USS Araner (IX-226)

History
United States
Ordered:	as SS Juan de Fuca
Builder:	Kaiser Shipbuilding Company
Laid down:	15 November 1942
Launched:	27 December 1942
Acquired:	23 September 1945
In service:	23 September 1945
Out of service:	22 August 1946
Struck:	29 October 1948
Fate:	Sold for scrap 3 March 1948
General characteristics
Displacement:	14,269 tons
Length:	422 ft 8 in (128.83 m)
Beam:	57 ft (17 m)
Draft:	27 ft 8 in (8.43 m)
Complement:	110

The USS Araner (IX-226) was laid down as the liberty ship SS Juan de Fuca under a Maritime Commission contract (MCE hull 1747) on 15 November 1942 at Vancouver, Washington, by the Kaiser Shipbuilding Company and launched on 27 December 1942. She was delivered to the War Shipping Administration (WSA) on 11 January 1943.

Throughout World War II, she served as a cargo carrier operated under a WSA contract by the Weyerhauser Steamship Company. During the Mindoro Campaign she was torpedoed and damaged by a Japanese aircraft, without casualties, in the Philippine Sea 20 miles off Mindoro, The Philippines. She was beached on Ambulong Island. She was refloated and towed to Subic Bay. Later repaired and entered United States Navy service as USS Araner (IX-226) on 23 September 1945 and placed in service that same day with Lieutenant Henry Morath in charge.

Araner appears to have contributed very little service to the United States Navy. She was inspected by an inspection and survey board at Leyte during October, the month following the beginning of her naval service. In January 1946, probably as a result of that inspection, she received orders to be towed to Subic Bay where all her naval gear was stripped pending her deactivation. On 22 August 1946, she was placed out of service at Subic Bay and simultaneously turned over to the Maritime Commission's War Shipping Administration for disposal. That organization finally sold her to the Asia Development Corporation. on 3 March 1948 for scrapping. Her name was struck from the Navy list on 29 October 1948.

Sources

• This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

• "Official Chronology of the US Navy in WWII". Ibiblio. Retrieved 31 December 2014.