U.S. Army Engineer Port Repair ship

Such a ship had never been required previously as ports were largely undamaged in World War I[2] and had no peacetime technical or economic purpose.

[1] Eisenhower had followed up an original request on 6 December 1942 after the North African experience with a requirement for five vessels of fourteen foot draft or less and about 275 feet in length.

The conversions were to specialized vessels with the machine shops, diver support and heavy lift capacity to clear harbors of wreckage.

Unfavorable experience with the Enceladus was involved in Navy's willingness to give up the rest of the hulls despite a critical need for small, shallow draft naval cargo vessels.

The conversion placed machine, welding and carpenter shops in number two hold along with generators and air compressors supporting engineering work.

[1] The other ship was the World War I vessel SS Josephine Lawrence (ex Covena) built by Great Lakes Engineering Works[5] and allocated to Army by the WSA.

The crews assembled on the West Coast in August 1943 under TC jurisdiction where they were put into training in nautical and technical fields.

The results were less than desirable: The board at San Francisco reported on 4 October that none of the three crews at that port could be trusted with a ship.

[1] As a result all crews were to be brought to the East Coast and complete training under the jurisdiction of the Chief of Engineers with critical positions filled with personnel from civilian life with shipboard experience.

For a number of reasons the delivery of the converted ships was delayed and the crews could not combine training with actual shipboard experience.

Only five of the ten ships, the Junior N. Van Noy, Madison Jordan Manchester, Glenn Gerald Griswold, Thomas F. Farrel and Robert M. Emery made it to Europe in time for significant work.