USS Miantonomah (CM-10/CMc-5) was built as SS Quaker by Pusey & Jones Corporation, Wilmington, Delaware in 1938 as a commercial coastwise ship operating as a fast inland water passenger and freight carrier.

[3] Quaker was the first of two identical ships built at the Pusey & Jones yard for the Philadelphia and Norfolk Steamship Company, the second being Cavalier.

[4][note 1] Quaker was laid down 26 May 1937, launched 15 February 1938 and delivered to the Philadelphia & Norfolk Steamship Company by the builder on 15 June 1938.

Operating out of Yorktown, Virginia, she joined in the effort to reduce the German submarine menace along the east coast, and during the next several months sowed mines off Cape Hatteras and Key West, Florida.

[3] Loaded with a full cargo of mines, Miantonomah departed Yorktown on 23 October and the next day joined the Center Attack Group (TG 34.9) of the Western Naval Task Force.

Following the pre-dawn amphibious landings, and the subsequent neutralization of shore batteries by intense accurate naval gunfire, she laid down a defensive minefield north and east of the transport area about noon on 8 November, thence anchored in Fedala Harbor.

[3] Miantonomah underwent repairs at Norfolk from 8 December 1942 – 19 January 1943, then resumed duty out of Yorktown in Chesapeake Bay and along the Virginia coast.

For more than two months, she made runs between English and liberated French ports and provided valuable support for salvage and clearing operations.

Austin E. Rowe — ordered "the highest state of watertight integrity to be set and all personnel not actually on watch below to be on topside and wear lifejackets" — measures which undoubtedly saved many lives.

[3] Damage control efforts proved useless, and as Coast Guard vessels, British motor launches, and a French fishing craft stood by to rescue survivors, her injured skipper ordered Miantonomah to be abandoned.