The ship, a C1-M-AV1 design, was built under Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 2247), was laid down as Alexander R. Nininger, Jr., on 16 June 1944 by Walter Butler Shipbuilders Inc., Duluth, Minnesota; launched on 7 December 1944; sponsored by Mrs. G.A.

Meyer; renamed Acorn Knot in February 1945; and delivered to the War Shipping Administration on 30 March 1945.

[1] Operated initially by Grace Lines in the Atlantic and the Caribbean, Acorn Knot was returned to the Maritime Commission and transferred to the Army Transportation Corps on 28 July 1946 and assigned to the Ryukyus Command as an inter-island cargo carrier.

On 6 May 1948, she departed the Far East for California; and, in July, she entered the Moore Dry Dock Company's yard at Oakland for conversion to a cargo-troop-passenger ship.

Within 24 hours of receipt of the news of the Communist crossing of the 38th parallel, she had taken on a full cargo of ammunition and a deck load of guns.

George D. Keathley (T-APC-117); and, on the fourth, her civil service crew got her underway back to Japan to take on Army Signal Corps units and their equipment and' transport them to Korea.

[1] With the completion of that run, the APC was assigned to shuttle service between Korea and Japan-evacuating hospital patients to Hakata and carrying troops and cargo to Pusan.

From then until the signing of the truce in July, she operated primarily between Sasebo and Pusan, with only two runs to Naha and Keelung.

Ten months later, on 24 October 1957, her name was struck from the Navy list and her transfer to the NDRF was made permanent.

[3] The system aboard Keathley supported the ship's deep ocean bathymetry and geophysical survey mission.

[4][note 1] The ship continued those surveys for the Oceanographer of the Navy until December 1971 when she returned to the United States for inactivation.

[5] This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.