Laid down as MV Avoca and acquired by the Maritime Commission (MARCOM) on a loan charter basis and renamed USS Petaluma (AOG-69), she was to be a type T1 Klickitat-class gasoline tanker built for the US Navy during World War II.

Petaluma (AOG-69) was laid down on 14 February 1945, under a Maritime Commission (MARCOM) contract, MC hull 2629, by the St. Johns River Shipbuilding Company, Jacksonville, Florida; acquisition by the US Navy was cancelled 26 August 1945.

[1][2][4] Petaluma was launched on 5 May 1945, and was about 85% complete when, due to the end of World War II, the ship's US Navy reassignment was canceled.

[6] In May 1954, the Minneapolis-Honeywell Regulator Company announced that its "sea scanar" device had located the wreck of Transpet at a depth of 120 feet (37 m) about 13 nautical miles (24 km) off Miscou Island.

It was the first time the "sea scanar", which had been in use as a fish finder off the West Coast of the United States, had been used in a salvage operation and the first wreck located using it.