USS Briareus was originally the cargo ship SS Hawaiian Planter laid down as a Maritime Commission type C3 Mod. at Newport News, Virginia, by the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company for the Matson Line and delivered 15 May 1941. After a brief pre-war commercial service and allocation to the Army for transport the ship was purchased by the United States Navy in February 1943 and converted to a repair ship. Commercial service Matson intended the ship to join Hawaiian Shipper and Hawaiian Merchant in the U.S. Pacific coast and Australia route. On 8 October 1941 the Hawaiian Planter departed the U.S. mainland with a load of drummed aviation fuel under United States Army charter operating in an attempt to build up supplies for bomber missions in the event of war at Singapore and in Australian territory at Rockhampton, Darwin, Port Moresby and Rabaul. On 3 December she departed Honolulu with intent to drop 1,020 drums at Rabaul, 7,140 drums at Port Moresby, 6,000 at Rockhampton and 8,160 at Darwin. The start of war in the Pacific forced a stop in Pago Pago while commanders decided where the cargo should go. The ship was diverted to Sydney with the cargo of fuel six days after the planes and cargoes of the Pensacola Convoy. Those cargoes, along with those of other ships diverted there, were vital in the early buildup of U.S. Army Forces in Australia (USAFIA). On 2 January 1942 Hawaiian Planter departed with cargo for Java in the effort to build forces there. Until acquisition by the Navy the ship was allocated by the War Shipping Administration for Army shipping requirements. Hawaiian Planter was one of two freighters, the other being Hawaiian Merchant, that with seven troop ships made the first full division movement in one convoy departing San Francisco for Australia 22 April 1942 with the 32nd Infantry Division under escort by the reaching Adelaide on 14 May. Navy service history Hawaiian Planter was purchased by the Navy on 16 February 1943 and renamed Briareus, then designated a AR-12. She was converted to naval service by the Bethlehem Steel Company at Brooklyn, New York and commissioned on 15 November 1943. World War II, 1943–1946 She conducted her shakedown cruise during the middle of December and then put into Norfolk, Virginia, on the 20th. Briareus remained in Norfolk until 3 January 1944 at which time she put to