[3] General W. M. Black (AP-135) was laid down under a Maritime Commission contract (MC #658) 26 November 1942 by Kaiser Co., Inc., Yard 3, Richmond, California; launched 23 July 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Decatur S. Higgins; acquired by the Navy 26 January 1944; converted to a transport by Matson Navigation Co., San Francisco; and commissioned 24 February 1944.

One of the most active ships of her type, General W. M. Black plied the world's oceans and touched many distant ports in completing her varied missions as a troopship.

The transport subsequently steamed to Kingston, Jamaica, where she embarked 2,400 passengers and sailed to Norfolk, arriving 26 June.

General W. M. Black began the first of 13 transatlantic, round-trip voyages when she departed Norfolk 28 July with 2,700 fighting men bound for Naples, and returned to New York 31 August with 3,000 homeward-bound troops and casualties.

From 12 September to 19 August 1945 the busy transport made 10 similar round-trip troop-carrying voyages (5 from New York, 3 from Boston, and 2 from Norfolk) to the United Kingdom (Plymouth, Liverpool, Southampton); France (Cherbourg, Le Havre, Marseilles); North Africa (Oran); and Germany (Bremerhaven).

In addition to carrying German prisoners of war to the United States, she rotated tens of thousands of troops and patients to and from the European theater in this period of nearly a year.

On 30 September 1948, she arrived in Ilha das Flores, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with Eastern European refugees, many of whom had been in (Villach/St.

There are records of the USS General W. M. Black arriving in Buenos Aires, Argentina from Genoa, Italy on Jan 24th, 1949, with displaced persons and refugees (Austrian DP camps (Ukrainians, Polish, etc.)

The USS General W. M. Black departed Bremerhaven Germany with several hundred Displaced Persons aboard, arriving in Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada on 16 March 1949....her 9th voyage.