In Greek mythology, Pelias was a king of Iolcus who sent his nephew, Jason, in search of the Golden Fleece and who, after Jason's return, was killed by his own daughters at the urging of Jason's lover, Medea. USS Pelias (AS-14) was named for this mythological Greek king.

USS Pelias (AS-14) was laid down as "Mormacyork" under a United States Maritime Commission contract by the Sun Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company at Chester, Pennsylvania, on 8 May 1939. The T. C-3 (D) Merchant Marine designated vessel was christened by Miss Barbara W. Vickery and launched into the Delaware River on 14 November 1939. Delivery to the Moore-McCormick Steamship Company took place on 1 April 1940. Motorship Mormacyork served for a short time in passenger/cargo service between ports in the United States and South America. The ship was acquired by the United States Navy on 15 November 1940. Motorship Mormacyork was renamed "Pelias" on 9 January 1941 and converted for Navy use as a submarine tender by the Bethlehem Steel Company at Brooklyn, New York. USS Pelias (AS-14) commissioned at New York on 5 September 1941 with Commander William Wakefield in command.

When commissioned as a Griffin class submarine tender, USS Pelias was 465 feet in length at the waterline, 492 feet in length overall, had an extreme beam of 69 feet 6 inches, had a Standard Light Displacement of 6,400 tons, a Standard Displacement of 7,725 tons, a Gross Displacement of 7,950 tons, a Light Displacement of 8,236 tons, a Navy Light Displacement of 8,600 tons, a Maritime Commission Deadweight Displacement of 11,975 tons, and a Full Load Displacement of 13,700 tons...at which weight the ship had a maximum draft of 24 feet 3 inches. Ship's compliment was 99 officers and 968 enlisted men. Armament included four 3-inch/50 caliber guns, four .50-caliber and a number of 20-mm antiaircraft machine guns. Bunkerage was provided for 2,814 tons of fuel oil, which fueled diesel engines manufactured by the Busch-Sulzer Brothers Diesel Engine Company at Saint Louis, Missouri, which, through a geared diesel drive system, could develop 8,900 shaft horsepower on the single propeller shaft. The single propeller could drive the ship at 16.5 knots at speed. Economical cruising speed was 11 knots.

Following shakedown off the New England coast, USS Pelias (AS-14) commenced a transit to Pacific Ocean areas on 9 October 1941. Voyaging by way of San Diego, California, the submarine tender arrived at Pearl Harbor in the Territory of Hawaii on 21 November 1941. Six days later, the ship commenced the refitting of submarines at the Submarine Base ...where she was berthed.

On 7 December 1941, Japanese carrier aircraft and midget submarines attacked targets in the Hawaiian Islands...thus plunging the United States into the Second World War as an active participant.

During that attack, USS Pelias was berthed at the Pearl Harbor submarine base. Her guns splashed one enemy torpedo plane, and damaged a second, as they made their deadly runs along the main channel of Pearl Harbor just a little more than a hundred yards from her port side. The submarine tender resumed her repair duties shortly after the attack.

During the months following the Pearl Harbor attack, USS Pelias provided valuable assistance to units of the United States Pacific Fleet...as efforts were made to restore as many ships as possible to combat ready status in as short a period as possible.

After servicing almost a score of submarines at Pearl Harbor, USS Pelias transited to San Francisco, California...late in May of 1942. There, she took on spare parts, provisions, and ammunition. Departing for the Southwest Pacific on 22 June 1942, the ship touched at Melbourne, Australia, on 16 July...and reached Albany, Australia, on the 23rd of July 1942.

Assigned to duty under Rear Admiral Lockwood, Commander, Submarines, Southwest Pacific (ComSubSoWesPac), she refitted ten submarines at Albany before shifting her base to Fremantle, Australia, on 27 October 1942. There, she relieved USS Holland (AS-3) as submarine tender for the Southwest Pacific submarines, which attacked Japanese naval vessels and merchant ships.

Except for brief deployments to Exmouth Gulf on the west coast of Australia during May of 1943, and to Albany during March of 1944, USS Pelias operated out of Fremantle during her Australian employment. Between July of 1942 and May of 1944, the submarine tender overhauled, repaired, and/or refitted 59 submarines of Submarine Squadrons 6, 12, and 16.

Ordered back to the west coast of the United States during May of 1944, USS Pelias departed Fremantle on 15 May, touched at Pearl Harbor on 6 June, and reached San Francisco on the 15th of June 1944.

For more than two months, the submarine tender underwent overhaul at the Mare Island Navy Yard at Vallejo, California. Then, from 10 to 18 September, she transited to Hawaii. Engine repairs delayed her deployment to Midway, but they did not hinder her service to submarines. Seven submarines were refitted before she departed for Midway on 9 January 1945.

Assigned to Submarine Squadron 32, USS Pelias completed fifteen submarine refits and voyage repairs during the next four months. Between 26 May and 10 June, the submarine tender transited, via Pearl Harbor, to San Diego...where she undertook the repair and decommissioning overhaul of the S-class submarines of Submarine Squadron 45.

USS Pelias (AS-14) was based at San Diego, California, when the Second World War officially ended on 2 September 1945...when representatives of the Empire of Japan signed the instruments of surrender on board battleship USS Missouri (BB-63), which was anchored in Tokyo Bay, Japan, for that occasion.

USS Pelias transited to Tiburon Bay, California, on 10 September 1945; thence to the Mare Island Naval Shipyard on 24 February 1946.

At the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, USS Pelias assisted in the preparation of ships for "mothballing" and entry into the Pacific Reserve Fleet when peacetime operations no longer required the huge number of World War II-built naval vessels. Later, the submarine tender assisted in the maintenance of these decommissioned ships.

She was placed "in commission, in reserve" on 6 September 1946; and "in service, in reserve" on 1 February 1947. On 21 March 1950, she was placed "out of service, in reserve"...but later performed berthing ship duty at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard...until the submarine tender decommissioned on 14 June 1970. When she decommissioned, the ship was the only United States naval vessel afloat that was at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941.

On 1 August 1971, the ship was stricken from the Navy List, transferred to the United States Maritime Administration for disposal, and, subsequently, sold.

USS Pelias (AS-14) received one battle star for her services during the Second World War.