The USS Flambeau (IX-192) was a converted oil storage vessel with a notable service history during World War II. Originally built as the S. B. Hunt for the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, she was constructed by the Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Company in Chester, Pennsylvania, with her keel laid in 1919 and completed in August of the same year. The vessel measured approximately 445 feet in overall length and had a beam of 59 feet, with a draft of 26 feet 8 inches. She was rated at 6,840 gross register tons (GRT) and 11,205 deadweight tons (DWT), indicating her capacity for transporting large quantities of oil. In her early years, the S. B. Hunt served as a commercial tanker until the U.S. War Shipping Administration acquired her on April 26, 1942, amid World War II. She was placed under U.S. Army control with a civilian operator and later operated under War Emergency Tankers from March 1944. During her wartime service, she was involved in a convoy (BT-18) off the coast of Brazil when she was torpedoed by U-185 on July 7, 1943. Despite sustaining a sizable hole measuring 45 by 35 feet, the vessel survived without casualties. In January 1945, the ship was allocated to the U.S. Navy at Pearl Harbor, where she was commissioned as USS Flambeau (IX-192) under the command of Lieutenant R. S. Green, USNR. She was designated an unclassified miscellaneous vessel and renamed to honor the torch symbol, becoming the third U.S. Navy ship to bear the name Flambeau. The vessel was converted into an oil storage ship, serving at key locations such as Saipan and Iwo Jima during the Pacific campaign. After the war, she departed Pearl Harbor for Norfolk, Virginia, and was decommissioned on April 5, 1946. Subsequently, she was returned to the War Shipping Administration and placed in the Reserve Fleet at Lee Hall, Virginia. The USS Flambeau was sold for scrap on December 27, 1946, ending her brief but significant wartime service.

This description has been generated using GPT-4.1-NANO based on the Vessel's wikidata information and then modified by ShipIndex.org staff.