Midway I (AG-41)
1942-1946
The first Midway was named for the atoll, the second and third for the battle that occurred between 4-7 June 1942.
I
(AG‑41: displacement 2,250 (limiting); length 238'8"; beam 33'8"; draft 16'9"; speed 11.5 knots; complement 86; troop capacity 300; armament 1 3-inch)
The steamshipOritani -- completed at Brooklyn, N.Y., by Todd Shipyards Corp. in 1921 -- was renamed Tyee in 1939; the freighter was acquired by the Navy on a bareboat charter through the War Shipping Administration from the Alaska Transportation Co., which operated the ship from her home port of Ketchikan, Alaska. Renamed Midway and classified as a miscellaneous auxiliary, AG-41, she was commissioned at the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Wash., on 10 April 1942.
Classified as general auxiliary, Midway operated along the Pacific coast between ports of the Northwestern U.S. and American bases in the Alaskan Territory. In January 1943 she steamed to Pearl Harbor and shuttled troops, provisions and equipment between the islands of the central Pacific.
Renamed Panay on 3 April 1943 to clear the name for assignment to an escort aircraft carrier, she resumed the Alaskan run in the summer and continued this vital service to military and naval units in the far north through the end of the war.
Panay was decommissioned on 24 May 1946 and was returned to her owner.
