Name SS Ulysses Acquired 17 April 1915 Fate Unknown Length 163 m | Owner Panama Canal Company Out of service 1929 Launched 12 December 1914 | |
Route Hampton Roads–Cristóbal, Colón Builder Bethlehem Sparrows Point Shipyard | ||
The SS Ulysses (Panama Collier No. 1) was a steel-hulled screw steamer designed by the United States Navy and constructed at Sparrows Point, Maryland by the Maryland Steel Company under naval supervision; she was named for Ulysses (a character in Greek mythology and the protagonist of Homer's epic poem, the Odyssey
The ship was launched on 12 December 1914 and, on 17 April 1915 was delivered at the Norfolk Navy Yard to the Panama Canal Company.
Ulysses shuttled between Hampton Roads and the Panama Canal Zone, carrying coal to Cristobal, into 1917. During World War I the ship received a main battery of one 5-inch gun and a 3-inch gun and a Navy armed guard crew to man them while the ship continued to discharge her longstanding duties. The guns were apparently removed shortly after the Armistice ended hostilities. Throughout the War, Ulysses belonged to the Panama Canal Company and operated under the control of the Panama Railroad. She continued in this status after peace returned until 1929, the last year in which her name appeared on shipping registers.