High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! USS Beagle (IX-112), an Armadillo-class tanker designated an unclassified miscellaneous vessel, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the beagle, a breed of small, short-coated hunting hound. Her keel was laid down by California Shipbuilding Corporation, in Wilmington, California, under a Maritime Commission contract. She was launched on 29 October 1943 as David Rittenhouse sponsored by Mrs. Victor Dalton, transferred to the Navy 20 November 1943, and commissioned the same day with Lieutenant R. E. Rew, Jr., USNR, in command.