repairs taking longer than the convoy schedule allowed, the Arthur Middleton was quickly substituted and sent to Charleston from New York, but without proper ballasting for newly installed armament. Middleton turned out to be problematic with inadequate ballast for newly installed armament. She sailed for Charleston with a twelve degree list and then required work there. Work on Middleton and President Tyler, herself described as "a mess," further delayed the convoy's departure from 15 January, already a delay from 8 January, to 25 January. A large convoy carrying elements of "Poppy Force" was to leave New York and, to conserve escorts, the Navy recommended combining the Poppy convoy with the Bobcat convoy and the Army agreed. Just as the Poppy convoy was due off Charleston the Navy found it could not make Middleton and another ship, the Hamul ready for sea until 27 January when Middleton was again delayed until mid afternoon. Middleton sailed for Australia and then to Bora Bora in Convoy BC.100 arriving Bora Bora on 17 February. The delay with ships and some cargo required that the convoy BT.200 bound for New Caledonia via Australia, carrying Poppy Force (designated Task Force 6814) that became the Americal Division, sailed separately a few days in advance of the Bora Bora force. After full conversion to an attack transport in San Francisco the ship was manned by a combined Coast Guard and Navy crew. The transport held shakedown training off San Diego, California and sailed for the Aleutian Islands on 23 December. She reached Amchitka on 12 January 1943 and, later that day, took on board 175 survivors from Worden (DD-352), which had run aground and broken up while covering the transport during the debarkation of her troops. However, before the day ended, Arthur Middleton herself ran aground after dragging anchor. Salvage operations involved completely unloading, blasting and removing the rocks from under the ship's port side, and patching the holes which they had pierced in her hull. During this work, Arthur Middleton's boats operated in Amchitak harbor unloading supply ships and moving Army barges. On eight occasions, the grounded ship repulsed enemy float-plane attacks and was straddled by four bombs. While in Alaskan waters, Arthur Middleton was reclassified an attack transport and redesignated APA-25 on 1 February 1943. The ship was finally refloated and got underway on 9 April in tow of and for Dutch Harbor, Unalaska. There, work