The ship was launched on 23 December 1941, sponsored by Mrs. Wilbur F. Burt, renamed Neosho on 18 July 1942, and acquired by the Navy, at San Francisco on 4 August 1942. She was converted by the Bethlehem Steel Co., Union Works, San Francisco; and commissioned on 16 September 1942, Comdr. Frank L. Worden in command.