USS Crux
1943 Crater-class cargo ship
USS Crux (AK-115) was a Crater-class cargo ship, converted from a Liberty Ship, commissioned by the US Navy for service in World War II. She was first named after Peter Stuyvesant, a Dutch politician who served as the last Dutch director-general of the colony of New Netherland from 1647 until it was ceded provisionally to the English in 1664. She was renamed and commissioned after Crux, a constellation centered on four stars in the southern sky in a bright portion of the Milky Way. She was responsible for delivering troops, goods and equipment to locations in the war zone.
Construction
Peter Stuyvesant was laid down on 27 September 1943, under a Maritime Commission (MARCOM) contract, MC hull 1212, by the St. Johns River Shipbuilding Company, Jacksonville, Florida; sponsored by Mrs. Frank D. Arthur, of Miami, and launched on 16 November 1943. She was transferred to the US Navy 27 November 1943, and renamed Crux. She was commissioned 17 March 1944.
Service history
Departing Norfolk, Virginia, 4 May 1944, Crux arrived at Espiritu Santo 14 June. From 20 June to 10 April 1944, Crux repeatedly loaded cargo at Brisbane, Australia, for such ports as Milne Bay, Finschhafen, Langemak Bay, Port Moresby, and Hollandia in New Guinea, and Manus, Admiralty Islands.
“USS Crux” enters the record as 1943 Crater-class cargo ship. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Crux, Crater-class and cargo can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“USS Crux” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Crux, Crater-class and cargo provides the most credible route into that argument.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 13, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q7868664. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1647, 1664, 1943 and 1212.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “USS Crux”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow USS Crux primary sources, USS Crux archive and Crux research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “USS Crux”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “USS Crux” 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.