 "Antares" was provided as transport to the Hawaiian Department, U.S. Army, during the urgent program to develop an air ferry route through the southern Pacific to the Philippines that would avoid the Japanese mandated islands of the central Pacific.On 3 November 1941 she left Oahu for Canton Island with three hundred and eight military (components of the 804th Engineer Battalion) and civilian personnel, supplies and towing a 500-ton barge with 804th Engineer Battalion construction equipment and two small barges that foundered en route.On 7 December 1941, "Antares" stood toward the entrance to Pearl Harbor at 06