 She was built by the Delta Shipbuilding Corporation, New Orleans, Louisiana in 1944 and was operated by the US Navigation Company, of New York City.She was named after the second engineer of the "Esso Baton Rouge", who was killed when "Esso Baton Rouge" was sunk by Reinhard Hardegen's "U-123" on 8 April 1942.The final voyage of the "James Eagan Layne" was in convoy BTC-103 to carry 4,500 tons of US Army Engineers' equipment from Barry, Wales, to Ghent, in Belgium.