USS Leedstown (AP-73), built as the Grace Line passenger and cargo ocean liner SS Santa Lucia, served as a United States Navy amphibious assault ship in World War II.

The ship departed New York on 17 February for an ultimate destination of Seattle by way of Havana, Panama, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Victoria, British Columbia.

[7] In November 1934 Grace Line announced that Santa Lucia would enter the New York to west coast of South America service on her next voyage due to increased traffic on that route.

[11] By 1935 the growth of fruit trade from South America had grown so that five Grace Line ships[note 2] on the route were upgrading refrigerated space.

[12] A company brochure for sailings September 1941 to March 1942 issued in September 1941 shows Santa Lucia as one of three ships scheduled to sail from New York with calls at Cristobal and Balboa in Panama, Buenaventura, Colombia, Guayaquil, Ecuador, the Peruvian ports of Talara, Salaverry, Callao and Mollendo and the Chilean ports of Arica, Antofagasta, Chañaral and Valparaiso.

[14][15] The ship was acquired for the Navy through a sub-bareboat charter from the WSA on 6 August 1942, converted for amphibious assault service and renamed USS Leedstown.

She was commissioned in late September 1942 and almost immediately crossed the Atlantic to Belfast, Northern Ireland, where she joined a force preparing for Operation Torch, the invasion of French North Africa.

[6] Early on the evening of 8 November, shortly after putting her troops and some of her cargo ashore east of Algiers, she was attacked by Ju 88 bombers and immobilised by a torpedo in her stern.