Plymouth Salvor (a wooden-hulled salvage vessel originally earmarked for transfer to Great Britain under lend-lease and classified as BARS-7) was laid down on 7 April 1942 at Wilmington, Delaware, by the American Car and Foundry Co.; reclassified ARS-35 on 11 January 1943 and named Weight on 15 March 1943.
The ship was launched on 21 April 1943, sponsored by Mrs. H. E. Haven, the wife of the Supervisor of Shipbuilding at the Dravo Corp. of Wilmington; and commissioned at her builder's yard on 14 August 1943.
Weight shifted to the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 16 August, where she fitted out prior to moving to Cape May, New Jersey, en route to New York City.
While the ship was maneuvering to get into the best possible position to fight the fire, her starboard propeller struck some submerged wreckage, bending one blade out of alignment and curling the others about three inches each.
She also raised sunken LCVP's and fought a fire that had started in cargo carried by LCT-309, spending much of her time on New Year's Eve fighting that blaze.
She also conducted salvage and wreckage clearance operations on a sunken Italian destroyer and towed HMS Thruster off a nearby beach where she had gone aground.
Weight sailed from Naples at 0755 on 28 January and, reaching the Anzio beachhead the next day, observed German bombers making direct hits on the British cruiser HMS Spartan and the American merchantman SS Samuel Huntington.
The salvage vessel trained both monitors (large deck-mounted water guns) and a 2½-inch hose on the wreck and between 1605 and 1745, fought the fire that ravaged the freighter.
Weight's divers cleared the fouled screws of SC-497, and the ship's force repaired LCT 288 and again fought fires on Samuel Huntington.
Nevertheless, even after the joint attempt, the Army tug remained hard aground and defied all of the salvors' efforts, and the American salvage vessel subsequently returned to Naples to resume work on Pilot.
At 0012 on the 31st, the convoy ceased making smoke; but, two minutes later, a white flare appeared overhead and brought the ship back to general quarters.
Weight's heavy antiaircraft barrage managed to dissuade the German pilot from attempting a strafing run on the survivors; and the plane, sans torpedo, swung away from the convoy.
She spent a month engaged in local ship repair and salvage jobs and then shifted briefly to Palermo, Sicily, before returning to Naples, where she operated into early August.
After a brief trip to Dellys, Algeria, Weight returned to Toulon, where she performed salvage and repair operations on the mine-damaged SS Eleanor Wylie over ensuing days.
The ship arrived at Fayal, Horta, in the Azores, on 4 February and over the next two weeks' time, performed salvage operations on the damaged destroyer escort Fogg (DE-57).
Subsequently, transferred to the United States Maritime Commission, the ship was sold and, on 24 July 1947, was delivered to her purchaser, Mr. David Davidoff, at Suisun Bay, California.
Her crew was eligible for the following medals and ribbons: This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.