USS Mount Hood, a 13910-ton ammunition ship, was built at Wilmington, North Carolina, and converted for Naval service at Norfolk, Virginia. Commissioned in July 1944, she transited the Panama Canal in August and was assigned to the South Pacific area to provide ammunition to the fighting forces. On the morning of 10 November 1944, while she was moored at the Manus Naval Base, Admiralty Islands, Mount Hood's cargo of explosives detonated in a massive blast. The ship was utterly destroyed by the accident, which killed all those on board her. Damage and casualties were also inflicted on ships anchored as far as 2000 yards away. Personnel casualties on Mount Hood and on other vessels totalled 45 known dead, 327 missing and 371 injured.