USS Wayne

USS Wayne (APA-54) was a Sumter-class attack transport that served with the US Navy during World War II. Wayne was originally laid down as a type C2-S-E1 ship under Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 476), yard hull 7 (U.S. Official Number 251508) on 20 April 1942 as Afoundria at Chickasaw, Alabama, by the Gulf Shipbuilding Corporation. The ship was renamed Wayne and classified as a transport, AP-99, on 26 October 1942; launched on 6 December 1942; sponsored by Mrs. N. G. Nicolson; reclassified an attack transport, APA-54, on 1 February 1943; acquired by the Navy on 30 April 1943; delivered to the Navy the following day, 1 May 1943, and simultaneously placed in commission "in ordinary." Taken to the Bethlehem Steel Corporation at Key Highway Yard, Baltimore, Maryland, Wayne was converted for naval service. Decommissioned on 11 May 1943 for the duration of the conversion work, Wayne (APA-54) was recommissioned at Baltimore on 27 August 1943.