USS Araner was a wooden-hulled auxiliary ketch built in 1926 at Essex, Massachusetts by the Arthur D. Story Shipyards and acquired by motion picture director John Ford in June 1934. Originally named Faith, she was refurbished, and renamed Araner in honor of the Aran Islands, whence his wife's family had come. During the 1930s, the yacht served as a place where Ford could escape the bustle of Hollywood in the company of friends. The film director was appointed a Lieutenant Commander in the United States Naval Reserve in September 1934 and, according to one of his biographers, used Araner off Baja California for intelligence-gathering operations. In 1940, the commandant of the 11th Naval District commended Ford for his "… initiative in securing valuable information…" on that region.