Other characteristics similar or identical to freighter
USS Santa Olivia (SP-3125) was a cargo ship and later troop transport that served with the United States Navy during and after World War I. The ship later went into merchant service as a freighter, and during World War II took part in a number of transatlantic convoys.
Built in 1918, Santa Olivia was acquired by the Navy on completion, and during the war made two voyages to France as a cargo ship. After the war, she was converted into a troop transport, and repatriated almost 7,500 U.S. troops in four round trips in 1919. A teenage Humphrey Bogart served aboard Santa Olivia in this period.
Decommissioned from the Navy, Santa Olivia entered merchant service for W. R. Grace & Co. in late 1919 as the freighter SS Santa Olivia, operating between the United States and South America. In 1922, the vessel was transferred to the Pacific Mail Steamship Company and used in United States intercoastal service. In 1925, Santa Olivia was sold to the American Hawaiian Steamship Company. Renamed SS Kansan, the ship remained in intercoastal service into the 1930s. During World War II, Kansan transported aircraft, explosives and other vital supplies in convoy to the United Kingdom during the Battle of the Atlantic.
After the war, Kansan was sold to a Panamanian company and renamed SS Jackstar. Jackstar survived bombardment by Arab forces while unloading cargoes at Tel Aviv, Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The ship was sold for scrap in 1954.
Construction and design
Santa Olivia just after completion at the Cramp shipyard, July 1918
Santa Olivia—a steel hulled, screw-propelled cargo ship—was built in 1918 by William Cramp & Sons of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for the Atlantic & Pacific Steamship Company, a subsidiary of W. R. Grace & Co.[1] Launched 12 January 1918,[2]Santa Olivia was one of a record 44 ships delivered by U.S. yards in May of the same year.[3]
Santa Olivia was 404.5 feet (123.3m) in length, with a beam of 53feet 7inches (16.33m), hold depth of 34feet 2inches (10.41m) and draft of 28feet 4inches (8.64m). She had a gross register tonnage of 6,422 and net register tonnage of 3,877. She had three decks, six waterproof bulkheads, two masts and a single smokestack, and was fitted with water ballast tanks.[4]
Santa Olivia was powered by a 3,000 ihp quadruple expansion steam engine with cylinders of 25.5,37,52.5 and 76 inches (65,94,133 and 193cm) by 54-inch (140cm)stroke, driving a single screw propeller. Steam was supplied by three oil-fired Scotch boilers at an operating pressure of 220 pounds.[4] The ship had a speed of 12 knots (14mph; 22km/h).[1][5]
Service history
U.S. Navy service
On 1 July 1918, Santa Olivia was acquired by the Navy and commissioned at Philadelphia as USS Santa Olivia (SP-3125).[1]
The return of U.S. troops aboard Santa Olivia was front page news in the Altoona Tribune, 15 May 1919
Santa Olivia was assigned to the Naval Overseas Transportation Service (NOTS) upon commissioning. Departing from Philadelphia on 15 July 1918 for New York, the ship made two round-trip voyages to Europe before the war's end on 11 November 1918. Sailing from New York each time, she carried a total of 10,773 tons of general cargo to Marseilles.[1]
With the war over, the foreign contingent of the American Cruiser and Transport Force withdrew, obliging the U.S. Navy to undertake a rapid expansion of its fleet of troop transports in order to quickly repatriate U.S. forces from France. A total of 56 ships were selected for conversion to troopships,[6] including Santa Olivia. Santa Olivia was detached from NOTS on 20 December 1918[1] and recommissioned as a troop transport the same day.[7] Between 26 December 1918 and 14 February 1919, Santa Olivia was converted to a troop transport by the W. & A. Fletcher Company of Hoboken, New Jersey, at a cost of $150,778.[7] After conversion, the ship had a troop capacity of 32 officers and 1,825 enlisted men,[7] and a crew complement of 21 officers and 168 enlisted men.[5]
Reassigned to the Cruiser and Transport Force, Atlantic Fleet, Santa Olivia embarked on the first of four troop transport missions between the U.S. and France[1] on 16 February 1919, departing New York for Brest,[8] the return voyage being made from 18 to 30 March.[9] Her second such voyage to France returned to Philadelphia on 12 May, with 30 officers and 1,825 men of the 110th Infantry Regiment and three officers of the 178th Machinegun Detachment. The 110th Infantry was described as "the hardest hit of the National Guard regiments", having lost 500 killed and 3,000 wounded in the war.[10] Returning to France, Santa Olivia sailed from Bordeaux on May 30 with 1,891 troops, including 16 officers and 429 men of C and D companies, 303rd Engineers, 78th Division, arriving New York 10 June.[11]
Santa Olivia's final round trip to France for the navy began with a departure from New York on 15 June.[12] At Bordeaux, Santa Olivia embarked another 45 officers and 1,814 men, returning them to New York on 9 July. During this voyage, the ship experienced some rough weather causing a planned onboard Fourth of July celebration to be postponed until the 6th, while two soldiers and one sailor were confined after showing "signs of insanity"; the three men were later transferred to a military hospital for observation.[13]Santa Olivia was the last U.S. troopship to depart from Bordeaux, the port subsequently being abandoned as a U.S Navy embarkation point in favor of Brest.[13] In her four troop repatriation missions, Santa Olivia returned a total of 7,491 officers and men to the United States, including 14 sick or wounded.[14] On 21 July, Santa Olivia was decommissioned at the Grace Line Pier, Brooklyn, and returned the same day to her owner, W. R. Grace & Co.[1]
A teenage Humphrey Bogart served on USS Santa Olivia in 1919 as a coxswain. After being transferred from USSLeviathan(SP-1326) in February, Bogart missed an April sailing of Santa Olivia, but avoided being listed as a deserter by reporting for duty within hours. He was given three days' solitary confinement on bread and water for going AWOL, but the incident did not affect his service record. After returning to the ship, he was honorably discharged on 18 June 1919 with high marks for proficiency and sobriety.[15]
Santa Olivia's commander during her naval service, George H. Miles, would later run afoul of the law. In 1922, while captain of SS President Van Buren, Miles was charged with murder for beating a deranged pantryman, who died the following day. Convicted of "inhumane treatment",[16] Miles was sentenced to 18 months' jail over the incident and lost his masters' licence.[16][17][18] In February 1923, while out on bail pending an appeal of his conviction, Miles was arrested for alleged bootlegging.[16] In 1930, Miles was again arrested by police, for attempted burglary.[18]
Merchant service
1920s–1930s
After her naval decommission, Santa Olivia entered merchant service on or before September 1919[19] as a cargo ship for W. R. Grace & Co., under the name SS Santa Olivia. For the next few years, the ship operated between New York and various ports in South America, including Rio de Janeiro, Brazil;[19]Valparaiso, Chile;[20] and Callao, Peru.[21] In August 1920, Santa Olivia collided with and sank a tug at Callao, with the freighter suffering minor damage.[22] In July–August 1922, Santa Olivia delivered 3,500 tons of grain to Reval (modern day Tallinn), Estonia, as part of a relief mission to famine-stricken regions of Russia.[23][24]
In October 1922, the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, a subsidiary of W. R. Grace, announced the formation of a new freight-and-passenger service to run between the East and West coasts of the United States. The service, which operated on a ten-day schedule, was provided by a fleet of seven ships including Santa Olivia.[25] Ports of call eventually added to the service on the West Coast included Tacoma, Washington and Oakland and San Francisco, California, while those on the East Coast included New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore and Norfolk, Virginia.[26]
Santa Olivia was to remain in intercoastal service with Pacific Mail for some 2 1/2 years. During this time, her cargoes outbound from New York were miscellaneous; on a November 1922 passage to San Francisco, for example, the ship carried cement, rope, ink, lime juice, dates, canned corn and drugs.[24] Return cargoes included copper and lumber.[27][28] Due to falling demand, Pacific Mail reduced its intercoastal schedule in October 1924 from one sailing every ten days to one every two weeks.[29]
On 11 June 1925, W. R. Grace & Co. sold the six freighters of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, including Santa Olivia, to the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company. Pacific Mail's other ships were sold to the Dollar Line, and the former's remaining assets purchased by Grace.[30] The deal brought to a formal end the existence of Pacific Mail, one of America's oldest and best known steamship lines, established in 1848.[31] Acquisition of the Pacific Mail freighters allowed American-Hawaiian to expand its intercoastal service, and Santa Olivia was thus retained on her existing route; with the change of ownership, however, the ship was renamed SS Kansan.[32][2]
By late 1925, Kansan was shipping auto parts and general goods from the East to the West Coasts.[33][34][35] Return cargoes included dried fruit and canned goods.[36][37][38] On 25 June 1926, Kansan grounded on a mudbank at Oakland, but was hauled off with no apparent damage by a tug.[39]
By 1930, the ship was engaged in the transport of cotton and wool from New York to European ports such as Bremen, Germany and Liverpool, England.[40] In July 1938, Kansan was engaged in a mercy dash to San Diego after one of her crew was taken sick; during this trip, the ship recorded a speed in one 24-hour period of 14.21 knots (16.35mph; 26.32km/h), completing the passage from Guatemala in 9 days 54 minutes, just short of the record.[41]
World War II
During World War II, Kansan remained under the ownership of American-Hawaiian.[2] After America's entry into the war in December 1941, Kansan joined the convoy system, making several transatlantic trips from the U.S. to Great Britain during the Battle of the Atlantic.[42]
Kansan's movements in the early part of the war are uncertain, but the ship is known to have voyaged from Hampton Roads, Virginia to Trinidad in mid-1942. On 14 March 1943, Kansan departed New York for various destinations including Bandar Abbas, Iran, and Bombay, India, before returning to New York 9 October; her cargoes in this period are not known.[42]
On 13 November 1943, Kansan departed New York with a cargo of explosives and general goods bound for Liverpool, England, with convoy HX266, arriving Liverpool on the 27th. Returning to New York with convoy ON215 on 28 December, Kansan departed New York for Liverpool a second time on 22 January 1944 with convoy HX276, this time with a cargo of general goods and aircraft, arriving 7 February. After returning to New York with convoy ON226 between 29 February and 15 March, Kansan travelled to Boston, Massachusetts and Halifax, Nova Scotia, to pick up general cargoes bound for England before returning to New York 11 April. Kansan departed for her third and final wartime transatlantic crossing from New York to Liverpool with convoy HX287 on 14 April, arriving on the 26th.[42]
After returning to New York with ON236 from 12 to 27 May, Kansan relocated over the next few weeks from New York to Guantanamo, Cuba, and Cristobal, Panama.[42] Her subsequent wartime movements are not known.
Postwar service
In 1946, Kansan was sold to the Star Line of Panama and renamed SS Jackstar.[43]
On 12 July 1948, Jackstar arrived off Tel Aviv in the fledgling state of Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Jackstar spent the next six days unloading her cargo of flour in spite of intermittent bombardment by Arab forces. Jackstar was undamaged during the operation. The ship made a second voyage to Israel, from New York to Haifa, with eight passengers and general cargoes in February 1950.[44][45]
Eurana was a steam cargo ship built on speculation in 1915 by Union Iron Works of San Francisco. While under construction, the ship was acquired by Frank Duncan McPherson Strachan to operate in the Atlantic trade for his family's Strachan Shipping Company. The vessel made several trips between the Southeast of the United States and Europe before being sold to the Nafra Steamship Company in 1917. The freighter then entered the Mediterranean trade where she remained until September 1918 when she was requisitioned by the Emergency Fleet Corporation and transferred to the United States Navy to transport military supplies prior to the end of World War I, and as a troop transport after the war's end. In October 1919, the ship was returned to Nafra, which was then being reorganized to become the Green Star Steamship Company. In 1923, Eurana and twelve other ships passed to the Planet Steamship Company, newly formed to receive them from Green Star's bankruptcy. The ship remained principally engaged in the West Coast to East Coast trade for the next seven years. In 1930, together with several other vessels, Eurana was purchased by the Calmar Steamship Corporation, and renamed Alamar. The ship continued carrying various cargo between the East and West Coasts of the United States through 1941. On 27 May 1942, while en route from Hvalfjord to Murmansk carrying lend-lease war materiel to the Soviet Union during World War II as part of Arctic convoy PQ-16, she was fatally damaged by German aircraft bombs and was consequently scuttled by a British submarine to prevent her from becoming a menace to navigation.
SS Minnesotan was a cargo ship built in 1912 for the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company. During World War I she was known as USAT Minnesotan in service for the United States Army and USS Minnesotan (ID-4545) in service for the United States Navy. She ended her career as the SS Maria Luisa R. under Italian ownership. She was built by the Maryland Steel Company as one of eight sister ships for American-Hawaiian, and was employed in inter-coastal service via the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and the Panama Canal after it opened.
USS West Carnifax (ID-3812) was a cargo ship in the United States Navy shortly after World War I. After she was decommissioned from the Navy, the ship was known as SS West Carnifax, SS Exford, and SS Pan Royal in civilian service under American registry.
Cotati was a steam cargo ship built in 1918–1919 by Moore Shipbuilding and Drydock Company of Oakland 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. The vessel was briefly used for the first two years of her career to transport frozen meat between North and South America and Europe. The ship was subsequently laid up at the end of 1921 and remained part of the Reserve Fleet through the end of 1940. In January 1941 she was sold together with two other vessels to the New Zealand Shipping Co. and subsequently in 1942 was transferred to the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT) and renamed Empire Avocet. The ship was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-125 on 30 September 1942 on one of her regular wartime trips.
Sylvan Arrow was a steam tanker built in 1917–1918 by New York Shipbuilding Co. of Camden for Standard Oil Company, with intention of transporting oil and petroleum products between United States and ports in the Far East. The ship was briefly requisitioned by the US Government during World War I but returned to commercial service in early 1919.
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 President Taft was launched as one of the "state" ships, Buckeye State, completed by the United States Shipping Board as cargo passenger ships after originally being laid down as troop transports. Buckeye State had been laid down as Bertrice but was converted and renamed before launching. Originally assigned to the Matson Navigation Company as the Shipping Board's agent, the ship was later renamed President Taft and assigned to Pacific Mail Steamship Company for operation. In 1925 the Shipping Board sold the ship to Dollar Steamship Company. President Taft was operated by Dollar and then its successor American President Lines until requisitioned by the War Department on 17 June 1941.
Portmar was a United States-flagged merchant vessel that was constructed in response to World War I, operated by a succession of companies in the interwar period, then taken up for wartime shipping in World War II.
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.
West Kasson was a steam cargo ship built in 1918–1919 by Long Beach Shipbuilding Company of Long Beach 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. The vessel initially operated on the round-the-world route from the West Coast of the United States via East Asia and Spain before being shifted to serve the Gulf to Europe and South America trade in 1922. In 1926 she was sold to the W. R. Grace and Company and renamed Cuzco. In her new role the ship operated chiefly between the ports of the Pacific Northwest and various Chilean and Peruvian ports. In 1940 the ship was again sold and transferred into Panamanian registry and renamed Carmona. The vessel continued sailing between South America and the United States and was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-160 on one of her regular trips in July 1942.
USS Radnor (ID-3023) was a cargo ship and later troop transport that served with the United States Navy in 1918–19, during and shortly after World War I. The ship later went into merchant service, and in 1948 under Chinese ownership reportedly became the first all-Chinese ship to visit South America. Radnor was originally ordered as SS War Indian by a private company, but with U.S. entry into World War I in April 1917, she was requisitioned by the U.S. Navy for use as a cargo ship. Commissioned as USS Radnor (ID-3023) in May 1918, the ship spent the remainder of the war transporting cargoes for the Navy. After the war, USS Radnor was converted into a troop transport and used to repatriate U.S. troops home from France.
SS Otsego was an American merchant ship that saw service after World War I as a US Navy troop transport and again during World War II as a US Army troop transport. Prior to her American service, she was a German cruise ship, and she went to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease in the twilight of her career.
West Niger was a steam cargo ship built in 1919–1920 by Southwestern Shipbuilding Company 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. The freighter spent her entire 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 ten other vessels, was sold by the Shipping Board to the States Steamship Co. and subsequently renamed Nevada. In September 1932, the vessel, while on her regular trip to Japan, ran aground in foggy weather on Amatignak Island and subsequently broke into three parts and sank with the loss of thirty four out of thirty seven men.
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.
Cockaponset was a steam cargo ship built in 1918–1919 by Pacific Coast Shipbuilding Company of Bay Point 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 vessel was largely employed on the Gulf Coast of the United States to Europe route until 1930 when she was laid up. In late 1940 the ship together with 15 other vessels was acquired by the British government to alleviate significant shortage of tonnage due to an ongoing German U-boat campaign. In May 1941 the freighter was torpedoed and sunk on her first war trip to the United Kingdom.
Cokesit was a steam cargo ship built in 1918–1919 by Guy M. Standifer Construction Company of Vancouver 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 vessel was largely employed on the East Coast of the United States to Australia route until 1928 when she was laid up. In late 1937 the ship together with several other vessels was bid on and subsequently acquired next year by the Greek tramp operator John D. Chandris to carry cargo from Australia to Greece and United Kingdom. The freighter was also renamed Adelfoi Chandris. Following the surrender of France, the ship was interned in Dakar and passed into Vichy government hands in 1940 and renamed Saint Marin. Under the terms of Nevers Agreement she eventually was transferred to Italy and renamed Catania. In early August 1943 the vessel together with several other ships was bombed and damaged in Naples harbor by the Allied aircraft.
Antinous was a Design 1015 ship steam cargo ship built in 1919–1920 by Guy M. Standifer Construction Company of Vancouver 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 vessel was chiefly employed on the Gulf to Europe routes throughout her career. In September 1942, while on a passage to British Guiana to load her cargo, she was torpedoed and sunk by German submarines operating at the time in the Caribbean.
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.
West Pocasset was a steam cargo ship built in 1919 by Northwest Steel 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 sparingly on the United States to Europe routes during the first two years of her career before being laid up. The ship was briefly reactivated in 1929 but was again laid up next year and remained idle for the next ten years. In January 1941 the freighter was sold together with four other vessels to the United States Line and was put under operation by its fully owned Panama-registered subsidiary to carry war matériel and supplies between Canada and United Kingdom and renamed Chepo. In early January 1942 while on one of her regular convoy trips, she was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-43 with the loss of seventeen men.
Haleakala was a steam cargo ship built in 1919 by Long Beach Shipbuilding Company of Long Beach 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. The vessel was first employed in the Pacific trade before being briefly laid up. She was reactivated in 1922 and entered the South American trade connecting the ports of Argentina and Brazil with a variety of ports in the Northeastern United States. In September 1926 while on one of her regular trips, she disappeared without a trace, possibly foundering in the hurricane with the loss of all hands.
1 2 3 4 "Ship search". Arnold Hague Ports Database. Don Kindell. (Enter "Kansan" (without quotes) in ship search field for an interactive list of convoys which included the ship.)
Gleaves, Albert (1921). A History of the Transport Service. New York: George H. Doran Company. pp.260-61.
United States Department of Commerce (1920). Annual List of Merchant Vessels of the United States For the Year Ended June 30 1919. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. p.492.
United States Department of War (1920). War Department Annual Reports, 1919. Vol.I (Part 4). Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. pp.4974-78.
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