USAT Thomas H . Barry 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 . Building and civilian service . Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company built " Oriente " for Ward Line as a sister ship to . " Oriente " was completed in 1930 , two months after " Morro Castle " . Each ship was long , measured and had turbo - electric transmission , with General Electric twin turbo generator s supplying current to propulsion motors on twin propeller shafts . The two liners carried passengers between New York and Havana , Cuba . In 1934 a fire destroyed " Morro Castle " , killing 135 people . " Oriente " remained in Ward Line service until 1941 . Army service . In June 1941 the US War Department acquired " Oriente " to be a troopship , and renamed her USAT " Thomas H . Barry " . The ship was one of the relatively few transports owned , rather than bareboat chartered , by the Army . " Thomas H . Barry " was one of seven transports hurriedly assembled in New York and sailing late on 22 January 1941 ( 23 January GMT ) in what was then the largest troop movement attempted , movement of POPPY FORCE , also designated Task Force 6814 , under General Alexander Patch to secure New Caledonia ( codename POPPY ) on the vital South Pacific link to Australia . The seven ships had a troop capacity of almost 22 , 000 . Task Force 6814 was later organized in New Caledonia as the Americal Division . On 29 September 1941 the Acting Chief of Naval Operations , Rear Admiral Royal E . Ingersoll , sent a memorandum to the Chief of the Bureau of Navigation , listing a number of Army transports , including " Thomas H . Barry " , that were to be " eventually taken over by the Navy " . Prewar plans had called for the transfer ; however , the Army retained the right to obtain additional shipping if required . Delays in Navy manning and conversion and the demands of actual wartime conditions made the mass transfer unfeasable with the Navy concentrating on ships for combat loading , the " attack " transports and Army concentrating on convoy loading . " Thomas H . Barry " was later given the Navy designation AP - 45 , but was never taken over by the Navy and remained under Army control through the end of World War II . The " Barry " was one of three transports , the others being and , sailing from the New York Port of Embarkation for the United Kingdom on 31 May 1942 implementing " double bunking " whereby two men were assigned one bunk in order to increase capacity up to the maximum allowed by lifesaving equipment and other safety rules . On the morning of 21 October 1945 at approximately 40 . 41º north , 67 . 18º west , about east of New Bedford , Massachusetts in heavy fog the " Barry " rammed and cut in two the 233 ton fishing trawler " Medford " with one person on the trawler killed , six missing and ten survivors picked up by " Barry " . The transport , destined for Le Harve , France with over 3 , 000 passengers composed of Red Cross workers , civilians and occupation troops returned to New York with a damaged bow for dry docking . The trawler had recently been one of those acquired by the Navy for offshore antisubmarine patrol and returned to be purchased by a New Bedford company . In the mass transfer of Army ships to the Navy in 1950 " Thomas H . Barry " was declared surplus to Navy needs , laid up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet on the James River , Virginia until 1957 , when the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation scrapped her .