute
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