USS Hunting (E-AG-398) was built as the LSM-1-class landing ship medium LSM-398 at the Charleston Navy Yard and launched in the first week of 1945. After service in the Atlantic as a landing ship the vessel was converted in 1953 to a sonar research vessel for the Naval Research Laboratory. Hunting was unique among Navy research vessels of the time in having a center well through which large towed "fish" could be transported and lowered to operating depths. The work contributed to sonar improvements and understanding ocean acoustics.
USS Hunting following her 1954 conversion to a Sonar Research Ship