High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! USS Briareus was a Delta-class repair ship of the United States Navy. Originally laid down as the cargo ship SS Hawaiian Planter in 1941 at Newport News, Virginia, by the Newport News Shipbuilding Dry Dock Company for the Matson Line, she was purchased by the Navy on 16 February 1943 and renamed Briareus, then designated a repair ship AR-12. She was converted to naval service by the Bethlehem Steel Company at Brooklyn, New York and commissioned on 15 November 1943 with Commander John F. Warris in command.