USS Beltrami

While at that base, the ship received orders to prepare for Operation Nanook—a project to set up a system of weather stations in the Arctic regions of the Western Hemisphere. She first made brief stops at Baltimore, Maryland, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in mid-April, both to obtain cold weather gear and to receive equipment modifications for extended sub-zero operations. Beltrami then sailed to New York, embarking LCVPs and picket boats in early May, before moving on to Boston, Massachusetts, to load a detachment of US Marines. Beltrami sailed independently on 15 July, heading north toward the Strait of Belle Isle, Newfoundland.[3]

On 25 July, after passing through the Labrador Sea and the Davis Strait, Beltrami rendezvoused with the icebreaker Northwind in Lancaster Sound, well above the Arctic Circle. Two days later, the ships entered Dundas Harbor, Devon Island, to disembark the marine detachment. Upon entering the harbor, Northwind grounded on an uncharted pinnacle but was refloated about ten hours later without serious damage. Meanwhile, the marine detachment went ashore and set up a temporary camp at the base of an inactive glacier.[3]

Beltrami then proceeded to Thule, Greenland, where she joined the seaplane tender Norton Sound, net-laying ship Whitewood and sister ship Alcona in Task Force (TF) 68. Her crew unloaded the cargo and heavy equipment needed to construct a weather station and an emergency airstrip, before the ship returned to Dundas Harbor on 20 August and reembarked the marines after their three-week field expedition. Returning to Thule on the 22d, she sailed for home two days later and arrived in Boston on 3 September.[3]

Over the next two years, Beltrami plied the Atlantic coastal waters of North America, delivering general cargo from Bayonne, New Jersey, and Norfolk to naval stations as far south as the Panama Canal Zone and as far north as Argentia, Newfoundland. She also made regular visits to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; St. George, Bermuda; and Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico.[3] On 11 February 1949, following the permanent establishment of the U.S. 6th Fleet the previous year, Beltrami began the first of three voyages to the Mediterranean Sea. She visited Casablanca, Morocco; Athens, Greece; and Haifa, Israel; before coming back to Norfolk on 15 April. Beltrami returned to the Mediterranean between 8 October and 2 December of that year and again between 15 June and 7 August 1951. In between these cruises, she also made one voyage to British ports, visiting Gibraltar, Plymouth, and Londonderry between 20 July and 8 September 1950.[3]

For the remainder of her service, Beltrami operated out of Earle, New Jersey, and Norfolk, primarily servicing ports and installations in the West Indies. Her most common duty was the shuttling of passengers and cargo between Guantánamo Bay, Roosevelt Roads, and Trinidad. Made obsolete by larger and faster cargo ships, Beltrami sailed from Norfolk to Charleston, South Carolina, in late July 1955, arriving at the navy yard there on the 29th.[3] Placed in commission, in reserve, on 1 August 1955, she was towed to Savannah, Georgia, on 28 August, and was decommissioned on 10 November 1955. Her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 April 1960, and she was transferred to the Maritime Administration on 21 June 1960. She was sold for scrap to Hugo Neu Steel Products on 29 August 1960.[3]