Aquila operated in the North Atlantic delivering general cargo and equipment to ships and stations in the war zone.

Burmeister & Wain 550-VF-90 type diesel engine driving one screw for a speed of 12.5 kn (14.4 mph; 23.2 km/h).

[1][6][5][2] Tunis was one of four similar cargo ships in commercial service for Det Forenede Dampskibs Selskab (DFDS), Copenhagen, operating between northwest Europe and the Mediterranean.

[5] The change was due to a surge in freight to North and South America at the start of war in Europe.

[9][10] In 1958 the United States offered Denmark $5,396,202 in settlement of claims for use and loss of all forty vessels including Tunis.

On 11 August 1941 WSA delivered the ship under Executive Order to the Navy under bareboat charter for operation as an transport.

After conversion for naval service by the Sullivan Drydock and Repair Corporation Aquila was commissioned on 24 October 1941.

[2][13] Aquila began a series of convoy runs from New York and Boston, Massachusetts, to Reykjavík, Iceland making five round-trips between 1 December 1941 and 10 October 1942.

[2] Bonanza registration shows changes with 1,559 GRT, 821 NRT and signal WHXI owned by the War Shipping Administration registered in Baltimore.

[2][5] On 28 June the ship departed New York for Newport News, Bremen and Copenhagen to resume pre-war routes.