USS General M . C . Meigs ( AP - 116 ) She is sometimes confused with another ship with a similar name , the . USS " General M . C . Meigs " ( AP - 116 ) was a " General John Pope " class troop transport of the P2 - S2 - R2 type . She was a fast troop ship that transported troops for the United States in World War II and the Korean War . The ship was named after General Montgomery Cunningham Meigs , the Quartermaster General of the United States Army in the United States Civil War . " General M . C . Meigs " was launched on 13 March 1944 under a Maritime Commission contract by the Federal Shipbuilding & Drydock Company of Kearny , New Jersey ; she was acquired by the Navy on 2 June 1944 , and commissioned at Bayonne , New Jersey the next day with Captain George W . McKean , USCG , in command . A fast troop carrier , she was capable of with 5200 troops on board . She was one of several of this class of transports that was manned by United States Coast Guard personnel . World War II . After two round - trip , troop - carrying voyages between Newport News , Virginia , and Naples , Italy " General Meigs " departed for Rio de Janeiro , Brazil , where she was visited by Brazilian President Getúlio Vargas , and embarked 5 , 200 troops of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force , the first Brazilian troops to be carried by an American transport . She carried these troops to Italy , where they participated in the Italian campaign . At Naples she embarked troops , civilians , and 460 German prisoners of war for transportation to the United States , collecting additional troops at Bizerte , Tunisia , and at Oran , French Algeria . " General Meigs " made two similar round - trip voyages from the United States to Italy and North Africa via Brazil , carrying thousands of American and Brazilian troops to Europe for the remaining drive against Nazi Germany , and returning several thousand others to the United States and Brazil . She later deployed troops to Panama and Puerto Rico and to Le Havre , France . From Le Havre , Naples , Marseilles , Karachi , and Nagoya , she made six more trips carrying homebound troops for New York and Brazil . On 4 March 1946 , she was decommissioned at San Francisco for transfer to the American President Lines as a passenger ship in the Pacific . She sailed from San Francisco on Jan 24 , 1948 , arriving in Manila , Philippines on Feb 10 . Korean War . After the outbreak of hostilities in Korea in 1950 , " General Meigs " was assigned to the Military Sea Transportation Service . Manned by a civilian crew , she made 19 cruises to the Far East carrying thousands of American troops from the West Coast to ports in Japan and South Korea . Following the uncertain armistice on 27 July 1953 , she continued to support American readiness in the Far East with troop - rotation cruises in the remainder of 1953 and through 1954 . Later events . Placed in Reduced Operational Status in 1955 , she was transferred to the Maritime Administration on 1 October 1958 , and entered the National Defense Reserve Fleet at Olympia , Washington . In 1972 while under tow to the Suisun Bay layup facility , she broke her tow in a storm , and ran aground off the coast of Washington State , where she eventually broke up over the next 4 years , spilling 2 . 3 million gallons of heavy oil . Awards . " General M . C . Meigs " received six service star s for Korean War service . Accurate coordinates of beach wreckage are 48 degrees 16 minutes 52 seconds and 124 degrees 41 minutes 9 seconds . Coordinates of Pinnacle where Meigs broke up are 48 16 53 . 14 and 124 40 58 . 30