USAT Thomas H. Barry

"Thomas H. Barry" was a troop transport that served with the US Army during World War II. Intended for transfer to the US Navy and assigned the hull number AP-45, she never served in that role but stayed an army troopship. Prior to her war service, she was the ocean liner "SS "Oriente".

ervice history

SS "Oriente"—a steel-hulled, twin-screw passenger and cargo ship launched on 15 May 1930 by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, for the New York and Cuba Mail and Steamship Company's Ward Line—was acquired by the War Department in June 1941 for use as an Army transport, who named her the USAT "Thomas H. Barry".

On 29 September 1941, the Acting Chief of Naval Operations, Rear Admiral Royal E. Ingersoll, sent a memorandum to the Chief of the Bureau of Navigation, listing a number of Army transports—including "Thomas H. Barry"—that were to be "eventually taken over by the Navy." "Thomas H. Barry" was later designated AP-45. However, the transport was never taken over by the Navy and remained under Army control through the end of World War II.

References

* [http://www.hazegray.org/danfs/auxil/ap45.txt "Thomas H. Barry"] - DANFS Online.
* [http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/22/22045.htm AP-45 "Thomas H. Barry"] , Navsource Online.
*DANFS