USS Crescent City, a 8,409 ton transport, was launched at Sparrows Point, Maryland, in February 1940 as the merchant ship Del Orleans. She was acquired by the Navy in June 1941, converted at Mobile, Alabama, and placed in commission in the following October. The ship went to the Pacific in December 1941 to carry men and equipment between the west coast and Hawaii. After duty supporting the buildup of south Pacific defenses and an overhaul in California, Crescent City took part in the invasion of Guadalcanal in early August 1942. Through the rest of the year, and into 1943 she helped achieve ultimate Allied success in the prolonged campaign to defend Guadalcanal against strong Japanese efforts to retake it.

Reclassified as an attack transport in February 1943, with the new hull number APA-21, Crescent City performed logistics functions during most of the drive up the Solomon Islands chain and into the Bismarcks, but also participated in amphibious landings at Cape Torokina, Bougainville, at the beginning of November 1943, and at Emirau in March 1944. In July she landed troops on Guam, then repeated that work at Peleliu during September and at Leyte in October. During the rest of the year, the transport brought reinforcements from New Guinea to Leyte and steamed back to the United States to begin overhaul.

Refitted for evacuating battle casualties, Crescent City next took part in the Okinawa campaign during April-June 1945. From September into November, after the Pacific War's end, she carried U.S. and Chinese troops in support of occupation efforts along the China coast. Her final task in 1945 was to bring veterans home from the former war zone. Early in 1946, Crescent City was transferred to the Atlantic, where she operated on training duty. She went back to the Pacific coast in October 1947 and was decommissioned there in April 1948. Transferred to the Maritime Commission in September 1948, the ship had no further Navy service. However, in May 1971 she was loaned to the State of California. Renamed Golden Bear, she operated as a maritime school ship until July 1995, when she was again laid up. In 1999, the former USS Crescent City was moved to Oakland, California, for use as a cultural center, under the name Artship.