Naval History and Heritage Command

Thomas H. Barry, a steel-hulled, twin-screw passenger and cargo ship, launched on 15 May 1930 as Oriente by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Co. for the New York and Cuba Mail and Steamship Company's Ward Line, was acquired by the War Department in June 1941 for use as an Army transport.

On 29 September 1941, the Acting Chief of Naval Operations, Rear Admiral Royal E. Ingersoll, sent a memorandum to the Chief of the Bureau of Navigation, listing a number of Army transports, including Thomas H. Barry, that were to be "eventually taken over by the Navy." Thomas H. Barry was later designated AP-45. However, the transport was never taken over by the Navy and remained under Army control through the end of World War II.