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USS Kennebec (AO-36)

oiler of the United States Navy

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionDec 13, 2025
Entity authorityQ11679494 ↗
Source-derived summary

USS Kennebec (AO-36) was originally the SS Corsicana, a Kennebec class T2 tanker that was built by Bethlehem Sparrows Point Shipyard in Sparrows Point, Maryland. It was delivered to Socony-Vacuum Oil Company (later Mobil Oil) on 8 August 1941. It was purchased by the United States Navy on 13 January 1942 and renamed Kennebec.

Service history

The fleet oiler later had an eventful career, in so far as it was decommissioned four times and twice stricken from the Naval Vessel Register. Kennebec was decommissioned on 4 September 1950 at San Diego, California, and laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet for only four months. It was already recommissioned on 11 January 1951, at Oakland, California. On 25 September 1954 it was decommissioned, again at San Diego and laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet, San Diego Group. It was recommissioned on 14 December 1956, only to be decommissioned again on 31 October 1957. This time the ship was stricken from the Naval Register on 14 January 1959 and transferred to the Maritime Administration (MARAD) for laying up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet. However, Kennebec was reacquired by the U.S. Navy and recommissioned on 16 December 1961.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “USS Kennebec (AO-36)” is oiler of the United States Navy. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Kennebec, AO-36 and oiler, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1941, 1942, 1950, 1951—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Kennebec, AO-36 and oiler is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “oiler of the United States Navy” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 13, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q11679494. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1941, 1942, 1950 and 1951.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “USS Kennebec (AO-36)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow USS Kennebec (AO-36) primary sources, USS Kennebec (AO-36) archive and Kennebec research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “USS Kennebec (AO-36)”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “USS Kennebec (AO-36)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.