 AsAmerika, before the First World War | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Germany | |
| Name | Amerika |
| Namesake | German spelling ofAmerica |
| Owner | Hamburg America Line |
| Builder | Harland & Wolff,Belfast |
| Yard number | 357 |
| Launched | 20 April 1905 |
| Completed | 21 September 1905 |
| In service | 11 October 1905 |
| Out of service | 1 August 1914 |
| Fate | Seized by United States, April 1917 |
| History | |
 United States | |
| Name | USSAmerica (ID-3006) |
| Owner | United States Navy |
| Acquired | 25 July 1917 |
| Commissioned | 6 August 1917 |
| Decommissioned | 26 September 1919 |
| Fate | Transferred toWar Department, 26 September 1919 |
| History | |
| United States | |
| Name | USATAmerica |
| Operator | United States Army |
| Acquired | 26 September 1919 |
| In service | 26 September 1919 |
| Out of service | 1920 |
| Fate | Transferred to theUSSB |
| History | |
 United States Lines | |
| Name | SSAmerica |
| Owner | USSB |
| Operator |
|
| In service | 1920 |
| Out of service | 1931 |
| Fate | Transferred to theWar Department |
| History | |
| United States | |
| Name | USATEdmund B. Alexander |
| Namesake | Edmund Brooke Alexander |
| Owner | United States Army |
| Acquired | October 1940 |
| In service | January 1941 |
| Out of service | 26 May 1949 |
| Refit | May 1942 |
| Fate | Scrapped 16 January 1957 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage | 22,622 GRT, 13,637 NRT[1] |
| Length | 669 ft (204 m) |
| Beam | 74.3 ft (22.6 m) |
| Propulsion | 2steam engines, twinscrew propellers |
| Speed | 18knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) |
| Capacity |
|
| Crew | 577 |
| Differences as USSAmerica: | |
| Displacement | 41,500 Tons |
| Length | 687 ft (209 m) |
| Beam | 75 ft 5 in (22.99 m) |
| Draft | 39 ft 5.25 in (12.0206 m) |
| Speed | 17.5 knots (32 km/h; 20 mph) |
| Complement | 994 |
| Armament |
|
SSAmerika was a transatlanticocean liner and atroop transport for the United States during both world wars. She was launched in 1905 asAmerika byHarland & Wolff inBelfast for theHamburg America Line ofGermany. As a passengerliner, she sailed primarily betweenHamburg andNew York. On 14 April 1912,Amerika transmitted awireless message abouticebergs near the same area where RMSTitanic struck one andsank less than three hours later. At the outset of the war,Amerika was docked atBoston; rather than risk seizure by theBritishRoyal Navy, she remained in port for the next three years.
Hours before theAmerican entry into World War I,Amerika was seized and placed under control of theUnited States Shipping Board (USSB). Later transferred to the U.S. Navy for use as a troop transport, she was initially commissioned asUSSAmerika withNaval Registry Identification Number 3006 (ID-3006), but her name was soon Anglicized toAmerica. AsAmerica she transported almost 40,000 troops toFrance. She sank at her mooring in Hoboken in 1918, but was soon raised and reconditioned. After theArmistice,America transported more than 51,000 troops back home from Europe. In 1919, she was handed over to theWar Department for use by theUnited States Army asUSATAmerica, under whose control she remained until 1920.
Returned to the USSB in 1920,America was initially assigned to theUnited States Mail Steamship Company, and later, after that company's demise, toUnited States Lines, for which she plied theNorth Atlantic on Bremen to New York routes. In March 1926, due to an oil leak from inside the ship, near the end of one of her periodic refits,America suffered a fire that raged for seven hours and burned nearly all of her passenger cabins. Despite almost $2,000,000 in damage, the ship was rebuilt and back in service by the following year. In April 1931,America ended her service for the United States Lines and was laid up for almost nine years.
In October 1940,America was reactivated for the U.S. Army and renamedUSATEdmund B. Alexander. After establishing theNewfoundland Base Command and a stint as abarracks ship atSt. John's, Newfoundland in January–May 1941,Edmund B. Alexander was refitted for use as a troopship forWorld War II duty. She was first placed on aNew Orleans toPanama route, but later transferred to trooping between New York and European ports. At the end of the war,Edmund B. Alexander was converted to carry military dependents, remaining in that service until 1949. She was placed in reserve until sold for scrapping in January 1957.
Amerika was a steel-hulled, 22,225 gross register tons, twin-screw, steam passenger liner. She was launched on 20 April 1905 atBelfast, by the shipbuilding firm Harland & Wolff. Built for theHamburg America Line, the steamer entered transatlantic service in the autumn of 1905, when she left Hamburg on 11 October, bound forNew York City. The night before her inaugural voyage on 19 June 1905,Kaiser Wilhelm II boarded the ship and dined on a menu created byAuguste Escoffier, the French chef who was in charge of organizing the restaurant on boardAmerika.[2]
A slightly larger sister ship,Kaiserin Auguste Victoria was being built at the same time at Hamburg and would remain the largest ship in the world until theLusitania. Easily one of the most luxurious passenger vessels to sail the seas,Amerika entered upperNew York Bay on 20 October, reaching the Hamburg America piers atHoboken, New Jersey, in mid-afternoon. Some 2,000 people turned out to watch her as she was moored near her consorts at the Hamburg America Line which were bedecked in colorful bunting in nearby slips.
From 1905 to 1914,Amerika plied the North Atlantic trade routes touching atCherbourg,France, while steaming between Hamburg and New York. Toward the end of that period, her itinerary was altered so that the ship also called atBoulogne, France, andSouthampton, England.
On 14 April 1912, a ship's officer sent a telegram message to the Hydrographic Office in Washington, D.C. reporting that the ship "passed two large icebergs in 41 27N 50 8W on the 14th of April" signed "Knutp, 10;51p[m]". This message was, coincidentally, relayed by the Marconi operator onTitanic to the station atCape Race because the transmitter ofAmerika was not powerful enough to reach Cape Race directly.
Amerika was responsible for the accidental loss of British submarineB2 by collision 4 nautical miles (7.4 km) northeast ofDover in the early hours of 4 October 1912.
The eruption of fighting at the outset ofWorld War I caughtAmerika atBoston, where she was preparing to sail for home. Although due to leave port on 1 August 1914,Amerika stayed at Boston to avoid capture by theRoyal Navy. She remained there through almost three years of United States neutrality.
On her voyage from New York to Europe in the second week of April 1911,Amerika carried the mortally ill composerGustav Mahler back home. He died in Vienna on 18 May 1911.
Lavishly decorated throughout,Amerika boasted of a couple of unique shipboard features; an electric passenger elevator (the first to be installed on a passenger liner), and anà la carte restaurant which, from early morning to midnight, offered a variety of dishes to delight the discriminating gourmet. It was managed by the famous hotelierCésar Ritz, while the renowned chefAuguste Escoffier was responsible for creating the menu, organizing and staffing the kitchen and restaurant.[3][2]
French architectCharles Mewès was responsible for designing the interiors ofAmerika, while the English firm ofWaring & Gillow was contracted to decorate the main public rooms.[4][5]The Illustrated London News stated simply that "the rooms which they [Waring & Gillow] have decorated are artistic triumphs."[6]The Sphere wrote of the interiors that "the whole of the vessel is planned on such a scale that the various rooms do not any longer partake of the nature of ship's cabins but are rather a series of sumptuously-furnished and comfortably-contrived apartments such as one would find in a costly house on shore."[4]Amerika's interiors were a departure from the prevailing style on ocean liners up to that point, as they were modelled after a luxury hotel rather than on castles and palaces.[5]
The grand staircase in First-Class was designed in theAdam style, as was the ladies' drawing room. The drawing room had white walls inset with blueWedgwood plaques.[7] It was topped by a glass dome, with furniture upholstered in rose-colored silk and draperies in rose and silver. Adjoining the drawing room was a writing room in theEmpire style, with paneling of white and gold andheliotrope-colored silk panels. There was also anElizabethan style smoking room, which occupied two floors connected by a staircase. The room was paneled in oak "of the roughly-fashioned style of the sixteenth century" and along the walls of the upper-level was a carved frieze illustrating scenes from the life ofSaint Hubert.[4] The chimneypiece of the smoking room was made of brick, with a stone hearth. The room was lit by lanterns hung from the oak beams which crossed the ceiling.[7]
The First-Class dining saloon was at the bottom of the three-deck high grand staircase. The saloon, which was in theLouis XVI style, was as wide as the ship and about 100 ft. in length. It was overlooked by a balcony on four sides. It featured copies of paintings byFrançois Boucher at either end, with furniture in "gold-coloredWest Indian satin, veined with green."[7] Theà la carte restaurant was modelled on the Ritz-Carlton Grill at theCarlton Hotel in London, which Mewès had designed.[5] The Carlton Hotel Company Board agreed to let the shipping company use the name "Ritz-Carlton Restaurant."[2] It was in the Louis XVI style, with paneling made of chestnut and mahogany, enriched with bronzeormolu accents in vegetative designs. The sideboards were made of matching woods and ormolu, while the chairs were copied from examples atVersailles from the Louis XVI period. At the center of the room was a skylight with gray and yellow-colored panels of glass. Children had their own nursery, which was decorated with painted scenes from nursery rhymes.[7]
In terms of accommodation, the finest suites on board were the two called the "Imperial State Rooms", one decorated in the Adam style, the other in the Empire style. There were also 13chambres de luxe decorated by Waring & Gillow in a range of historic styles, includingGeorgian,Queen Anne, Adam, andSheraton.[3]
On 6 April 1917, in anticipation that Congress woulddeclare war on Germany,Edmund Billings, the Collector of Customs for the Port of Boston, ordered thatAmerika and four other German ships (theCincinnati,Wittekind,Köln, andOckenfels) be seized. It remained inactive until it was taken by deputies under the orders ofJohn A. Donald, the Commissioner of theUnited States Shipping Board (USSB), on 25 July 1917. Upon inspecting the liner, American agents found her filthy and discovered that her crew hadsabotaged certain elements of the ship's engineering plant. Nevertheless, with her officers and men detained onDeer Island,Amerika was earmarked by theUnited States Navy for service in theCruiser and Transport Force as atroop transport. Given the identification number 3006, she was placed in commission as USSAmerika (ID-3006) at 08:00 on 6 August 1917, at theBoston Navy Yard withLieutenant Commander Frederick L. Oliver in temporary command. Ten days later,CaptainGeorge C. Day arrived on board and assumed command.
Over the ensuing weeks, she was converted into a troopship, and while this work was in progress,Secretary of the NavyJosephus Daniels promulgated General Order No. 320, changing the names of several ex-German ships on 1 September 1917. As a consequenceAmerika was renamedAmerica.
The major part of her conversion and repair work having been completed by late September,America ran a six-hourtrial outsideBoston Harbor on the morning of 29 September. The ship managed to make three more revolutions than she had ever made before. The completion of these trials proved to be a milestone in the reconditioning of the former German ships, forAmerica was the last to be readied for service in theAmerican Navy.
On 18 October 1917,America departed the Boston Navy Yard and, two days later, arrived atHoboken, New Jersey, which would be the port of embarkation for all of her wartime voyages carryingdoughboys to Europe. There, she loaded coal and cargo; received a brief visit fromRear AdmiralAlbert Gleaves, the commander of the Cruiser-Transport Force; and took on board her first contingent of troops. Completing the embarkation on the afternoon of 29 October,America sailed forFrance on the morning of 31 October, in company with the transportsMount Vernon,Von Steuben,Agamemnon, thearmored cruiserNorth Carolina, anddestroyersTerry andDuncan.
For more than a week, the passage was uneventful. Then, on 7 November,Von Steuben struckAgamemnon while zig-zagging. AsAmerica's war history states: "The excitement caused by the collision of these great ships was greatly increased when theVon Steuben sent out a signal that asubmarine was sighted." The ships in the convoy dispersed as if on signal, only to draw together in formation once more when the "enemy" failed to materialize. All vessels resumed their stations—all, that is, exceptVon Steuben whose bow was open to the sea from the damage suffered in the collision. Even the crippled transport rejoined the convoy the following afternoon. Met on 12 November off the coast of France by an escort consisting of converted American yachts and French airplanes and destroyers, the convoy reached safe haven atBrest,America's only wartime port of debarkation. She dropped her anchor at 11:15 and began discharging the soldiers.
Underway again on 29 November, the ship returned to the United States, in convoy, reaching Hoboken on 10 December. She then remained pier side through Christmas and New Year's Day and headed for France again on 4 January 1918, carrying 3,838 troops and 4,100 tons of cargo. The following day, she fell in with the transportMercury, and armored cruiserSeattle, her escort for the crossing. Except for the after control station personnel reporting a torpedo track crossing in the ship's wake on 17 January—shortly before the transport reached Brest—this voyage was uneventful.
America arrived atHampton Roads, Virginia, on 6 February and the next day entered theNorfolk Navy Yard for repairs and alterations. At this time, the ship received an additional pair of 6-inch (150 mm) guns to augment her main battery.
Troop ship duty continued:
In the brief respite that followed,America briefly received Rear AdmiralAlbert Gleaves on board and was painted in adazzle camouflage pattern designed to obscure the ship's lines, a pattern that she would wear for the remainder of her days as a wartime transport.
Late on 9 July,America sailed on the seventh of her voyages to Europe for the Navy. Just before midnight on the 14th, while the convoy steamed through a storm that limited visibility severely, a stranger, SSInstructor, unwittingly wandered into the formation and ran afoul ofAmerica. In spite of attempts at radical course changes by both ships,America struck the intruder near the break of her poop deck and sheared off her stern which sank almost immediately.America's swing threw the wreck ofInstructor clear, allowing it to pass down the transport's port side without touching before it sank less than 10 minutes later.America stopped briefly to search for survivors, but the danger of lurkingU-boats limited the pause to the most abbreviated of durations, and the storm added other obstacles. As a result,America succeeded in rescuing only the 11Instructor crewmen who managed to man a lifeboat. Tragically, the exigencies of war forcedAmerica to abandon the other 31 to their fate. A court of inquiry held at Brest on 18 July, soon afterAmerica arrived there, exonerated her captain from any blame with regard to the sad incident.
Fortunately, since the brush withInstructor had caused but minor damage toAmerica, the transport was still able to carry out her mission. After embarking passengers for the return trip, she got underway on 25 July in company withMatsonia,Manchuria,Aeolus,Sierra,Martha Washington,Powhatan, andSS Patria. Upon parting from these ships three days later,America raced on alone and reached Hoboken on the evening of 3 August.
Her eighth voyage began on 18 August withAmerica's sailing in company withGeorge Washington andVon Steuben. She reached Brest on the 27th, discharged her troops, and embarked the usual mix of passengers. On this trip, she took on board 171 army officers, 165 army enlisted men, 18 French nuns, 10YMCA secretaries, aRed Cross official and two nurses, two civilians and two sailors before sailing on 30 August. One of the civilians was the distinguished conductorWalter Damrosch who, at the request of GeneralJohn J. Pershing, commanding general of theAmerican Expeditionary Force (AEF), was entrusted the mission of reorganizing the bands of the Army, and had founded a school for bandmasters at the general headquarters of the AEF atChaumont, France.
America parted fromGeorge Washington andVon Steuben on 2 September and reached theBoston Navy Yard on the 7th. Following drydocking, voyage repairs, and the embarkation of another contingent of troops, she arrived at Hoboken on the morning of the 17th. Three days later, she cleared the port, in company withAgamemnon, bound for France on her ninth transatlantic voyage cycle.
By this time, theSpanish flu epidemic was raging in the United States and Europe and had taken many lives. From its first appearance, special precautions had been taken on boardAmerica to protect both her ship's company and passengers. The sanitary measures had succeeded in keeping all in the ship healthy. However, this group of soldiers—who had come on board at Boston where the epidemic had been raging—brought the flu with them. As a result, 997 cases of flu andpneumonia occurred among the embarked soldiers on the passage to France, while fifty six cases broke out among the 940 men in the crew. Before the transport completed the round-trip voyage and arrived back at Hoboken, New Jersey, fifty three soldiers and two sailors had died on board. This comparatively low death rate (some ships lost considerably more men) can be attributed to the efforts of the ship's doctors andcorpsmen, as well as the embarked units' medical personnel. Forty-two of the fifty three deaths among the troops occurred in the time the ship lay at anchor at Brest from 29 September to 2 October.
The day after reaching home,America commenced coaling and loading stores in preparation for her 10th voyage and completed the task at 02:25 on 15 October. In addition, the ship was thoroughly fumigated to rid her of influenza germs. By that time, all troops had been embarked and the ship loaded, ready to sail for France soon thereafter.
At 04:45,America, without warning, began listing to port and kept heeling over as water entered through the coaling ports which were still open although the coaling process had been completed over two hours before. Soon after the ship began listing, thegeneral alarm was sounded throughout the ship. In the troop spaces, the urgent sound of that alarm awakened the sleeping soldiers who sought egress from their compartments. Soldiers and sailors both streamed up ladders topside; others jumped for safety on thecoal barges, still alongside, or down cargo nets to the dock. Sentries on deck fired their rifles in the air as they sought to warn their comrades on board.
Commander Edward C. S. Baker, theexecutive officer, in the absence of Captain Zeno E. Briggs whose wife was seriously ill, directed Lieutenant John G. M. Stone, the gunnery officer, to clear the lower compartments. Stone was credited with leading to safety many soldiers and sailors who had been blindly plunging through various compartments (the flooding of the engine rooms had put the lights out aboard the ship) seeking some means of escape.
Rear Admiral Gleaves arrived at the dock soon after the ship sank, the water covering her main deck, to see personally what had happened to one of the largest transports in the Cruiser-Transport Force. Before the day was out, a court of inquiry began meeting to determine what had happened. Over the ensuing days, salvage efforts continued, including the removal of guns, cargo, and other equipment, as well as the search for the six men unaccounted for at muster. Eventually, the bodies of all, four soldiers and two sailors, were recovered. Divers worked continuously, closing open ports (almost all on "G" deck had been left open to allow the air to be cleared of the smell of disinfectants that had been used to cleanse and fumigate the compartments). She was raised and refloated on 21 November 1918, 10 days after thearmistice was signed endingWorld War I. On 16 December,America was towed by 10tugboats to theNew York Navy Yard where she remained undergoing the extensive repairs occasioned by her sinking, well into February 1919.
While unable to determine definitely what had caused the sinking, the court of inquiry posited that water had entered the ship through open ports on "G" deck. An unofficial opinion held by some officers in the case maintained that the listing of the ship had been caused by mud suction, that the ship, to some extent, had been resting on the bottom, and that, when the tide rose, one side was released before the other.
Foreshadowing theMagic Carpet operations which would followWorld War II, a massive effort was made after the armistice to return the veterans of theAmerican Expeditionary Force to the United States.America participated in this effort which commenced on 21 February when the ship sailed for Brest, France, and concluded on 15 September. Between that time, the transport made eight round-trip voyages to Brest. The western terminus was Hoboken, New Jersey for seven voyages and Boston, Massachusetts for the other. Among the 46,823 passengers whom she brought back from France wasBenedict Crowell, theAssistant Secretary of War who was embarked in the ship on her last voyage as a Navy transport.
On 22 September 1919, shortly afterAmerica completed that voyage, the Chief of the Army Transportation Service (ATS), Brigadier GeneralFrank T. Hines, contacted the Navy, expressing the Army's desire to acquireAmerica andMount Vernon ". . . to transport certain passengers from Europe to the United States." Four days later,America was decommissioned while alongside Pier 2, Hoboken, and transferred to theWar Department. Capt. J. Ford, ATS, simultaneously assumed command of the ship.
USATAmerica conducted two more voyages between Hoboken and Brest. Trouble highlighted her second voyage under the Army colors. An unruly crew at Brest on 4 December 1919 prompted Capt. Ford to appeal to the colonel commanding Base Section Number Five, at Brest, for an armed guard, fearing mutiny. Apparently, the Army matter was resolved, for the ship reached Hoboken five days before Christmas 1919.
On 20 December, the dayAmerica was scheduled to arrive at the port of debarkation, arrangements were made to turnAmerica and two other Army transports,President Grant andGeorge Washington, over to the USSB for operation while they were being carried on the roll of the Army Transport Reserve. However, before the year 1919 was out, events in a faraway land caused a temporary change in this plan.
A glance back at developments on theEastern Front inWorld War I may clarify the transport's new mission. When it mobilized for war,Austria-Hungary conscripted countless Czechs. Upon reaching the front, these men, long restive under Austrian rule, deserted in droves and then were organized by Russian officers to fight their former masters. However, the war sapped away the strength of the Russian government more rapidly than it weakened those of the other belligerents and thus encouraged rebellion. One revolution early in 1917 toppled theCzar and a second in the autumn placed aBolshevik regime in power. The communist leaders quickly negotiated withGermanythe treaty of Brest-Litovsk which tookRussia out of the war and allowed theCentral Powers to concentrate their resources on theWestern Front.
This development leftthe Czech Legion—some 40,000 strong—stranded in Russia with hostile forces separating it from its still oppressed homeland. Allied leaders hoped to use these dedicated and highly disciplined fighting men to bolster their own embattled troops on the western front and encouraged the Czechs to move east on theTrans-Siberian Railroad toVladivostok where they could be embarked in transports for passage to France.
However, before this could be accomplished, the Czechs, who had tried to remain aloof from Russia's internal struggles, incurred the hostility and opposition of the Bolsheviks and found themselves involuntarily embroiled in theRussian Civil War as something of a rallying point for various counterrevolutionary forces. Moreover, prior to the armistice, some factions within the Allied powers hoped that the Czechs might be used to reopen the fighting on the eastern front against the Central Powers. As a result, some two tempestuous years passed before the entire Czech legion finally assembled at Vladivostok ready for evacuation.
On 30 December 1919, a representative of the War Department contacted theOffice of the Chief of Naval Operations stating that Army transportsAmerica andPresident Grant "were to go on a long secret trip as soon as possible." He emphasized the urgency of the situation and requested that theNew York Navy Yard give the highest priority to repairing the two transports for sea. The Navy carried out the repairs, including drydocking, at top speed and completed the work by 21 January 1920. Two days later,America shifted to Hoboken and sailed for the Pacific on 30 January.
America reachedSan Francisco on 16 February and remained there a week before clearing theGolden Gate on 23 February. Sailing viaCavite, in thePhilippines (where she tarried from 15 to 23 March), andNagasaki, Japan,America reached Vladivostok soon thereafter.
While the transport had been on her way to the Russian far eastern port, the situation in Russia had deteriorated markedly. Bolshevik armies had driven theWhite Russian forces back intoSiberia, and the collapse of the White government, headed by AdmiralAlexander Kolchak, sounded the death knell of the western attempt to intervene in the civil war. By the time the ship arrived at Vladivostok, the evacuation of the Czech legion was well underway. Adding to the number of people to be transported were the several hundred wives and children of Czech soldiers, since some 1,600 men had married in the period of the "Czech Anabasis" in Russia. By 20 May, the last of the Czech troops had arrived in Vladivostok. Five days later, the United States consul in that port estimated that some 13,200 remained to be repatriated in the five or six remaining transports, which includedAmerica. Ultimately,Thomas andAmerica reachedTrieste on 8 August, disembarking their contingents of Czechs without incident.
ForAmerica, further service awaited with theUnited States Lines. Reconditioned to resume her place in the transatlantic passenger trade, she commenced her maiden voyage as an Americanpassenger liner on 22 June 1921, sailing forBremen, Germany, with stops atPlymouth, England, andCherbourg, France, en route.
For the next eleven years,America plied theAtlantic, ranking third only in size to the United States Lines' shipsLeviathan andGeorge Washington—the latter running mate from the Cruiser-Transport Force days. In June 1924, theAmerica transported the United States Olympic team to Cherbourg, France, for the summer games held in Paris, making the return leg to New York in August. On two occasions,America figured in the headlines.
The first occurred on 10 March 1926, as the ship lay moored in the yard of theNewport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company inNewport News, Virginia awaiting final trials after being reconditioned. A fire broke out on board only a day before she was to be returned to her owner. The fire burned for seven hours and eventually consumed most of the passenger cabins as it swept the ship nearly from stem to stern, causing an estimated $2,000,000 worth of damage, equivalent to $33,027,796.61 in today's money.
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The second newsworthy incident began on 22 January 1929 whenAmerica—then commanded by CaptainGeorge Fried—was steaming from France to New York. As she battled her way through a major storm, the liner picked up distress signals from the Italian steamship,Florida. Guided by her radio direction finder, the American ship homed in on the Italian and, late the following afternoon, finally sighted the endangered vessel through light snow squalls. Taking a position offFlorida's weather beam,America lowered her number onelifeboat, commanded by herChief Officer,Harry Manning, with a crew of eight men.
After the boat had been rowed to within 50 feet (15 m) of the listingFlorida, Manning had a line thrown across to the eager crew of the distressed freighter One by one, the 32 men from the Italian ship came across the rope. By the time the last of them, the ship's captain, had been dragged on board the pitching lifeboat, the winds had reached gale force, with violent snow and rain squalls, with a high, rough, sea running. Then, via ladders, ropes, cargo nets, and two homemadebreeches buoys, sailors on boardAmerica brought upFlorida's survivors, until all 32 were safe and sound. Finally, they pulled their shipmates from the rescue party back on board. Chief Officer Manning was brought up last. Captain Fried felt that it was highly dangerous to attempt to hoist the number one lifeboat on board and, rather than risk lives, ordered it cut adrift.
In 1931 and 1932, after two modern ships,Washington andSS Manhattan, had been added to the fleet of theUnited States Lines,America was laid up at Point Patience, Maryland, on thePatuxent River, along with her consorts of days gone by –George Washington,Agamemnon, andMount Vernon, all veterans of the old Cruiser-Transport Force. For the next eight years,America were placed in reserve.
When the United States transferred fifty surplus destroyers to the British government in thedestroyers for bases agreement in the fall of 1940, two of the acquisitions were bases atArgentia, Newfoundland and the futureFort Pepperrell atSt. John's, Newfoundland, but nobarracks existed at St. John's for troops, so an interim solution had to be provided.
As a result, in October 1940,America was acquired by theUnited States Army and towed toBaltimore, Maryland, to undergo rehabilitation in theBethlehem Steel Company yard. Earmarked for use as a floating barracks, the ship would provide quarters for 1,200 troops – the garrison for the new base at St. John's. Still a coal-burner, the ship could only make a shadow of her former speed – 10 knots (19 km/h).
With the ship's new role came a new name. Possibly to avoid confusion with the linerAmerica, then building atNewport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, renamed United States Army Transport (USAT)Edmund B. Alexander, in keeping with the Army's policy of naming its oceangoing transports for famous general officers. This name honored Brevet Brigadier GeneralEdmund Brooke Alexander.
Edmund B. Alexander sailed from New York in early[Note 1] January 1941 forNewfoundland, escorted byCoast GuardCutterDuane, with 58 officers and 919 enlisted men. Troops were elements of the 3rd Infantry, 62nd Coast Artillery (AA) and 57th Coast Artillery for the first U.S. contingent of theNewfoundland Base Command and theHarbor Defenses of Argentia and St. John's. Arriving in a heavy snowstorm on 24 January, the ship spent four days at anchor before docking on 29 January. She remained there, afloating barracks, until troops were moved to a tent city outside St. John's and the ship returned to New York in early June 1941.[8][9][10]
Extensive repairs in the yards of theAtlantic Basin Iron Works followed. The ship operated briefly betweenNew Orleans and thePanama Canal Zone. Subsequently, ordered toBaltimore in May 1942,Edmund B. Alexander spent almost a year undergoing a major refit. In the overhaul, she was given a single funnel, replacing the two, and was converted to burnfuel oil instead of coal. After the refit, she could make 17 knots (31 km/h).
Edmund B. Alexander carried troops between New York and the European and Mediterranean theaters for the remainder ofWorld War II. She was awarded abattle star for being part of Convoy KMF-25A which came under attack on 6 November 1943.
Altered in February and March 1946 to carry military dependents (904 adults—possiblywar brides—and 314 children) back from Europe, she performed such duty for the next three years, including a similar voyage from Brooklyn Navy Yard through the Caribbean and Panama Canal to Hawaii and finally to Yokohama.
The ship was placed in reserve at Hawkins Point, Maryland, on 26 May 1949. Taken thence on 28 January 1951 to lay-up in theHudson River,Edmund B. Alexander remained there for almost six more years. During this time in lay up the call back to active service never sounded. The ship was sold to the Bethlehem Steel Company of Baltimore, on 16 January 1957 and was broken up a short time later.
This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be foundhere.Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in 1926 | |
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