The USNS Rollins (T-AG-189) - former SS High Point Victory - was one of a dozen ships scheduled to be converted into a forward depot by the US Navy in the SW Pacific. The conversion never took place, and the USNS Rollins (T-AG-189) was to serve as a regular transport between 1966 and 1973 in support of the American presence in Vietnam. She was laid up at the reserve fleet depot in Beaumont, Texas after the war and was scrapped some two decades later in India. She was completed too late to take part in WWII, but it did see service with the Merchant Marines during operation Magic Carpet, and later in Korea. For two years, the High Point Victory transported food, mail, and war supplies to the US forces engaged in Korea, until her return to the National Defense Reserve Fleet in 1952.
Despite a somewhat uneventful active record, the crews who served on the High Point Victory/USNS Rollins (T-AG-189) were faced with a pernicious, but lethal nevertheless threat: asbestos. The mineral was present in all areas of the ship and very few precautions were taken to shield sailors on board from its toxic dust.
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