USS ''Flambeau'' (IX-192), was the tanker ''S. B. Hunt'', built for

Standard Oil Company of New Jersey ExxonMobil, an American multinational oil and gas corporation presently based out of Texas, has had one of the longest histories of any company in its industry. A direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, the company traces its roo ...

. Her keel was laid down in 1919 by

Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Company Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Company (1917–1989) was a major shipbuilding company in Chester, Pennsylvania on the Delaware River. Its primary product was tankers, but the company built many types of ships over its 70-year history. During World W ...

, in

Chester, Pennsylvania Chester is a city in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. Located within the Philadelphia Metropolitan Area, it is the only city in Delaware County and had a population of 32,605 as of the 2020 census. Incorporated in 1682, Chester is ...

with completion August 1919. ''S. B. Hunt'', Official Number 218630, was , , length overall, registered tons, beam with a draft of . The

War Shipping Administration The War Shipping Administration (WSA) was a World War II emergency war agency of the US government, tasked to purchase and operate the civilian shipping tonnage the United States needed for fighting the war. Both shipbuilding under the Maritime Co ...

(WSA) acquired the ship from Standard Oil 26 April 1942 which was then placed under the U. S. Army control with the civilian owner as operator. On 21 March 1944 operation was taken over by

War Emergency Tankers USNS Mission Santa Ana a T2 Tanker getting underway in Long Beach, California War Emergency Tankers of New York City was founded in 1942 to operate Fleet oilers for the United States Navy to support World War II efforts. Texaco, Standard Oil C ...

under WSA general agreement. On 7 July 1943 the tanker was in convoy BT-18 and hit by one torpedo fired by U-185 about 125 miles east of Fortaleza, Brazil surviving damage of a feet by hole but no casualties. ''S. B. Hunt'' was allocated and delivered for operation under a bareboat agreement to the Navy 8 January 1945 at

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Re ...

, and commissioned the same day with Lieutenant R. S. Green, USNR, in command. designated an

unclassified miscellaneous vessel The IX (unclassified–miscellaneous) hull classification symbol is used for ships of the United States Navy that do not fit into one of the standard categories. Similar lists of 'miscellaneous' ships can found at : and :. Ship status i ...

, The ship was renamed ''Flambeau'', designated (IX-912), to become the third ship of the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

to be named for a flaming torch. ''Flambeau'' was converted for use as an oil storage ship in which capacity she served at

Saipan Saipan ( ch, Sa’ipan, cal, Seipél, formerly in es, Saipán, and in ja, 彩帆島, Saipan-tō) is the largest island of the Northern Mariana Islands, a Commonwealth (U.S. insular area), commonwealth of the United States in the western Pa ...

until July, and then at

Iwo Jima Iwo Jima (, also ), known in Japan as , is one of the Japanese Volcano Islands and lies south of the Bonin Islands. Together with other islands, they form the Ogasawara Archipelago. The highest point of Iwo Jima is Mount Suribachi at high. ...

. She sailed from Pearl Harbor 30 December for

Norfolk, Virginia Norfolk ( ) is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. Incorporated in 1705, it had a population of 238,005 at the 2020 census, making it the third-most populous city in Virginia after neighboring Virginia Be ...

, where she was decommissioned on 5 April 1946, and returned to the

. On the date of return to WSA the ship went into the Reserve Fleet at

Lee Hall, Virginia Lee Hall is an unincorporated town located in the extreme western portion of the independent city of Newport News in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. History Lee Hall, located in the former Warwick County, was named for nearb ...

and was sold for scrap on 27 December 1946.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Flambeau (Ix-192) Flambeau Ships built by the Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Company 1919 ships