High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! USS Aldebaran (AF-10), the lead ship of her class of stores ship is the only ship of the United States Navy to have this name. She is named after Aldebaran, a star of the first magnitude in the constellation Taurus. Originally the SS Stag Hound was laid down on 28 November 1938 at Newport News, Virginia, by the Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. under a Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 27); launched on 21 June 1939; sponsored by Mrs. Martha Macy Hill; and delivered to the Grace Lines on 4 December 1939. The cargo ship served that shipping firm for a year before the Navy purchased her on 22 December 1940. Renamed Aldebaran, classified a stores ship, and designated AF-10, she was placed in commission, in ordinary, on 26 December 1940. Comdr. Royal Abbott assumed command on 10 January 1941, and Aldebaran was placed in full commission at San Francisco on 14 January 1941.