SS Edenton SS " Edenton " was a steel - hulled cargo ship built in 1918 for the United States Shipping Board as part of the Boards World War I emergency shipbuilding program . " Edenton " briefly served in the U . S . Navy in the immediate postwar period as USS " Edenton " ( ID - 3696 ) , participating in a famine relief mission to Eastern Europe before decommissioning in 1919 . Between the wars , the ship was placed into commercial service as SS " Edenton " . In early 1941 , " Edenton " was acquired by the War Department for service with the U . S . Navy once again , and assigned the hull number AK - 38 . However , she was then transferred to the Army for use as a transport and renamed USAT " Irvin L . Hunt " . " Irvin L . Hunt " survived the war and after transfer to the Maritime Commission , was again renamed SS " Edenton " . The ship was scrapped in 1948 . Construction and design . " Edenton " was built in Seattle , Washington in 1918 at the No . 1 Plant of the Skinner & Eddy Corporation — the first in a series of 23 Design 1079 cargo ship s built by Skinner & Eddy under the USSB s emergency wartime shipbuilding program . The ship was laid down on 3 September , launched 52½ working ( 66 calendar ) days later on 9 November , and delivered on 5 December — a total time under construction of just 70 working ( 92 calendar ) days . As all previous ships built by the company for the USSB had been of the Design 1013 type , the company decided to differentiate the new type by changing its naming system . The 1013s had all been prefixed with the word " West " , so for the 1079s the names were started with the letter " E " instead . The company was to stick with this nomenclature through the next fourteen ships , but dropped it for the fifteenth ship in the batch , " Wheatland Montana " , after which names appear to have been assigned randomly . " Edenton " herself was named after a city in North Carolina . " Edenton " had a designed deadweight tonnage of 9 , 600 and a gross register tonnage of about 7 , 000 tons . The ship had a length of 423 feet 10 inches ( 409 feet between perpendiculars ) , a beam of 54 feet and a draft of 26 feet 9 inches . She was powered by a 2 , 500 IHP oil - fired steam turbine delivering a service speed of 11 . 5 to 12 knots . Service history . U . S . Navy service , 1918 – 1919 . " Edenton " was delivered to the Navy three weeks after the end of World War I on 5 December 1918 . She was commissioned the same day at the Puget Sound Navy Yard as USS " Edenton " ( ID - 3696 ) , with Lieutenant Commander E . F . Kenney , USNRF , placed in command . " Edenton " began her one and only Navy mission on 11 December 1918 , when she sailed for the east coast of the U . S . with a cargo of flour bound for Eastern Europe on a postwar famine relief mission . Arriving at New York on 27 January 1919 , " Edenton " departed on 19 February for Trieste , Italy where her cargo was duly delivered . She then returned to the United States , arriving at New Orleans , Louisiana on 4 May . The ship was decommissioned a few days later on 12 May and returned to control of the U . S . Shipping Board . Interwar years . Following her decommission , " Edenton " was placed into merchant service by the USSB as SS " Edenton " . The ship appears to have ranged far and wide during this period of her career . In the early 1920s , " Edenton " operated in both transatlantic and South American service , sailing between the United States and ports such as Rotterdam , the Netherlands and Havana , Cuba . On 29 March 1925 , " Edenton " suffered a collision about 35 miles east of Barcelona , Spain with a French schooner , " Ville de Bassens " . The schooner was sunk in the accident , but apparently no lives were lost . " Edenton " suffered only minor damage . By the late 1920s , the ship was in operation for the Roosevelt Line , sailing between U . S . ports such as New York and Los Angeles to various locations in the Pacific , including Honolulu , Hawaii ; Manila , Philippines and the Far East . By 1930 , " Edenton " was working for American Export Lines , making mail and parcel runs to Mediterranean and Near Eastern destinations such as Casablanca , Morocco ; Piraeus , Greece ; Constanţa , Rumania and Constantinople , Turkey . The onset of the Great Depression in 1929 – 1930 substantially reduced international trade , and many mercantile vessels were laid up in this period due to lack of work . There is no record in readily available sources of " Edenton " s movements in the later 1930s , which indicates that she may have been one of those ships laid up . World War II . In February 1941 , " Edenton " was acquired from the U . S . Maritime Commission by the War Department . Initially earmarked for Navy service and assigned the hull number AK - 38 , she was instead turned over to the Army for use as a transport , and renamed USAT " Irvin L . Hunt " . The ship remained in Army service for the duration of the war , during which time she saw service in the Pacific Theater . After the war , " Irvin L . Hunt " was retained by the Army until 1947 , when she was returned to the Maritime Commission and once again renamed SS " Edenton " . " Edenton " was scrapped by Dulien Steel Products of Seattle , Washington in 1948 .