[2] The ship was laid down as Hull Number 485[3] and launched in 1942 by Marietta Manufacturing Co., Point Pleasant, West Virginia for the U.S. Army Mine Planter Service as the USAMP Brigadier General Royal T. Frank (MP-12).

She was the second Army mine planter named for the Civil War era officer with the first, built in 1909,[4] being converted to an inter island transport in Hawaii operating as the U.S.A.T.

Royal T. Frank which was sunk by torpedo from the Japanese submarine I-171 on 9 January 1942 while carrying Army recruits with the loss of thirty-three lives.

[5][6] The Frank's embarked crew was, in Army terminology implemented November 1942, designated the 19th Coast Artillery Mine Planter Battery stationed at Fort Miles, Delaware.

[14] Royal T. Frank was a career officer in the United States Army who graduated from West Point in 1858 and served until his retirement in 1899.