USS Warren (APA-53)

USS Warren (APA-53)

USS Warren (APA-53) was a Sumter-class attack transport that served with the US Navy during World War II.

Jean Lafitte - named for the legendary pirate of Barataria, Louisiana, who assisted General Andrew Jackson in defending New Orleans against the British in 1815 - was a C2-S-E1-type merchant ship laid down under a Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 415) on 19 April 1942 at Chickasaw, Alabama, by the Gulf Shipbuilding Corporation. She was launched on 7 September 1942; renamed Warren and classified a transport, AP-98; redesignated as an attack transport, APA-53, on 1 February 1943; and placed in commission, in ordinary, on 19 February 1943.

Taken to the Key Highway plant of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation soon thereafter, the ship was decommissioned on 10 March 1943; and was recommissioned on 2 August 1943, CDR William A. McHale, USNR, in command.