High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! USS J. Franklin Bell (APA-16) was a Harris-class attack transport that served with the US Navy during World War II. J. Franklin Bell (AP-34) was laid down in 1918 as an Army transport by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation of Camden, New Jersey; completed March 1, 1921 as a passenger and cargo ship named Keystone State; turned over to the Pacific Steamship Company May 28 and renamed President McKinley June 9, 1922; and transferred to Admiral Oriental Lines December 21 to operate in the Pacific until laid up in Seattle in 1938.