Samuel Chase was born on 17 April 1741 at Princess Anne, in Somerset County, Maryland. He was admitted to the bar in 1761 and sat in the Maryland Assembly from 1764 to 1784. In 1774 he served on the Maryland Committee of Correspondence and went as a delegate to the first Continental Congress. He was in Congress, off and on, until 1788. He was a judge in Maryland from 1788, and from 1796 a justice of the Supreme Court. He died on 19 June 1811.
Ingalls Shipbuilding, at Pascagoula, laid this ship down on 31 August 1940 as African Meteor, Maritime Commission hull 107. She was a C3-P and C hull, drawn for the same run as African Comet and African Planet. African Comet became Arthur Middleton. African Planet became George Clymer. She was launched on 23 August 1941. Mrs. Theresa Murray sponsored her. The Navy acquired her on 5 February 1942. One account dates the completion, and the War Shipping Administration's acceptance, to 6 February. She was commissioned on 13 June 1942. The commissioning line gives her to Commander Roger C. Heimer, Coast Guard. A Coast Guard crew had her. On 1 February 1943 she was reclassified an attack transport.
After shakedown she sailed from Hampton Roads on 18 September 1942 and reached Belfast on 6 October. On 26 October she sailed from Greenock as flagship for the landing at Algiers. One account says a torpedo missed her on the way, and that British ships in the force took to calling her Lucky Chase, and The Battleship, for the antiaircraft fire. Lieutenant Commander James W. Paine, Coast Guard, later received the Bronze Star as her gunnery officer for 8 to 14 November 1942. That account gives him one airplane shot down and two probably destroyed.
She arrived off Gela on 9 July 1943. Her troops went in with the assault early on 10 July. On 12 July she retired to Algiers with wounded. Heimer's Legion of Merit, and a Gold Star, cover the assault of 10 to 12 July. The citation calls him a captain. Chief Boatswain's Mate William G. Lawrence, Coast Guard Reserve, received the Silver Star for 10 July at Sicily and for 9 September on the Italian mainland. The campaign list dates the Sicilian occupation from 9 to 15 July.
On 9 August she embarked a new load of troops. She arrived off the Sele, in the Gulf of Salerno, on 9 September 1943. One printing of the Navy history spells that river Frume Sele. One account has her as flagship for Admiral John L. Hall. The campaign window runs from 9 to 21 September. Lieutenant Commander James S. Hunt, Coast Guard, received the Silver Star for commanding her assault-boat group at the landing on 9 September.
Captain Edward Henry Fritzsche, Coast Guard, relieved Heimer on 29 January 1944. He had her at Normandy. She stood in and landed assault troops on Omaha Beach on 6 June 1944, and she took her wounded back to Weymouth on 7 June. The campaign window printed for Normandy runs from 6 to 25 June. One account notes that the photographer Robert Capa went ashore from her boats that morning. She sailed on 4 July for the Mediterranean, embarked troops at Naples on 16 July, and landed the assault in the Bay of Pampelonne on 15 August. One biographical note says Fritzsche was wounded that day. One campaign window for southern France runs from 15 August to 25 September. Another printing of the campaign list starts that operation on 18 August and carries it to 25 September.
Amphibious training began on 14 March 1945. Two days later she struck a shoal. Fritzsche still had her. She transferred her troops to Pitt (APA-223) and sailed east. Paul Kelly Perry, Coast Guard, relieved Fritzsche on 19 March, so the passage and the yard were his. She reached San Francisco on 24 April for repairs and sailed on 19 June. She was off Okinawa on 24 July, after the invasion, and one account has her under air attack there. She was not in the assault of 1 April. The occupation windows printed with her record give Navy Occupation Service from 6 to 12 September 1945, from 10 to 20 October, from 28 October to 12 November, and from 20 January to 5 February 1946. The China Service Medal, in its extended form, covers 13 to 20 November 1945 and 20 January to 5 February 1946. Coming under the Naval Transportation Service, she made three more voyages in the next six months and touched Okinawa, Hong Kong, Yokosuka, Guam, Peleliu, and Majuro.
She reached Norfolk on 21 July 1946 for inactivation. Commander Terrill Hoyt Wilhelm Conner, Navy, Naval Academy class of 1937, had her from May 1946 until 21 July 1946, and he brought her in. Commander Briscoe Chipman, Navy, Naval Academy class of 1935, had her from 21 July until 9 December 1946. Commander James Edward Kendall, Naval Reserve, had her from 9 December 1946 until she was decommissioned at Norfolk on 26 February 1947. She was laid up in the James River. Her name was struck on 1 October 1958. The Maritime Administration took custody on 11 February 1959. One account has her sold on 9 May 1973 to Consolidated Steel Corporation, at Brownsville, Texas, for $116,660, and delivered on 10 August 1973. The Navy history gives her five battle stars, for North Africa, Sicily, Salerno, Normandy, and southern France. The campaign list dates the North African share as Tunisian operations on 8 and 9 July 1943. The awards manual dates Tunisian operations from 8 November 1942 to 9 July 1943 and keeps the other four. One list of her ribbons adds an Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal and does not say how many stars that ribbon carried. Another account counts four European stars and one Pacific star. A third names Anzio among the five. The campaign list has no Anzio operation.
