Name USS Wabash Port of registry Germany Launched 1900 Weight 10,640 tons | Owner Norddeutscher Lloyd Laid down date unknown Length 120 m Displacement 9.503 million kg | |
 | ||
Namesake A river that rises in Mercer County, Ohio, near Fort Recovery. Operator Deutsche Dampfschiffahrts-Gesellschaft "Hansa" Builders Wigham Richardson, Newcastle upon Tyne | ||
USS Wabash (ID-1824) was a German cargo ship, impounded in the neutral United States when World War I commenced. Once the United States entered the war, the ship was confiscated and turned over to the U.S. Navy for wartime use as USS Wabash.
Contents
Commercial career and internment
SS Wartburg was a single-screw, steel-hulled freighter completed in 1900 at Newcastle upon Tyne, England, by Wigham Richardson and Co., Ltd., for service with the Deutsche Dampfschiffahrts-Gesellschaft "Hansa".
Prior to World War I she was operated commercially by the Norddeutscher Lloyd line under the German flag, with her name being changed to Tübingen in 1906-1907. In 1911, she collided with the minelayer Albatross. When the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 made the high seas unsafe for German shipping, she took refuge in an American port and was interned, as the United States at that time was still a neutral nation.
Seized in America
When the United States was drawn into the war on the side opposed to Germany, America lost its neutrality and seized the Tübingen. In April 1917, the cargo ship was taken over by the United States Shipping Board (USSB). Renamed Seneca, she was part of the U.S. merchant marine until February 1918, when she was acquired by the Navy and placed in commission as USS Wabash (ID # 1824).
She was acquired by the U.S. Navy on 9 February 1918, at Hoboken, New Jersey, for use with the Naval Overseas Transportation Service. The cargo ship was renamed Wabash, designated Id. No. 1824, and commissioned on the same day with Lt. Comdr. Frank C. Seeley, USNRF, in command.
World War I service
Wabash departed New York City on 28 February, bound for France. After delivering her cargo of construction iron and ammunition at Pauillac, she returned to the United States on 22 April. She made four more voyages to St. Nazaire, France, and returned to New York City from her last run on 6 April 1919.
During her second such trip, while in convoy on the foggy night of 22 May 1918, Wabash collided with the U.S. Navy patrol vessel Wakiva II, sinking her. During the rest of the First World War, and in the months following the 11 November 1918 Armistice, she completed three more round-trip Atlantic Ocean crossings
Decommissioning
Decommissioned on 21 April 1919, the freighter was returned to the U.S. Shipping Board. The ship subsequently home-ported at New York City and operated under the flag of the North Atlantic and Western Steamship Company, until some time in 1924 or 1925. She was then transferred to Italian registry.