Miguel Keith

George Schneider (Email to Nauticapedia 07/12/2021) stated "Out at sea, we kept seeing "Navy Warship 5" on AIS. The only real warship I could think of with the number 5 was LCS 5, which is on the East Coast. So is LHD 5. Eventually we saw her in the distance, and I was disgusted that this vessel calling itself a warship. It proved to be the USS MIGUEL KEITH (ESB 5), a low-speed, barely armed, unarmored "base ship" with no combat mission. This class started out as a submersible vessel design for resupplying landing craft, and was based on a commercial tanker hull. The Navy continues to build these even though there's no discernable mission for them except to be a floating "base" when needed. MIGUEL KEITH is the one that was damaged when the graving dock where this vessel was being built accidentally flooded, "launching" her prematurely and damaging her. "