In one of the largest and most expensive salvage operations of its kind, estimated at $5 million dollars at the time, the ship was stripped of superstructure and righted on 7 August 1943. She was renamed "Lafayette" and reclassified as an aircraft and transport ferry, APV-4, on 15 September 1943 and placed in drydock the following month. However, extensive damage to her hull, deterioration of her machinery, and the necessity for employing manpower on other more critical war projects prevented resumption of the conversion program, with the cost of restoring her determined to be too great. Her hulk remained in the Navy's custody through the end of the war.