1941 Wright was selected as the flagship of PatWing 1, Aircraft, Scouting Force. World War II, 1941 Wright departed Pearl Harbor on 20 November, bound for Wake Island, arrived at that advanced base on the 28th, and landed Comdr. "Spiv" Winfield S. Cunningham, who took command of the naval activities on the vulnerable isle, Major James "Jimmy" Patrick Sinnot Deveraux, USMC and Lt. Col Walter L. J. Bayler, USMC. Other passengers who went ashore from the seaplane tender included asphalt technicians, other construction workers, and other Marine Corps officers. The ship also delivered 63,000 gallons of gasoline to Wake's storage tanks before setting course for Midway. There, she delivered a cargo that included ammunition and disembarked passengers that included men reporting for duty at the NAS and with other Marine Corps ground units. Then, with military and civilian passengers embarked, Wright departed Midway on 4 December and headed for Pearl Harbor. During the night of 6/7 December 1941, while sailing toward Pearl Harbor at night, the crew spotted an aircraft carrier that overtook it as it sailed toward Hawaii. Whether Wright radioed a report of the sighting or not is unclear, but even if they had, the report was not recognized for what it was—an actual sighting of one of the Japanese aircraft carriers just hours prior to the attack, and the only such sighting made by an American Naval asset. The sighting was recalled by a former member of the crew serving on Wright named Sherwin Callander. As an elderly gentleman in 2019, while being interviewed for a video, unexpectedly he recalled, "A carrier passed us, going in the same direction. We were headin' back to Pearl and they were headin' towards Pearl too. And we knew it was a carrier -- it was at night -- but we didn't know what nationality it was. Then the next morning, we heard over the news broadcast that they attacked Pearl Harbor. When we pulled into Pearl Harbor, I'd never seen such a mess in my life. I even had to pull bodies out of the water." The following morning, while en route to Pearl Harbor, the received the electrifying news that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor that morning 7 December 1941. Word of the attack arrived shortly after 0800 that day, and Wright cleared for action and manned her battle stations. Fortunately for her, she did not cross the