SS Absaroka

Last updated
USS Absaroka (ID-2518).jpg
USS Absaroka (ID-2518) probably photographed upon completion of construction, circa 1917
History
US flag 48 stars.svg
Name
  • Absaroka (1917—1946)
  • Prima Vista / Primavista (1946—1948)
  • Panenterprise (1948—1952)
  • Maryland (1952-1954)
Namesake Absaroka Range
Owner
  • United States Shipping Board (1917—1927)
  • McCormick Steamship Company (1927—1940)
  • Pope & Talbot, Inc. (1940—1946)
  • Samsco (Panama) (1946—1948)
  • Primavista (Panama) (1948—1949)
  • Mary Louisa (Panama) (1949—1952)
  • Tidewater Commercial (Panama) (1952—1954)
Port of registry Seattle (1917—1927)
Builder Skinner & Eddy, Seattle
Yard number15
Laid down4 September 1917
Launched22 December 1917
Completed12 February 1918
Identification
FateScrapped 1954
Notes
  • U.S. Navy commissioned status:
  • 17 September 1918—4 March 1919
General characteristics [1] [2]
Type Design 1013 cargo ship
Tonnage
Displacement12,397 long tons (12,596 t)
Length409.6 ft (124.8 m)
Beam54.1 ft (16.5 m)
Draft24 ft 6 in (7.47 m)
Depth27.1 ft (8.3 m)
Installed power2,500 ihp, 359 Nhp
PropulsionSeattle Machine Works 3-cylinder triple expansion engine
Speed10.5 knots (12.1 mph; 19.4 km/h)
Crew
  • Commercial: 45
  • NOTS: 70
Notes
  • Ship armament, WW I
  • 1 × 6 in (150 mm) gun
  • 1 × 3 in (76 mm) gun

SS Absaroka was a steamer, named after the Absaroka Range of mountains in Montana and Wyoming, completed in February 1918 for the United States Shipping Board (USSB) which briefly operated the ship. From 17 September 1918 to 4 March 1919 the ship was commissioned as USS Absaroka with the identification number IX-2581 in United States Navy and operated by the Naval Overseas Transportation Service.

Contents

The ship was returned to the USSB which operated the vessel until sold in 1927 to McCormick Steamship Company. In 1940 Absaroka was sold to Pope & Talbot, Inc. which operated it until sold foreign in April 1946. On 24 December 1941 the ship was torpedoed and damaged by torpedo off the California coast. During World War II the War Shipping Administration (WSA) took control of all oceanic shipping with Absaroka delivered to WSA 9 May 1942 to be operated by Pope & Talbot for WSA under Army and general standard agreements. On 9 April 1946 the ship was redelivered to Pope & Talbot and sold 14 April 1946 to the Greek government and then operated as Prima Vista or Primavista until 1948. The ship was then sold to other foreign interests operating as Panenterprise to 1952 and finally Maryland until broken up in 1954.

Construction

Absaroka was an Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) Design 1013 cargo ship built in 1917 for the United States Shipping Board (USSB) by Skinner & Eddy Company, Seattle, Washington as USSB number 84, yard number 15, U.S. Official Number 215986 with signal LJQR. [3] [1] [2] [4] The single 2,700 h.p. triple expansion steam engine was built by Seattle Machine Works. [5]

Operation

The USSB took delivery of Absaroka on completion in February 1918 for operation. [3] [2] On 17 September 1918 the ship was taken over by the Navy on a bare boat charter basis, assigned identification number IX-2581 and commissioned USS Absaroka under the command of Lieutenant commander O. W. Hughes for operation in the Naval Overseas Transportation Service (NOTS). [2]

Between October 1918 and February 1919, the ship made two transatlantic voyages carrying Army cargo to ports in France, England, and the Netherlands. During her second trip, Absaroka rescued the captain and crew of the disabled British steamer War Marvel and landed them safely at Falmouth, England. [2]

The ship arrived in New York City on 12 February 1919 and was immediately drydocked for overhaul. Absaroka was decommissioned on 4 March 1919 and returned to the United States Shipping Board. [3] [2] The USSB sold the ship with requirements for specified alterations and improvements to the McCormick Steamship Company for $131,000 before 30 June 1927. [6] From 1927 to 1940 Absaroka was operated by McCormick which in 1935 was acquired by Pope & Talbot, Incorporated to become legally identified as the Pope & Talbot-McCormick Steamship Division. From 1940 the ship was operated as a lumber carrier under the Pope & Talbot identity. [3] [2] [7] [8] [note 1]

Absaroka listing to starboard following torpedo attack by Japanese submarine. December 1941.jpg Absaroka listing to starboard following torpedo attack by Japanese submarine December 1941.jpg
Absaroka listing to starboard following torpedo attack by Japanese submarine. December 1941.jpg

Absaroka was torpedoed and damaged by the Japanese submarine I-19 off Point Fermin, California, and beached off Fort MacArthur on 24 December 1941. The attack was one of the opening incidents of what is called the Battle of Los Angeles during which American merchant ships were attacked by Japanese submarines in waters off the West Coast from the last half of December 1941 through February 1942. [9] [10] [11] Other ships attacked during this event were Agwiworld, Samoa escaped shelling and torpedoes as did Barbara Olson, Dorothy Phillips, Connecticut and Idaho but with damage. H.M. Storey escaped but sank later. Emidio, Montebello, Larry Doheny, Camden and Fort Camosun were sunk. [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15]

The ship was delivered to the War Shipping Administration on 9 May 1942 for operation by Pope & Talbot as the administration's agent. The operating agreement was for Army Transportation Corps requirements until 16 August 1943 when it was changed to a General Agency Agreement. On 9 April 1946 Absaroka was delivered to Pope & Talbot as owner at San Francisco.

Post-war service

On 14 April 1946 Pope & Talbot sold Absaroka to the Greek government. [16] It passed into the ownership of J A Cosmas, and was registered in Panama as Primavista or Prima Vista under the registered ownership of Compañia Marítima Samsoc Limitada S.A., Panama. [16] [17] [18] [note 2] In 1948 the vessel was sold to Primavista Compañia de Navegación S.A., under the management of Pietro Ruggiero, and remaining under the Panamanian flag as Panenterprise. [17] [18] In 1948-49 the ship made at least three trips from Europe to Buenos Aires and brought a small number of immigrants. [3] [4] [19] The ship was again sold in 1952, again with Panamanian registration, and renamed Maryland in the ownership of The Tidewater Commercial Company Inc., based in Baltimore, Maryland, though controlled by the Italian shipowner Albert Ravano. [17] [18] [20]

The ship was broken up in 1954, either by Patapsco Scrap Company at Baltimore, or by Shipbreaking Industries Ltd, Faslane, Scotland, arriving on 9 April. [3] [17] [18] [21]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Both McCormick Steamship and Pope & Talbot originated in the Pacific Northwest lumber business. See the article Port Gamble, Washington sections Sale of Puget Mill Company and the next section Creation of Pope & Talbot Co. for some of the background. In 1946 the McCormick Steamship name, legally identified as the Pope & Talbot-McCormick Steamship Division, itself was absorbed into the Pope & Talbot identity.
  2. ↑ Sources vary of whether it was Prima Vista or Primavista with MARAD and DANFS using Prima Vista, while Lloyd's Register of Shipping and later sources have Primavista.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States Shipping Board</span> Emergency agency by the 1916 Shipping Act

The United States Shipping Board (USSB) was established as an emergency agency by the 1916 Shipping Act, on September 7, 1916. The United States Shipping Board's task was to increase the number of US ships supporting the World War I efforts. The program ended on March 2, 1934.

SS <i>President Cleveland</i> (1920) American passenger vessel

SS President Cleveland was originally built as Golden State for the United States Shipping Board (USSB), one of the planned World War I troop transports converted before construction into passenger and cargo vessels launched as Emergency Fleet Corporation Design 1029 ships first known, along with the smaller Design 1095 versions, in the trade as "State" ships due to names assigned for the nicknames of states and later as "535s" for their length overall. Almost all ships of both designs were renamed for United States presidents by May 1921, with Golden State being renamed President Cleveland. As one of the USSB-owned ships operated by agents of the board, President Cleveland was allocated to and operated by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company until sold by the USSB to the Dollar Steamship Line in 1925. After the demise of that line and creation of a new, replacement line, American President Lines, the ship remained with that line until government acquisition for the Second World War.

SS <i>Empire Bittern</i> World War II merchant ship of the United Kingdom

Empire Bittern was a steamship, built as a livestock-carrying cargo ship in 1902 at Belfast, Ireland as Iowa for the White Diamond Steamship Company Ltd of Liverpool. The ship was sold to the Hamburg Amerika Linie and renamed Bohemia in 1913.

USS <i>Majaba</i> Cargo ship of the United States Navy

USS Majaba (AG-43/IX-102) was the Design 1049 cargo ship Meriden built in 1919 by the Albina Engine & Machine Works, Portland, Oregon. All the ships were requisitioned by the United States Shipping Board (USSB) for World War I service. The ship was bought by the E. K. Wood Lumber Co., of San Francisco, California in 1923 and renamed El Capitan. The ship was chartered by the U.S. Navy through the War Shipping Administration (WSA) in April 1942 and commissioned as Majaba.

USS <i>Tuluran</i> Cargo ship of the United States Navy

USS Tuluran (AG-46) was under construction for the British at the Toledo Shipbuilding Company as the cargo ship War Bayonet in 1917 when requisitioned by the United States Shipping Board (USSB) for World War I service. The ship was launched and completed as Lake Superior. The Navy acquired the ship from the USSB with assignment to the Naval Overseas Transport Service (NOTS) with the identification number ID-2995. The ship was returned to the USSB which sold the vessel in 1926. The ship was renamed C. D. Johnston III and that vessel operated out of Oregon until again sold and based in San Francisco. Another sale resulted in the vessel being renamed Anna Shafer which was acquired by the War Shipping Administration (WSA) in 1942 and allocated to the Navy for World War II service.

USS <i>Besboro</i> Cargo ship of the United States Navy

USS Besboro (AG-66) was built as Caddopeak, a United States Shipping Board (USSB) Emergency Fleet Corporation Design 1049 cargo ship built by Albina Engine & Machine Works, launched 18 October 1918. From 1922 Caddopeak served several commercial shipping companies until sold in 1937 to Burns Steamship Company and renamed Lurline Burns. On 2 February 1942 the ship was delivered to the War Shipping Administration, allocated to the United States Army and operated by Burns and Alaska Steamship Company under an Army charter agreement.

The American-Hawaiian Steamship Company was founded in 1899 to carry cargos of sugar from Hawaii to the United States and manufactured goods back to Hawaii. Brothers-in-law George Dearborn and Lewis Henry Lapham were the key players in the founding of the company. The company began in 1899 with three ships, operated nine by 1904 and was operating seventeen by 1911 with three on order.

SS <i>El Capitan</i>

El Capitan, United States Official Number 285587, was built in 1917 by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company at Newport News, Virginia for the Southern Pacific Company's Atlantic Steamship Lines. In 1915 the line operated from the North River piers 49–52 at the foot of 11th Street in New York to New Orleans under the flag and name of Morgan Line, which combined with the Southern Pacific's rail service from the Pacific Coast was known as the Sunset Gulf Route. During World War I the ship was purchased from the builder before delivery to the owner by the United States Shipping Board (USSB) which later turned the ship over to the United States Navy which placed her in commission as USS El Capitan (ID-1407) from 1918 to 1919. El Capitan was returned to commercial service by the Southern Pacific Company until just before the United States entry into World War II when the United States War Shipping Administration (WSA) acquired the ship, changed her registry to Panama and placed her in operation under its agent, United States Lines. El Capitan was in the Arctic convoy PQ 17 to the Soviet Union when she came under air attack on 9 July 1942, was damaged and abandoned to be sunk by torpedo just after midnight on 10 July.

SS <i>West Cressey</i>

SS West Cressey was a steel-hulled cargo ship that saw a brief period of service as an auxiliary with the U.S. Navy in the aftermath of World War I.

West Cawthon was a steam cargo ship built in 1919 by Southwestern Shipbuilding Co. of San Pedro for the United States Shipping Board (USSB) as part of the wartime shipbuilding program of the Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) to restore the nation's Merchant Marine. Initially, the vessel was placed in the Pacific trade, but was soon acquired by the Green Star Steamship Co. and was put on the Gulf to the Mediterranean route. In 1923 Green Star Steamship Co. went bankrupt and vessel was bought back by USSB. The freighter then spent next two years serving the Mediterranean ports of Italy and Spain before being laid up late in 1924. In 1926 the vessel was bought by the American-South African Line and for the next fourteen years continuously sailed between the East Coast of the United States and South Africa. In 1940 she was sold to the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT) and renamed Empire Bison. The ship was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-124 on 1 November 1940 on one of her regular convoy trips.

SS <i>Corvus</i> (1919)

Corvus was a steam cargo ship built in 1919 by Columbia River Shipbuilding Company of Portland for the United States Shipping Board as part of the wartime shipbuilding program of the Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) to restore the nation's Merchant Marine. The freighter was operated on international and domestic routes through 1944. Early in 1945 she was transferred to Soviet Union as part of lend-lease program and renamed Uzbekistan. After several months of operation, the freighter was rammed by another vessel on 31 May 1945 and was beached to avoid sinking. She was subsequently raised and towed to Portland where she was scrapped in 1946.

SS <i>Wheatland Montana</i>

Wheatland Montana was a steam cargo ship built in 1919 by Skinner & Eddy of Seattle for the United States Shipping Board as part of the wartime shipbuilding program of the Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) to restore the nation's Merchant Marine. The freighter spent the majority of her career in the Pacific connecting the West Coast of the United States with the Chinese and Japanese ports in the Far East. Early in 1928 the ship together with six other vessels was sold by the Shipping Board to the Tacoma Oriental Steamship Co. and subsequently renamed Seattle. After her owner declared bankruptcy early in 1937, the freighter was sold to Matson Navigation Company and renamed Lihue. She was then mainly employed to transport sugar and canned fruit from the Hawaiian Islands to the ports on the East Coast of the United States. In February 1942 she was chartered to transport general cargo and war supplies to the Middle East but was torpedoed by U-161 in the Caribbean Sea on February 23, and eventually sank three days later while in tow without loss of life.

SS <i>Harry Luckenbach</i>

The SS Harry Luckenbach, built as a cargo ship ordered by the Luckenbach Steamship Company and built at Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Co. in Chester, Pennsylvania in 1919. The as yet unnamed ship was requisitioned by the United States Shipping Board (USSB) before completion and converted to a troop transport. The USSB allocated the ship, which had been fitted out with temporary troop accommodation in its cargo spaces, to the Navy which commissioned the ship on 7 July 1919 as USS Sol Navis with the Identification number 4031A. The ship was decommissioned October 1919 after two trips to France.

Design 1023 ship

The Design 1023 ship was a steel-hulled cargo ship design approved for mass production by the United States Shipping Board's (USSB) Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) in World War I. Like many of the early designs approved by the EFC, the Design 1023 did not originate with the EFC itself but was based on an existing cargo ship designed by Theodore E. Ferris for the United States Shipping Board (USSB). The ships, to be built by the Submarine Boat Corporation of Newark, New Jersey, were the first to be constructed under a standardized production system worked out by Ferris and approved by the USSB.

SS <i>Barbara Olson</i> Cargo ship built in Wisconsin in 1918

SS Barbara Olson was a cargo ship built in Wisconsin in 1918 as the SS Corrales. Barbara Olson was able to escape an attack off the coast of California in the early days of World War II. The Barbara Olson was built under a United States Shipping Board (USSB) contract in 1918 as the SS Corrales and renamed in 1940. On July 25, 1942, she was chartered by the US Army to transport supplies to the Territory of Hawaii as the USAT Barbara Olson for World War II. On January 14, 1946, her Army service ended. In 1964 she was run aground four miles (6.4 km) north of Pimentel, Peru and declared a total loss.

SS <i>Lake Elsmere</i>

SS Lake Elsmere was an Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) Design 1074 cargo ship built for the United States Shipping Board (USSB) during the massive shipbuilding effort of World War I.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pope & Talbot, Inc.</span> Former US Lumber Company

Pope & Talbot, Inc. was a lumber company and shipping company founded by Andrew Jackson Pope and Frederic Talbot in 1849 in San Francisco, California. Pope and Talbot came to California in 1849 from East Machias, Maine. Pope & Talbot lumber company was very successful, with the high demand of the 1849 Gold Rush.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles R. McCormick Lumber Company</span> US Lumber and Shipping Company

Charles R. McCormick Lumber Company was founded in 1908 by Charles R. McCormick in San Francisco, California. McCormick purchased a mill site in St. Helens, and formed the Helens Mill Company. To feed the mill McCormick's St. Helens Timber Company also purchased 4,000 acres of timber. In 1912 McCormick formed the St. Helens Lumber Company as parent company over Helens Mill Company and the St. Helens Timber Company. In 1912 McCormick expanded the company with a second sawmill, a creosoting plant and shipyard, the St. Helens shipyard. McCormick also expanded into San Diego, California with a railroad ties factory, to supply Santa Fe Railway and the mines of Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and northern Mexico. At the San Diego site, he built a dock to unload his timbers. With the Great Depression slow down, McCormick closed dock at San Diego in April 1931.

References

  1. 1 2 Fifty-Fourth Annual List of Merchant Vessels of the United States, Year ended June 30, 1922. Washington, D.C.: Department of Commerce, Bureau of Navigation. 1922. p. 55. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Absaroka (Id. No. 2581)". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships . Navy Department, Naval History and Heritage Command. June 1, 2020. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 McKellar, Norman L. (September–October 1962). "Steel Shipbuilding under the U. S. Shipping Board, 1917-1921, Contract Steel Ships, Part III" (PDF). The Belgian Shiplover. p. 475a. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 July 2021. Retrieved 13 July 2021– via ShipScribe.
  4. 1 2 Colton, Tim (March 9, 2016). "Skinner & Eddy, Seattle WA". ShipbuildingHistory. Retrieved 15 July 2021.
  5. ↑ "Engines Built by Seattle Machine Works During the War and Vessels in Which They Were Installed". Pacific Marine Review. J.S. Hines. December 1919. p. 130c. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  6. ↑ Eleventh Annual Report of the United States Shipping Board (PDF) (Report). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. 1927. p. 108. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  7. ↑ "McCormick Changes Name to Pope & Talbot Lines". Pacific Marine Review. J.S. Hines. April 1946. p. 52. Retrieved 14 July 2021.
  8. ↑ Red Sea Space Charter Rates. Hearings Before the Committee on the Merchant Marine and Fisheries, House of Representatives (Report). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. 1944. p. 165. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  9. ↑ "The Battle of Los Angeles". California State Military History and Museums Program. 23 June 2017. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  10. 1 2 Young, Donald J. (July 1998). "West Coast War Zone". Historynet. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  11. 1 2 Bareilles, Jack (May 2005). World War comes to Humboldt County (Masters thesis). Humboldt State University. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  12. ↑ Yenne, Bill (2016). Panic on the Pacific: How America Prepared for the West Coast Invasion. Washington, DC: Regnery History. ISBN   978-1621574972. LCCN   2017304401 . Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  13. ↑ "The Attacks on the SS Montebello and the SS Idaho". California State Military History and Museums Program. 8 February 2016. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  14. ↑ Screening Level Risk Assessment Package — Camden (PDF) (Report). Washington, D.C.: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. March 2013. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  15. ↑ Wilma, David (February 17, 2005). "Japanese submarine torpedoes and shells the freighter Fort Camosun off Cape Flattery on June 20, 1942". HistoryLink. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  16. 1 2 "Absaroka". Maritime Administration (Ship History Database Vessel Status Card). Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  17. 1 2 3 4 Starke, Tony; Schell, William A. Register of Merchant Ships completed in 1918 (June 2002 ed.). Gravesend: World Ship Society. p. 1.
  18. 1 2 3 4 "Absaroka (2215986)" . Miramar Ship Index . Retrieved 17 July 2021.
  19. ↑ "Ship Panenterprise arrivals to Argentina". Jewish Genealogy in Argentina. Archived from the original on 27 January 2017. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
  20. ↑ "Ravano v. Commissioner". Leagle Inc. Archived from the original on 17 July 2021. Retrieved 17 July 2021.
  21. ↑ Merchant Ships Totally Lost, Broken Up, etc in Quarter Ended 30th June 1954 (PDF). London: Lloyd's Register of Shipping. December 1954. p. 16. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 July 2021. Retrieved 17 July 2021.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.