The second USS Solace (AH-5) was built in 1927 as the passenger ship SS Iroquois by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Co., Newport News, Virginia. The liner was acquired by the Navy from the Clyde Mallory Steamship Line on 22 July 1940, renamed Solace (AH-5); converted into a hospital ship at the Atlantic Basin Iron Works, Brooklyn, N.Y., and was commissioned on 9 August 1941, Capt. Benjamin Perlman in command.