USS Joseph Hewes (AP-50/APA-22), formerly SS Excalibur, was a troop transport for the United States Navy during World War II commanded by Captain Robert McLanhan Smith Jr. A part of the Center Attack Group of Admiral Hewitt's Western Naval Task Force, Operation Torch, Joseph Hewes was sunk on November 11, 1942 by the German submarine U-173 in Fedala Roads off French Morocco coast during the Naval Battle of Casablanca.

German submarine U-173 was a Type IXC U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II.