USS Canisteo (AO-99) was an Cimarron-class fleet oiler constructed for the U.S. Navy in the closing days of World War II. Commissioned too late for service in that conflict, she had a lengthy career in the Cold War that followed.
Canisteo (AO-99) was launched 6 July 1945 by Bethlehem Steel-Sparrows Point Shipyard, Inc., Sparrows Point, Maryland, under a Maritime Commission contract; sponsored by Mrs. J. N. Chambers; and commissioned 3 December 1945, Lieutenant Commander E. L. Denton, USNR, in command.
Final decommissioningCanisteo was decommissioned 2 October 1989 and struck from the Naval Register, 31 August 1992. She was transferred to the Maritime Administration for lay up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet, James River, Fort Eustis, Virginia. Final Disposition: she was sold for scrapping to Able UK, Hartlepool, Teeside, England, and removed from the Reserve Fleet and, during October 2003, was under tow to the United Kingdom.
Canisteo and three other decommissioned US Navy ships, the Caloosahatchee,Canopus and Compass Island, were towed to Hartlepool to be scrapped, but UK environmentalists protested their arrival at Able UK, the salvage company.
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