USS Advance, the second United States Navy ship to be so named, was later known as USS Frolic, and was originally the blockade runner Advance captured by the Union Navy during the latter part of the American Civil War. She was purchased by the Union Navy and outfitted as a gunboat and assigned to the blockade of the waterways of the Confederate States of America. She also served as dispatch ship and supply vessel when military action eventually slowed.
North Carolina Shipbuilding Company was a shipyard in Wilmington, North Carolina, created as part of the U.S. Government's Emergency Shipbuilding Program in the early days of World War II. From 1941 through 1946, the company built 243 ships in all, beginning with the Liberty ship SS Zebulon B. Vance, and including 54 ships of the US Navy. Most of the latter were attack cargo ships (AKA), amphibious force flagships (AGC) and ammunition ships (AE). A list of all 54 Navy ships appears at the end of this article, as does a link to a detailed record of all ships built by the company.
SS Munargo was a commercial cargo and passenger ship built for the Munson Steamship Line by New York Shipbuilding Corp., Camden, New Jersey launched 17 September 1921. Munargo operated for the line in the New York-Bahamas-Cuba-Miami service passenger cargo trade. In June 1930 the United States and Mexican soccer teams took passage aboard Munargo from New York to Uruguay for the 1930 FIFA World Cup. The ship was acquired by the War Shipping Administration and immediately purchased by the War Department for service as a troop carrier during World War II. Shortly after acquisition the War Department transferred the ship to the U.S. Navy which commissioned the ship USS Munargo (AP-20). She operated in the Atlantic Ocean for the Navy until returned to the War Department in 1943 for conversion into the Hospital ship USAHS Thistle.
USAT Thomas H. Barry, formerly SS Oriente, was a Ward Line ocean liner that became a United States Army troopship in the Second World War. She was intended for transfer to the United States Navy and assigned the hull number AP-45, but was not transferred and remained with the Army.
USNS Lt. James E. Robinson (T-AKV-3/T-AG-170/T-AK-274) was a Lt. James E. Robinson-class cargo ship, which was launched as a World War II commercial Victory cargo ship SS Czechoslovakia Victory under the Emergency Shipbuilding program. She had earlier been the U.S. Army's USAT LT. James E. Robinson before being acquired by the U.S. Navy.
Hallsville is an unincorporated community located adjacent to the Northeast Cape Fear River in Duplin County, North Carolina, United States.
SS Robert F. Hoke was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after Robert Hoke, Confederate Army Major General, politician, and Director of the North Carolina Railroad.
SS Nathanael Greene was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after Nathanael Greene, Continental Army general famous for his service in the Southern theater of the American Revolutionary War. She was operated by the United States Lines under charter with the Maritime Commission and War Shipping Administration.
SS Virginia Dare was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after Virginia Dare, the first English child born in America, who disappeared along with the rest of the Roanoke Colony.
SS Joseph Hewes was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after Joseph Hewes, Secretary of the Naval Affairs in the 2nd Continental Congress and signer of the Declaration of Independence for North Carolina.
SS Richard Caswell was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after Richard Caswell, the first Governor of North Carolina, member of the Continental Congress, militia officer in the War of the Regulation and the American Revolutionary War. She was operated by the South Atlantic Steamship Company under charter with the Maritime Commission and War Shipping Administration.
SS James J. Pettigrew was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after J. Johnston Pettigrew, a Confederate general from North Carolina killed during the American Civil War.
SS Daniel H. Hill was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after Daniel Harvey Hill, a Confederate general who commanded units from North Carolina in the American Civil War.
SS Alexander Lillington was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after Alexander Lillington, a North Carolina Patriot militia officer who served at the Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge and the Battle of Camden.
SS Furnifold M. Simmons was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after Furnifold McLendel Simmons, a politician from North Carolina responsible for the disenfranchisement of African-American voters in that state, as well as head of a Democratic Party political machine until his death in 1940.
SS Waigstill Avery was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after Waightstill Avery, the first Attorney General of North Carolina who fought a duel with Andrew Jackson in 1788.
SS Cynthia Olson was a cargo ship originally built in Wisconsin in 1918 as the SS Coquina. Renamed in 1940, in August 1941 she was chartered by the US Army to transport supplies to Hawaii. While in passage between Tacoma, Washington and Honolulu on December 7, she was intercepted by the Japanese submarine I-26, which sank her with gunfire. Although the commander of the submarine ensured that all of the crew had escaped into boats, none of them were ever found. Cynthia Olson was the first United States Merchant Marine vessel to be sunk after the entry of the United States into World War II.
Alice Harper Willson Broughton was an American civic leader who served as the First Lady of North Carolina from 1941 to 1945 as the wife of Governor J. Melville Broughton. She and her husband were the first governor and first lady from Wake County to live in the North Carolina Executive Mansion. During World War II she was active in the war effort, promoting victory gardens across the state and establishing one at the governor's mansion, christening liberty ships including the SS Zebulon B. Vance and the SS Donald W. Bain, and donating rubber to the armed forces.
SS Lake Elsmere was an Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) Design 1074 cargo ship built for the United States Shipping Board (USSB) during the massive shipbuilding effort of World War I.
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