USS Maury (AGS-16) was a hydrographic surveying ship in service with the United States Navy from 1945 to 1969. The ship was originally laid down under a Maritime Commission contract (MC Hull 1897) as USS Renate (AKA-36) on 21 November 1944 at Providence, R.I., by Walsh-Kaiser Co., Inc.; launched on 31 January 1945; sponsored by Mrs. Joseph L. Baker; and commissioned at State Pier No.1, Providence, on 28 February 1945. Renate was an named after the minor planet 575 Renate. "Renate" is a female German surname derived from Latin "renatus" (= born again). The ship was later converted for hydrographic missions and renamed Maury (AGS-16) in 1946, named after the astronomer and hydrographer Matthew Fontaine Maury. Service history World War II, 1945–1946 After completing her fitting-out at Boston, Massachusetts (USA), Renate conducted shakedown training in Chesapeake Bay (13–19 March), after which time she underwent post-shakedown availability at the Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Virginia (USA); she ultimately sailed for the Panama Canal Zone on 31 March 1945. After transiting the canal, she arrived at Balboa on 6 April, and sailed thence two days later, bound for Hawaiian waters and steaming independently. Renate reached Pearl Harbor on 21 April, underwent an inspection six days later, and completed discharging cargo on the 29th. Bringing cargo-loading operations to completion on 13 May, Renate embarked 197 enlisted passengers — sailors, marines, and soldiers — and two naval officers for transportation the following day, and sailed for the Marshall Islands. Steaming independently, her men standing daily dawn and dusk alerts, the attack cargo ship crossed the 180th meridian on 18 May, and ultimately reached Eniwetok on the 22nd. Pushing on, bound for the western Carolines, on 5 June, she followed a lone course to Ulithi, arriving on 9 June. Next assigned to convoy UOK-36, Renate got underway for Okinawa on 10 July, dropping anchor in Buckner Bay on the 14th. Interrupting cargo operations to sortie on 19 July to evade a typhoon, she ultimately completed discharging cargo five days later, getting underway to return to Ulithi on 25 July with convoy OKU-16. Anchoring in Ulithi lagoon on the last day of July, Renate got underway on 2 August for Pearl Harbor. Again steaming independently, she crossed the International Date Line on 10 August, and reached her destination on the 13th. Shifting to Kahului, Maui, ten days later, she completed cargo operations the following day, and sailed