USS Basilan
cargo ship of the United States Navy
USS Basilan (AG-68) was a Basilan-class miscellaneous auxiliary acquired by the U.S. Navy during World War II. The ship was designed as a combined barracks-stores-water distillation ship, but was later converted to an electronics repair ship. She spent her Navy career in the Pacific Ocean theatre of operations.
Liberty ship built in New Orleans, Louisiana
Basilan was originally projected as the EC-2 "Liberty Ship" Jacques Phillipe Villere—was laid down on 5 February 1944 at New Orleans, Louisiana, by the Delta Shipbuilding Corporation. under a U.S. Maritime Commission contract (MCE hull 2460); redesignated as a miscellaneous auxiliary, AG-68, on 14 March 1944, and allocated for conversion in response to the urgent need for self-propelled special barracks-stores ships; launched on 21 March 1944; and sponsored by Mrs. Percy H. Brown.
Delivered to the Navy on 21 April 1944, Basilan was placed in reduced commission that same day for the voyage from New Orleans to Mobile, Alabama. Placed out of commission at the latter port on 24 April 1944, she underwent conversion for her new role as a combined barracks-stores-distilling ship by the Waterman Steamship Company; and was recommissioned at Mobile on 10 October 1944.
World War II service
East coast operations
Ordered to proceed to Pilottown, Louisiana, on 21 October, Basilan departed as directed and there joined convoy HK-293 on 22 October. She reached Key West, Florida, on 25 October, joining convoy KN-346 later the same day and proceeding thence to Norfolk, Virginia. Anchoring in Hampton Roads on 31 October, the ship moved into Chesapeake Bay the following morning.
The public source identifies “USS Basilan” as cargo ship of the United States Navy. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Basilan, cargo and ship.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7867605. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1944.
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This entry incorporates text from “USS Basilan” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.