USS Gazelle (IX-116), an unclassified miscellaneous vessel, was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named for the gazelle, any of numerous small, graceful, and swift antelopes, with lustrous eyes, found especially in South Africa, northern Africa, Iran, and India. She was built as an auxiliary oiler, launched on 9 November 1943 by the California Shipbuilding Corporation, at Wilmington, California, as SS Cyrus K. Holliday sponsored by Mrs. J. E. Stewart, and acquired by the Navy and simultaneously commissioned on 29 November 1943 with Lieutenant Joseph P. Marshall in command.