Rubuta ci gaba don wannan sakin layi - Bayan da aka shirya a Boston, Mass., Jirgin ruwan jirgin ruwa ya tashi zuwa Chesapeake Bay a tsakiyar watan Nuwamba. Bayan horo na shakedown, sabon jirgin ruwa na jirgin ruwa ya shiga Norfolk Navy Yard a ranar 4 ga watan Nuwamba don gyarawa da gyare-gyare. An kammala wannan aikin a ƙarshen watan, kuma ta tashi zuwa Bayonne, N.J. a ranar 30 ga Nuwamba. A can, jirgin ya ɗora kaya kuma ya hau fasinjoji, kafin ya tashi zuwa Pacific a ranar 6 ga Disamba. "Birgit" ta bi shi zuwa Panama
, wucewa da canal a kan 12th da kuma barin Canal Zone sosai da wuri a kan 13th. Da yake ci gaba da tafiya zuwa Hawaii, jirgin ya isa Pearl Harbor a ranar Kirsimeti 1944, bayan da ya tsaya a hanya don ba da taimako na likita ga SS "S. B. Hunt" a ranar 21.