USS Talamanca ( AF - 15 ) USS Talamanca ( AF - 15 ) was a United Fruit Company cargo and passenger liner that served as a United States Navy in World War II . In peacetime before and after the war she carried fruit and passengers ; in US Navy service she supplied troops and ships in the Pacific Ocean theatre of World War II . Building and pre - war service . The Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company of Newport News , Virginia built the ship as SS " Talamanca " . She was one of six sister ships driven by turbo - electric transmission . United Fruit placed " Talamanca " on express liner services between Central America and New York . US Navy service . The US Navy bareboat chartered her from the United Fruit Company through the Maritime Commission on 16 December 1941 . The Maryland Drydock Co of Baltimore , Maryland converted her for Navy use and she was designated AF - 15 on 27 December 1941 . She was commissioned on 28 January 1942 , commanded by Cmdr Nathan W . Bard . Pacific Theater operations . " Talamanca " sailed for the first time as a naval vessel on 13 February . Six days later , laden with cargo , passengers and mail , she transited the Panama Canal . She proceeded " via " Talara , Peru , across the southern Pacific and reached Wellington Harbour , New Zealand on 16 March . She then made a round trip across the Tasman Sea to Melbourne , Australia and back to Wellington . On 1 April she sailed for the United States . She called at Manzanillo , Mexico on the 16th and reached San Francisco , California , on 21 April . Between 9 May and 1 June , she made a round trip from San Francisco to Pearl Harbor and back . Shes ship spent the whole of June in the Mare Island Navy Yard , undergoing further conversion and some repairs . " Talamanca " left San Francisco on 8 July with a Hawaii - bound convoy . She reached Pearl Harbor on the 16th and stayed there for five days loading fuel and stores before heading southwest on the 21st . On 1 August she left the convoy , headed " via " the Fiji for New Zealand , reaching Auckland on the 7th . For the next three years Auckland was " Talamanca ' s " home port . Between August 1942 and April 1945 , she plied the southwestern Pacific supplying US bases . She visited such places as Fiji ; Espiritu Santo ; Efate ; Manus ; and Napier , New Zealand . The closest she ever came to the combat zone were stops at Guadalcanal , Tulagi , Florida Island , and the Russell Islands in the Solomon Islands . However , these voyages were in 1944 after the fighting had moved up the Solomons chain past Bougainville and into the Bismarck Archipelago . In all , " Talamanca " made 36 resupply voyages from Auckland to various bases in the South Pacific and back again , all of them relatively routine . On 28 April 1945 " Talamanca " left Auckland for the last time . She headed to Noumea , New Caledonia , thence to Manus , and then to the Marianas . She reached Saipan on 10 May ; discharged some of her cargo ; and , on the 15th , went to Tinian where she discharged the rest of her cargo . From Tinian she sailed " via " Eniwetok Atoll for the West Coast of the United States . She entered San Pedro , California , on 2 June 1945 and loaded cargo . On the 9th she returned to the western Pacific . After fuel and water stops at Pearl Harbor and Eniwetok , " Talamanca " entered Apra Harbor , Guam , on 26 June . She unloaded her cargo and , four days later , sailed for Manus . She reached Manus on 3 July , embarked patients from the hospital for transport and left on 5 July for the United States . She called at Pearl Harbor on 13 July and entered San Francisco Bay on the 19th . End - of - war duties . Her passengers disembarked , " Talamanca " moored at a pier at the Moore Dry Dock Co . for overhaul . Overhaul and repairs were completed on 31 August , and after degaussing , compass compensation , and trials she began loading cargo on 3 September . On the 9th , she left San Francisco Bay for Pearl Harbor , where she arrived on the 14th . Two days later she left for Eniwetok where she stopped on the 23rd for fuel and water . From there she went to Guam , and thence to Iwo Jima where she unloaded cargo . On 8 October " Talamanca " left Iwo Jima with passengers for Saipan , where she arrived that afternoon . Her passengers disembarked that day and her cargo was unloaded the next day . After calling at Guam to embark passengers she left for Hawaii and the United States . She called at Pearl Harbor from 27 to 29 October and then continued to Panama . " Talamanca " reverted to her original employment as a fruit carrier on 10 November when she loaded bananas at Puerto Armuelles , Panama , for the War Shipping Administration . She transited the canal on the 13th and sailed for New Orleans , Louisiana , the next day . " Talamanca " reached New Orleans on the 18th and was decommissioned there on 29 November 1945 . She was returned to the War Shipping Administration for eventual return to her owners . Her name was struck from the Navy list on 19 December 1945 and she was returned to United Fruit Company in 1946 . Post - war civilian service . In 1958 United Fruit transferred " Talamanca " and her sisters " Quirigua " and " Veragua " to its British subsidiary Elders and Fyffes . " Talamanca " was renamed SS " Sulaco " after an earlier Fyffes ship of the same name . As " Sulaco " the ship served in the Fyffes fleet until she was retired in 1964 . On 28 July that year she arrived in Bruges , Belgium to be scrapped . She was broken up in 1965 .