The USS Opportune (ARS-41) was a Bolster-class rescue and salvage ship laid down in 1944 and commissioned a year later. The U. S. Navy acquired the vessel during World War II to aid stricken ships. After training, she operated primarily as a salvage schoolship for the Atlantic Fleet. Post WW2, she frequently acted as an air-sea rescue tug during fleet operations, towing disabled craft among Caribbean ports. From 1953, the ship participated in North Atlantic operations and sailed north each year to take part in resupply operations for northern Army, Air Force, Navy, and Weather Service stations, and often served as a station ship at Naval Air Station Argentia, Newfoundland. In 1960 and 1961, the rescue and salvage ship performed international goodwill and mercy missions on two European cruises. These missions were followed by East Coast operations for the next three years, with the ship’s cable laying duty. In 1990, the USS Opportune became the first US Navy ship commanded by a woman. She was decommissioned and stricken from the Register in 1993 and laid up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet until her scrapping in 2003. Due to the extensive use of asbestos in the shipbuilding industry, many active-duty veterans developed life-threatening asbestos illnesses such as mesothelioma or lung cancer decades after service.
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