 She was delivered to the Army Transportation Service 27 February 1943 as "Henry Gibbins" and served the Army as a troop transport during World War II.In accordance with President Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1944 executive order authorizing 1,000 refugees to enter the United States, 982 people boarded the ship, leaving Naples, Italy, in July, 1944, and making the trans-Atlantic crossing.Following the war, the "Henry Gibbins" was refitted as a "war brides ship", a baby passenger liner.