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[[USS]] '''Casco''' a steel hulled, twin screw motor vessel built at Long Beach, [[California]], by the Long Beach Shipbuilding Co. and completed in 1920 for commercial service--was acquired by the Navy on 14 March 1942; classified YAG 11; renamed '''Baranof ''' on 30 April 1942; and fitted out at Seattle. Some records indicate that she was placed in commission on 22 May 1942, but her extant logs do not commence until 1 July.
Baranof was assigned to the Sitka sector of the Alaskan local defense forces, based at Kodiak. She loaded cargo on 30 August at the Naval Supply Depot and, now commanded by Lt. George Jessen, USNR, commenced shuttling passengers and cargo between Alaskan bases. Her ports of call included Sitka, Ketchikan, and Kodiak, as well as the Navy section bases at Port Althorp, Port Armstrong, and Sand Point on the islands of Chichagof, Baranof, and Popof. She also serviced the Army airfields at Yakutat and Annette Island that afforded limited facilities to Navy patrol planes. Her cargo included building materials, machinery, and equipment, and her passengers included soldiers and sailors as well as civilian construction workers and elements of the Navy’s Construction Battalions (“Seabees”).
