Yard number 207 Acquired March 1919 Launched 28 September 1902 Weight 8,128 tons | Completed 6.07.1903 Commissioned 8 March 1919 Length 118 m | |
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Name USS General W. C. Gorgas Namesake William C. Gorgas (1854-1920), physician and U.S. Army officer noted for fighting tropical disease (Previous name retained) Builder Reiherstieg Schiffswerfte & Maschinenfabrik | ||
USS General W. C. Gorgas (ID-1365) was a United States Navy troop transport in commission in 1919, named for William C. Gorgas.
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Construction and early career
General W. C. Gorgas was built in 1902 as the commercial passenger-cargo ship SS Prinz Sigismund at Rostock, Germany, by Neptun Aktiengesellschaft, Schiffswerft und Maschinenfabrik for the Hamburg-Amerika Line (HAL). HAL had five of these ships from three builders.
The United States Shipping Board seized Prinz Sigismund when the United States entered World War I on the side of the Allies in April 1917. Renamed SS General W. C. Gorgas, she carried troops and cargo to Europe during the war under charter operations of the Panama Railroad and Steamship Company of New York City. Her Sisterships Prinz Eitel Friedrich and Prinz Joachim were too taken over in 1917 by the shipping board and were renamed Otsego (ID-1628) and Moccasin (ID-1322).
United States Navy career
After the war ended on 11 November 1918, the Shipping Board converted General W. C. Gorgas into a troop transport and transferred her to the U.S. Navy in March 1919 for postwar use in bringing American troops home from Europe. The Navy assigned her the naval registry Identification Number (Id. No.) 1365, and commissioned her on 8 March 1919 as USS General W. C. Gorgas with Lieutenant Commander James Edward Stone, USNRF, in command.
Assigned to the Cruiser and Transport Force, General W. C. Gorgas departed New York City on 25 April 1919 for Bordeaux, France, where she embarked United States Army troops and loaded cargo. She then returned to the United States, arriving at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 2 June 1919. She again departed for Bordeaux on 5 June 1919, returning to the United States at Newport News, Virginia, on 4 July 1919. She brought home 2,063 troops from France in these two transatlantic voyages.
General W. C. Gorgas was decommissioned on 28 July 1919 and transferred the same day to the United States Shipping Board.
Later career
Once again SS General W. C. Gorgas, she returned to commercial service, operated by Libby, McNeill & Libby. They had bought a year before the Otsego, the former Prinz Eitel Fridriech and used it with success for supplying their cannery factories in Alaska. Both former German steamers stayed in service until the war and had the same fate. In November 1941, she was chartered by the United States Department of War for U.S. Army troop transport service between Seattle, Washington, and the Territory of Alaska as the United States Army Transport (USAT) General W. C. Gorgas. She continued her Army troopship duties to Alaska until transferred to the War Shipping Administration at Seattle in January 1945.
In 1945, the War Shipping Administration transferred General W. C. Gorgas to the Soviet Union, where she was renamed SS Mikhail Lomonosov.