Small vessels requisitioned

[Mike K]

So many small ships were taken into service by the U.S. Army in Australia.
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https://www.ozatwar.com/usarmy/usarmysmallships.htm

[bill m]

My wife's uncle Frank Finch served on some of those small ships. He wrote a book "Under three Flags" about his life on the sea during and after WW2

[maple_leaf_eh]

Those vessels weren't just hanging around waiting to be contracted. Their owners and masters would have been working on moving goods and people all around. When they were taken up for service by the US, what would have happened to those bales of wool going to market, the stacks of cut lumber, the phosphates and other minerals, and all those bloody sheep? Did they immediately resume their routes except under a different ownership structure?