USS Susan B. Anthony (AP-72)

USS Susan B. Anthony (AP-72)

USS Susan B. Anthony (AP-72) was a transport ship in the United States Navy during World War II, named after the prominent civil rights campaigner, and one of the few Naval vessels named after a woman.

Originally a passenger steamer built at Camden, New Jersey for the Grace Steamship Company, she was launched in March 1930 by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation as SS Santa Clara. She was acquired by the Navy on 7 August 1942; renamed Susan B. Anthony and converted at Bethlehem Steel's New York yard; and commissioned on 7 September 1942, Captain Henry Hartley assumed command on the 29th.