The USS Standard Arrow (ID-1532) was a United States Navy tanker that served during both World War I and World War II, with a primary focus on fuel transport and storage. Originally built as a commercial oil tanker in 1916 by the New York Shipbuilding Company in Camden, New Jersey, she was named SS Standard Arrow and was the first vessel of the Arrow class oil tankers, owned by the Standard Oil Company of New York (Socony). She was constructed to facilitate petroleum transportation and was later acquired by the U.S. Navy under a bareboat charter on August 22, 1917, during World War I. Commissioned the same day at Mare Island Navy Yard in California, she was assigned the Naval Registry Identification Number 1532. During her naval service, Standard Arrow operated as part of the Naval Overseas Transportation Service, primarily engaged in transporting fuel oil from the United States to Europe. Her first voyage was from Devonport, England, to New York City, but she encountered a collision with the tanker SS Norman Bridge en route, sustaining damage that required repairs before she could complete her mission. Despite this setback, she made multiple voyages to Europe, including five trips to Portsmouth, England, between March and December 1918. Following the end of World War I, she was decommissioned on January 29, 1919, and transferred to the United States Shipping Board. Her career was relatively uneventful, mainly involving petroleum transport, until September 1923, when she was damaged in a storm in the Pacific Ocean and subsequently towed to Yokohama, Japan, for repairs. During World War II, the Navy reacquired her on April 4, 1944, and commissioned her as USS Signal (IX-142). Serving in the Pacific theater, she functioned as a station tanker and oil carrier at Majuro and Ulithi Atolls, supporting naval operations in the region until February 1946. After her military service, she was transferred to the reserve fleet and returned to her owner. She resumed commercial operations briefly before being sold to H. H. Buncher Company in 1947. Her maritime career ended when she was broken up in Mobile, Alabama, in April 1947. Throughout her service, the Standard Arrow played a vital, if unremarkable, role in fueling naval operations across two world wars, exemplifying the importance of auxiliary tankers in maritime logistics.

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