The new 35,000-ton battleship, South Dakota, was launched at Camden, NJ, and work was at once begun on the cruiser Santa Fe.

On June 6, 1941, President Roosevelt signed a bill authorizing the requisition of all foreign merchant ships lying idle in American harbors. He then issued an executive order empowering the Maritime Commission to operate or dispose of the ships in the interest of national defense. 84 ships were targeted. Ships from one belligerent country could not be transferred to an opposing belligerent nation.