Naval Shipyards, Repair Facilities and Dry Docks

16,155 · August 18, 2024

ABSD-4 Class Advance Base Section Dock
AFDB-7 (1946 - 1961)

ABSD-4 Class Advance Base Section Dock:

Constructed of seven Advance Base Docks, (ABD-37, ABD-38, ABD-39, and ABD-40 built at Chicago Bridge & Iron Co., Morgan City, LA.

Completed in December 1944 and January and February 1945

ABD-51 and ABD-52 built at Pollock Stockton Shipbuilding Co., Stockton, CA., completed in January and March 1945

ABD-58 built at Pittsburgh Des Moines Steel Co., Pittsburgh, PA., completed October 1944

Erected and assembled into (ABSD-7) at Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, CA., completed in March 1945

Commissioned, USS ABSD-7, at Mare Island Navy Yard, 6 January 1945, CAPT. Ernest F. Robinson, USNR, in command

Inactivated, 9 April 1946

Reclassified Auxiliary Floating Drydock (AFDB-7) in August 1946

Disassembled and towed to Green Cove Springs FL. for lay up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet in January 1947

Sections "A", "B", "C", and "D" of (AFDB-7) towed to Holy Loch, Scotland, in 1961

LOS ALAMOS AFDB-7 (1961-1992)

Placed in service as Los Alamos (AFDB-7), 10 November 1961

De-actived, 1 February 1992, at Holy Loch, Scotland

Disassembled and its sections returned to the United States

Struck from the Naval Register, 28 December 1993

In 1996 six of the original ABSD-7 sections transferred to the Brownsville Navigation District, TX. Another had been turned over to the U.S. Army in 1968

Current Disposition, renamed Solomon Ortiz Dry Dock in operation at Keppel AmFELS Shipyard, Brownsville, TX., servicing ships and oil rigs.

Los Alamos (AFDB-7) at Holy Loch, Scotland with a ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) inside, circa 1980s. USS Simon Lake (AS-33) is in the left distance.
US Navy photo # NH 98381-KN from the collections of the US Naval Historical Center.