USS Anne Arundel (AP-76) was an American transport ship that was built in 1940 and scrapped in 1970. Originally laid down as the Mormacyork, she was later named after Anne Arundel County, Maryland

Anne Arundel County, Maryland

Anne Arundel County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland. It is named for Anne Arundell , a member of the ancient family of Arundells in Cornwall, England and the wife of Cæcilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore. Its county seat is Annapolis, which is also the capital of the state...

. Annapolis is the county seat there, the state capital, and also the home of the Naval Academy

Naval Academy

-Institutions:* The United States Naval Academy* The Indian Naval Academy of India* The Nikola Vaptsarov Naval Academy of Bulgaria* The Imperial Japanese Naval Academy* The École Navale of France* The Britannia Royal Naval College of the United Kingdom...

. Anne Arundel earned five battle stars for her World War II service.

Pre-World War II

Mormacyork was a type C3 ship

Type C3 ship

Type C3 ships were the third type of cargo ship designed by the United States Maritime Commission in the late 1930s. As it had done with the Type C1 ships and Type C2 ships, MARCOM circulated preliminary plans for comment...

 laid down under a Maritime Commission

United States Maritime Commission

The United States Maritime Commission was an independent executive agency of the U.S. federal government that was created by the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, passed by Congress on June 29, 1936, and replaced the U.S. Shipping Board which had existed since World War I...

 contract (MC hull 43) on 18 July 1940 at Kearny, New Jersey

Kearny, New Jersey

Kearny is a town in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. It was named after Civil War general Philip Kearny. As of the United States 2010 Census, the town population was 40,684. The town is a suburb of the nearby city of Newark....

, by the Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company

Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company

The Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company was a United States shipyard, active from 1917 to 1949. During World War II, it built ships as part of the U.S. Government's Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Operated by a subsidiary of the United States Steel Corporation, the shipyard was located at...

. Launched on 16 November 1940; sponsored by Mrs. William T. Moore, she was owned and operated by Moore-McCormack Lines, and ran voyages from the east coast of the United States to South American and Mediterranean ports.

World War II

She was acquired by the Navy from the War Shipping Administration

War Shipping Administration

The War Shipping Administration was a World War II emergency war agency of the US Government, tasked to purchase and operate the civilian shipping tonnage the US needed for fighting the war....

 on 13 September 1942 and converted for naval service as a transport at Brooklyn

Brooklyn

Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

, by the Robbins Shipbuilding & Drydock Co.; and commissioned on 17 September 1942, under Commander Lunsford Y. Mason, Jr.

Operation Torch

The new transport was renamed Anne Arundel and designated AP-76. On 22 September, she proceeded to Norfolk, Virginia

Norfolk, Virginia

Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....

, to load cargo and ammunition and then held shakedown training in the Chesapeake Bay

Chesapeake Bay

The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay's drainage basin covers in the District of Columbia and parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West...

. On 23 October, she left the east coast to rendezvous with Task Group (TG) 34.8, which had been formed to invade French Morocco

French Morocco

French Protectorate of Morocco was a French protectorate in Morocco, established by the Treaty of Fez. French Morocco did not include the north of the country, which was a Spanish protectorate...

 in Operation Torch

Operation Torch

Operation Torch was the British-American invasion of French North Africa in World War II during the North African Campaign, started on 8 November 1942....

. Anne Arundel arrived in the transport area off the Moroccan coast on 8 November and began discharging Army troops and supplies. This process continued until the 15th, when the ship moored at Casablanca

Casablanca

Casablanca is a city in western Morocco, located on the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Grand Casablanca region.Casablanca is Morocco's largest city as well as its chief port. It is also the biggest city in the Maghreb. The 2004 census recorded a population of 2,949,805 in the prefecture...

. Unloading continued at dockside through the 17th, when she got underway in a convoy returning to the United States.

Upon arriving back at Norfolk on 2 December, the vessel was temporarily assigned to the Naval Transportation Service. The next day, she sailed to Brooklyn, N.Y., to undergo extensive alterations and repairs at the Atlantic Basin Iron Works

Atlantic Basin Iron Works

The Atlantic Basin Iron Works was an ironworks that operated in Brooklyn, New York, in the early to mid-20th century. It built U.S. Navy warships during World War I and II.Founded before 1910, the yard had its headquarters at 18-20 Summit Street...

. The yard work was completed in early January 1943, and the transport began taking on cargo and troops. On 14 January, she sailed with a convoy on the first of a series of three voyages to Oran

Oran

Oran is a major city on the northwestern Mediterranean coast of Algeria, and the second largest city of the country.It is the capital of the Oran Province . The city has a population of 759,645 , while the metropolitan area has a population of approximately 1,500,000, making it the second largest...

, Algeria

Algeria

Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...

. In April, while engaged in this service, the ship reported for duty to Amphibious Forces, Atlantic Fleet.

Operation Husky

Instead of returning home from the last eastward transatlantic crossing which ended at Oran on 22 June, Anne Arundel got underway on 5 July to take part in Operation Husky - the Allied invasion of Sicily

Allied invasion of Sicily

The Allied invasion of Sicily, codenamed Operation Husky, was a major World War II campaign, in which the Allies took Sicily from the Axis . It was a large scale amphibious and airborne operation, followed by six weeks of land combat. It launched the Italian Campaign.Husky began on the night of...

. On the 9th, the vessel anchored off Scoglitti

Scoglitti

Scoglitti is a small fishing village near the town of Vittoria on the south coast of Sicily.In addition to its fishing industry, the village derives a substantial part of its income from tourism...

, Sicily, with Transport Division 5 and, the next day, began debarkation operations. She completed unloading on the 13th and reversed her course back to Oran. She paused there to take on personnel for transportation to the United States and then sailed on the 22nd. The ship reached New York City on 3 August.

Following voyage repairs, the transport left the east coast on 21 August and headed back toward Algeria. She arrived at Oran on 2 September, unloaded her cargo, and returned to New York. Anne Arundel got underway again in early October and touched at Belfast

Belfast

Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...

, Northern Ireland, on the 17th before proceeding on to Gourock

Gourock

Gourock is a town falling within the Inverclyde council area and formerly forming a burgh of the historic county of Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. It has in the past functioned as a seaside resort on the Firth of Clyde...

, Scotland, to discharge cargo. The vessel sailed on 27 October, shaped a course for Algeria, and remained in port at Algiers

Algiers

' is the capital and largest city of Algeria. According to the 1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570 and that of the urban agglomeration was 2,135,630. In 2009, the population was about 3,500,000...

 for one week before sailing for the United States. She reached New York on 11 December.

The transport began the year 1944 with a voyage to England. She touched at Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

 on 9 January, debarked some troops, and moved on to Belfast the next day. The ship sent more troops and supplies ashore there before returning to the United States. She continued her supply runs between New York City and Great Britain through early June. Among her ports of call were Newport

Newport

Newport is a city and unitary authority area in Wales. Standing on the banks of the River Usk, it is located about east of Cardiff and is the largest urban area within the historic county boundaries of Monmouthshire and the preserved county of Gwent...

, Wales; Portland

Isle of Portland

The Isle of Portland is a limestone tied island, long by wide, in the English Channel. Portland is south of the resort of Weymouth, forming the southernmost point of the county of Dorset, England. A tombolo over which runs the A354 road connects it to Chesil Beach and the mainland. Portland and...

 and Plymouth

Plymouth

Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...

, England; and Loch Long

Loch Long

Loch Long is a body of water in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. The sea loch extends from the Firth of Clyde at its southwestern end. It measures approximately 20 miles in length, with a width of between one and two miles...

, Firth of Clyde, Scotland. In mid-April, Anne Arundel arrived at Plymouth to begin rehearsals for the upcoming invasion of the European continent at Normandy.

Operations Neptune and Dragoon

On 5 June 1944, the ship left Portland with Task Force 124 and headed for the transport area off Omaha Beach

Omaha Beach

Omaha Beach is the code name for one of the five sectors of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France in the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944, during World War II...

 in northern France as part of Operation Neptune. She began debarking troops at 0646 on "D-Day", 6 June, and completed the process later that day. The vessel then reversed her course, steamed to England, and moored at Portland on the 7th. Anne Arundel took on cargo at Avonmouth

Avonmouth

Avonmouth is a port and suburb of Bristol, England, located on the Severn Estuary, at the mouth of the River Avon.The council ward of Avonmouth also includes Shirehampton and the western end of Lawrence Weston.- Geography :...

, England, later that month and got underway for Algeria on 3 July. She paused at Oran before sailing on to Naples

Naples

Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

, Italy. At that port, she took troops and supplies on board in preparation for the invasion of southern France, Operation Dragoon

Operation Dragoon

Operation Dragoon was the Allied invasion of southern France on August 15, 1944, during World War II. The invasion was initiated via a parachute drop by the 1st Airborne Task Force, followed by an amphibious assault by elements of the U.S. Seventh Army, followed a day later by a force made up...

.

On 15 August, Anne Arundel arrived in the Baie de Pampelonne off the coast of Provence

Provence

Provence ; Provençal: Provença in classical norm or Prouvènço in Mistralian norm) is a region of south eastern France on the Mediterranean adjacent to Italy. It is part of the administrative région of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur...

 in France and began discharging troops ashore that same day. The transport left the area on the 16th and set a course for Oran. She returned to the French coast on 30 August and moored in the Baie de Cavalaire

Cavalaire-sur-Mer

Cavalaire-sur-Mer is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.-History:During World War II, on August 16, 1944, it was one of the sites of a beach landing in Operation Dragoon, the Allied invasion of southern FranceCavalaire-sur-Mer is probably...

 to unload vehicles and troops to reinforce Allied positions. During the next one and one-half months, the vessel made several resupply runs from Naples and Oran to Marseille

Marseille

Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...

, France. She completed her last trip to France on 15 October and set a course for the United States.

Pacific

Anne Arundel touched back at New York City on 8 November and entered a shipyard for repair work before resuming cargo loading operations. She left the east coast on 18 December, bound for the Pacific. The transport transited the Panama Canal

Panama Canal

The Panama Canal is a ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Built from 1904 to 1914, the canal has seen annual traffic rise from about 1,000 ships early on to 14,702 vessels measuring a total of 309.6...

 on Christmas Day; joined the Pacific Fleet; and continued on to San Francisco, California, where she embarked several hundred marines. She then made another stop at San Diego, California, to take on supplies and naval passengers. The ship left the west coast on 14 January 1945 and reached Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...

, Hawaii, six days later.

The vessel got underway again on the 22 to carry supplies and troops to Guam

Guam

Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United...

 and Ulithi

Ulithi

Ulithi is an atoll in the Caroline Islands of the western Pacific Ocean, about 191 km east of Yap. It consists of 40 islets totalling , surrounding a lagoon about long and up to wide—at one of the largest in the world. It is administered by the state of Yap in the Federated States of...

. At Guam, she took on marine and naval casualties for transportation to Hawaii. After making a brief call at Eniwetok, Anne Arundel arrived back at Pearl Harbor on 22 March. The vessel was in upkeep for approximately one week before once more beginning cargo loading operations. She left Hawaii on 7 April with troops for the Ryukyu campaign

Volcano and Ryukyu Islands campaign

-Further reading:...

 embarked; made stops en route at Eniwetok and Ulithi before arriving in the transport area off Hagushi

Hagushi

Hagushi bay was the primary unloading point for American supplies during the invasion of Okinawa during World War II. The bay, at the mouth of the Bishi River , was the dividing line between the First and Sixth US Marine divisions, which landed on the Hagushi beaches to the north, and the Seventh...

 beach on Okinawa on 3 May. For the next five days, the ship debarked troops, provisioned various landing craft, and received casualties on board. She paused at Saipan

Saipan

Saipan is the largest island of the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands , a chain of 15 tropical islands belonging to the Marianas archipelago in the western Pacific Ocean with a total area of . The 2000 census population was 62,392...

 on 12 May to send wounded troops to hospitals on the island and then continued sailing eastward to the United States.

The transport reached San Francisco on 28 May. After a period of upkeep, Anne Arundel began taking on equipment and supplies for transportation to forward areas in the Pacific. She arrived at Pearl Harbor on 18 June; then shaped a course for the Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

. On 9 July, the ship reached Leyte

Leyte

Leyte is a province of the Philippines located in the Eastern Visayas region. Its capital is Tacloban City and occupies the northern three-quarters of the Leyte Island. Leyte is located west of Samar Island, north of Southern Leyte and south of Biliran...

, where she was assigned to duty as a receiving ship. She remained at Leyte until 8 August, the day she got underway for the Admiralty Islands

Admiralty Islands

The Admiralty Islands are a group of eighteen islands in the Bismarck Archipelago, to the north of New Guinea in the south Pacific Ocean. These are also sometimes called the Manus Islands, after the largest island. These rainforest-covered islands form part of Manus Province, the smallest and...

. The ship was in port at Manus

Manus Island

Manus Island is part of Manus Province in northern Papua New Guinea and is the largest island of the Admiralty Islands. It is the fifth largest island in Papua New Guinea with an area of 2,100 km², measuring around 100 km × 30 km. According to the 2000 census, Manus Island had a...

 when the Japanese surrendered

Surrender of Japan

The surrender of Japan in 1945 brought hostilities of World War II to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy was incapable of conducting operations and an Allied invasion of Japan was imminent...

 to the Allies on 15 August 1945.

Anne Arundel returned to Leyte on the 23rd. After taking on personnel and supplies, she left Philippine waters and headed for the Japanese home islands. She moored at Yokohama

Yokohama

is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...

, Japan, on 13 September and reported for duty with Transport Squadron 24 to support occupation forces ashore. After unloading her holds, the ship left Japan on 19 September and sailed for Apra Harbor

Apra Harbor

Apra Harbor is a deep-water port on the western side of Guam in the Mariana Islands. The harbor is formed by Orote Peninsula in the south and Cabras Island in the north. To the south, the harbor narrows and then widens again to form an inner harbor. The southern end of the harbor is the location...

, Guam.

Post World War II

Having taken on another load of troops and cargo, Anne Arundel sailed to Tsingtao, China. After discharging her passengers there, the ship proceeded to the Philippines. From Manila

Manila

Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...

, she got underway on 30 October with TG 78.6, bound for French Indochina

French Indochina

French Indochina was part of the French colonial empire in southeast Asia. A federation of the three Vietnamese regions, Tonkin , Annam , and Cochinchina , as well as Cambodia, was formed in 1887....

. Anne Arundel reached Hai Phong on 2 November and began embarking elements of the Chinese 52nd Army and their equipment for transportation back to China. She arrived at Chinwang'tao

Qinhuangdao

Qinhuangdao is a port city in northeastern Hebei province of North China. It is about 300 km east of Beijing, on the Bohai Sea, the innermost gulf of the Yellow Sea....

 on the 12th. Having disembarked her passengers, the vessel left Chinese waters two days later and proceeded to Nagoya, Japan.

There, the transport embarked several hundred military personnel and sailed for the United States on 5 December. She arrived at Tacoma, Washington

Tacoma, Washington

Tacoma is a mid-sized urban port city and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. The city is on Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Park. The population was 198,397, according to...

, on the 18th; remained in availability at Tacoma through late January 1946; and then got underway to sail to the east coast. The vessel retransited the Panama Canal on 14 February and joined the Atlantic Fleet. Anne Arundel arrived at New York City on 21 February and began preparations for deactivation. She was decommissioned at Brooklyn on 21 March 1946 and turned over the War Shipping Administration for disposal. Her name was struck from the Navy List

Naval Vessel Register

The Naval Vessel Register is the official inventory of ships and service craft in custody of or titled by the United States Navy. It contains information on ships and service craft that make up the official inventory of the Navy from the time a vessel is authorized through its life cycle and...

on 12 April 1946.

Returned to her prewar owners and refurbished for merchant service, the ship operated as Mormacyork until laid up around 1962. She remained on contemporary merchant vessel registers, inactive, until she was sold to the Lotti S.p.A, of Italy, on 1 July 1970, and broken up for scrap.