Overview and historical setting
Five Anchorage-class dock landing ships, LSD-36 through LSD-40, carried the U.S. Navy LSD line into the late Cold War and post-Cold-War era.
Anchorage class dock landing ship belongs to the history of amphibious warfare. The class was developed for United States Navy / Republic of China Navy during the Cold War and the post-Cold War era, and contemporary descriptions identify it as dock landing ship. This setting matters because the design should be read against the missions, technology, and fleet organization available to that navy at the time.
Development and program
The class stretched the postwar LSD hull to 553 feet while retaining steam propulsion and a floodable well deck. ShipbuildingHistory provides the construction chronology; individual NavSource records provide service-entry and decommissioning dates. Portland’s construction sources disagree on its launch date, so follows the dedicated builder chronology and records that conflict at hull level.
For Anchorage class dock landing ship, the documented program can be summarized as construction activity is recorded from 1967-03-13 to 1972-12-09, 5 planned, 5 ordered, 5 completed, and 0 cancelled. Those figures separate the intended program from the ships that actually reached completion, a distinction that is especially important when requirements changed during a long construction cycle.
The recorded lineage links Anchorage class dock landing ship to predecessors Thomaston class dock landing ship and successors Whidbey Island class dock landing ship. Lineage is treated as evidence of design relationship, not proof that equipment, protection, or operating doctrine remained unchanged from one class to the next.
Design and operational role
The technical character of Anchorage class dock landing ship is described through floodable well deck, stern gate, ballasting system, and helicopter landing area. These characteristics are most useful when connected to the missions assigned to the class, including amphibious assault transport, landing craft transport, and well-deck operations; they explain what the navy expected the ships to do rather than serving as an isolated list of specifications.
Anchorage class dock landing ship should not be treated as one permanently fixed configuration. Individual members could differ during construction and later change through refits, revised weapons, new sensors, altered boats or aircraft, and changes in crew or command facilities. The class page establishes the shared baseline, while dated ship evidence is needed for any claim about a particular hull.
Ships of the class
The documented roster for Anchorage class dock landing ship contains 5 ships, and the roster is marked complete. The named members are USS Anchorage, USS Portland, ROCS Hsu-Hai, USS Mount Vernon, and USS Fort Fisher.
The roster gives Anchorage class dock landing ship a measurable production history rather than treating the class as an abstract design. Comparing the member pages can reveal construction differences, refits, transfers, renamings, losses, and preservation outcomes that a class-wide summary cannot assign safely to every ship.
Across the member records, the currently documented outcomes are 5 not confirmed. This summary reflects the available ship records and should be revised when stronger evidence changes an individual vessel’s status.
Service history
All five served in the U.S. Navy. Pensacola later transferred to the Republic of China Navy and entered service as ROCS Hsu-Hai (LSD-193); leaves the later end date open rather than making an unsupported current-status claim.
Service within Anchorage class dock landing ship was not necessarily uniform. Ships built to the same design could enter different theaters, receive different modernizations, or leave service under different conditions. For that reason, an operation documented for one member is not presented as a class-wide experience unless the supporting source makes that connection.
Historical significance and evidence
The Anchorage class carried the steam-powered U.S. LSD line through the 1970s and now anchors the design lineage forward into the diesel-powered, LCAC-centered Whidbey Island class.
The significance of Anchorage class dock landing ship is best evaluated by comparing its intended roles, the design features selected to meet them, the number of ships actually completed, and the different outcomes recorded across the class. That approach turns the program and roster into evidence about naval priorities rather than treating the class only as a set of measurements.
The evidence used for Anchorage class dock landing ship includes Amphibious-Warfare Ships (LSD, LPD, LPH, LHA, LHD, LCC, LSV), USS Anchorage (LSD-36), and USS Portland (LSD-37). These sources support the chronology and identification presented here; where they do not establish a ship-specific event or configuration, the profile says so rather than borrowing details from another vessel.
Ships in this class
Showing 5 recorded class members.
Sources and further reading
- Amphibious-Warfare Ships (LSD, LPD, LPH, LHA, LHD, LCC, LSV) ↗ShipbuildingHistory.com · accessed 2026-09-21
- USS Anchorage (LSD-36) ↗NavSource Naval History · accessed 2026-09-21
- USS Portland (LSD-37) ↗NavSource Naval History · accessed 2026-09-21
- USS Pensacola (LSD-38) ↗NavSource Naval History · accessed 2026-09-21
- USS Mount Vernon (LSD-39) ↗NavSource Naval History · accessed 2026-09-21
- USS Fort Fisher (LSD-40) ↗NavSource Naval History · accessed 2026-09-21
- USS Whidbey Island (LSD-41) ↗NavSource Naval History · accessed 2026-09-21