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M. H. de Young was laid down under a Maritime Commission contract (MCE hull 1587) on 15 June 1943 at Richmond, Calif, by the Permanente Metals Corp.; launched on 6 July 1943; sponsored by Mrs. George T. Cameron; and delivered to the Maritime Commission on 19 July 1943. Operated under a Maritime Commission charter by the American Presidential Lines, M. H. de Young was torpedoed by the Japanese submarine I-19 on 14 August 1943 about 1,000 miles east of Noumea, New Caledonia. Brought into Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides, she was partially repaired and taken over by the Navy under a bare-boat charter on 4 October 1943. She was renamed Antelope (IX-109) and placed in service the day she was taken over, Lt. L. G. Elsell in charge.

Antelope had her engines removed and spent the entire war as a non-self-propelled dry cargo storage vessel assigned to Service Squadron 8. Scanty records make it impossible to compile a list of locations at which Antelope served, but Espiritu Santo appears to have been her first duty station and Subic Bay in the Philippines was her last known location while still a naval vessel. It is also possible that she saw some duty at Leyte when support forces established a base there after the invasion. In any event, she was inspected at Subic Bay and found to be beyond economical repair and surplus to the needs of the Navy. Antelope was placed out of service at Subic Bay on 3 May 1946 and was simultaneously delivered to the Maritime Commission's War Shipping Administration. Her name was struck from the Navy list on 21 May 1946, and she was sold for scrapping to the Asia Development Corp. on 3 March 1948.

Submitted by Joe Radigan MACM USN Ret.