 With a worldwide shipping crisis and SWPA being at the end of a very long supply line , as well as being a region without well developed transportation nets , regional logistics were almost entirely dependent on water transport . No one fleet composed the assets available to the Commander in Chief , SWPA as the U. S. Navy , Royal Navy , Royal Australian Navy , Australian Army , Netherlands East Indies Navy were under his operational command while being maintained under their respective organizations . Those assets were inadequate resulting in the creation of a large Army fleet unique to SWPA , the Permanent Local Fleet , under first USFIA , later USASOS and finally Army Forces , Western Pacific ( AFWESPAC ) , starting with the retention of the USAT Meigs , Admiral Halstead and Coast Farmer from the convoy diverted to Brisbane in December 1941 . 
