SS Absaroka

SS Absaroka was a steamer, named after the Absaroka Range of mountains in Montana and Wyoming, completed in February 1918 for the United States Shipping Board (USSB) which briefly operated the ship. From 17 September 1918 to 4 March 1919 the ship was commissioned as USS Absaroka with the identification number IX-2581 in United States Navy and operated by the Naval Overseas Transportation Service.

USS Absaroka (ID-2518) probably photographed upon completion of construction, circa 1917
History
Name
  • Absaroka (1917—1946)
  • Prima Vista / Primavista (1946—1948)
  • Panenterprise (1948—1952)
  • Maryland (1952-1954)
NamesakeAbsaroka Range
Owner
  • United States Shipping Board (1917—1927)
  • McCormick Steamship Company (1927—1940)
  • Pope & Talbot, Inc. (1940—1946)
  • Samsco (Panama) (1946—1948)
  • Primavista (Panama) (1948—1949)
  • Mary Louisa (Panama) (1949—1952)
  • Tidewater Commercial (Panama) (1952—1954)
Port of registrySeattle (1917—1927)
BuilderSkinner & Eddy, Seattle
Yard number15
Laid down4 September 1917
Launched22 December 1917
Completed12 February 1918
Identification
FateScrapped 1954
Notes
  • U.S. Navy commissioned status:
  • 17 September 1918—4 March 1919
General characteristics [1][2]
TypeDesign 1013 cargo ship
Tonnage
Displacement12,397 long tons (12,596 t)
Length409.6 ft (124.8 m)
Beam54.1 ft (16.5 m)
Draft24 ft 6 in (7.47 m)
Depth27.1 ft (8.3 m)
Installed power2,500 ihp, 359 Nhp
PropulsionSeattle Machine Works 3-cylinder triple expansion engine
Speed10.5 knots (12.1 mph; 19.4 km/h)
Crew
  • Commercial: 45
  • NOTS: 70
Notes
  • Ship armament, WW I
  • 1 × 6 in (150 mm) gun
  • 1 × 3 in (76 mm) gun

The ship was returned to the USSB which operated the vessel until sold in 1927 to McCormick Steamship Company. In 1940 Absaroka was sold to Pope & Talbot, Inc. which operated it until sold foreign in April 1946. On 24 December 1941 the ship was torpedoed and damaged by torpedo off the California coast. During World War II the War Shipping Administration (WSA) took control of all oceanic shipping with Absaroka delivered to WSA 9 May 1942 to be operated by Pope & Talbot for WSA under Army and general standard agreements. On 9 April 1946 the ship was redelivered to Pope & Talbot and sold 14 April 1946 to the Greek government and then operated as Prima Vista or Primavista until 1948. The ship was then sold to other foreign interests operating as Panenterprise to 1952 and finally Maryland until broken up in 1954.

Construction

Absaroka was an Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) Design 1013 cargo ship built in 1917 for the United States Shipping Board (USSB) by Skinner & Eddy Company, Seattle, Washington as USSB number 84, yard number 15, U.S. Official Number 215986 with signal LJQR.[3][1][2][4] The single 2,700 h.p. triple expansion steam engine was built by Seattle Machine Works.[5]

Operation

The USSB took delivery of Absaroka on completion in February 1918 for operation.[3][2] On 17 September 1918 the ship was taken over by the Navy on a bare boat charter basis, assigned identification number IX-2581 and commissioned USS Absaroka under the command of Lieutenant commander O. W. Hughes for operation in the Naval Overseas Transportation Service (NOTS).[2]

Between October 1918 and February 1919, the ship made two transatlantic voyages carrying Army cargo to ports in France, England, and the Netherlands. During her second trip, Absaroka rescued the captain and crew of the disabled British steamer War Marvel and landed them safely at Falmouth, England.[2]

The ship arrived in New York City on 12 February 1919 and was immediately drydocked for overhaul. Absaroka was decommissioned on 4 March 1919 and returned to the United States Shipping Board.[3][2] The USSB sold the ship with requirements for specified alterations and improvements to the McCormick Steamship Company for $131,000 before 30 June 1927.[6] From 1927 to 1940 Absaroka was operated by McCormick which in 1935 was acquired by Pope & Talbot, Incorporated to become legally identified as the Pope & Talbot-McCormick Steamship Division. From 1940 the ship was operated as a lumber carrier under the Pope & Talbot identity.[3][2][7][8][note 1]

Absaroka listing to starboard following torpedo attack by Japanese submarine. December 1941.jpg

Absaroka was torpedoed and damaged by the Japanese submarine I-19 off Point Fermin, California, and beached off Fort MacArthur on 24 December 1941. The attack was one of the opening incidents of what is called the Battle of Los Angeles during which American merchant ships were attacked by Japanese submarines in waters off the West Coast from the last half of December 1941 through February 1942.[9][10][11] Other ships attacked during this event were Agwiworld, Samoa escaped shelling and torpedoes as did Barbara Olson, Dorothy Phillips, Connecticut and Idaho but with damage. H.M. Storey escaped but sank later. Emidio, Montebello, Larry Doheny, Camden and Fort Camosun were sunk.[10][11][12][13][14][15]

The ship was delivered to the War Shipping Administration on 9 May 1942 for operation by Pope & Talbot as the administration's agent. The operating agreement was for Army Transportation Corps requirements until 16 August 1943 when it was changed to a General Agency Agreement. On 9 April 1946 Absaroka was delivered to Pope & Talbot as owner at San Francisco.

Post-war service

On 14 April 1946 Pope & Talbot sold Absaroka to the Greek government.[16] It passed into the ownership of J A Cosmas, and was registered in Panama as Primavista or Prima Vista under the registered ownership of Compañia Marítima Samsoc Limitada S.A., Panama.[16][17][18][note 2] In 1948 the vessel was sold to Primavista Compañia de Navegación S.A., under the management of Pietro Ruggiero, and remaining under the Panamanian flag as Panenterprise.[17][18] In 1948-49 the ship made at least three trips from Europe to Buenos Aires and brought a small number of immigrants.[3][4][19] The ship was again sold in 1952, again with Panamanian registration, and renamed Maryland in the ownership of The Tidewater Commercial Company Inc., based in Baltimore, Maryland, though controlled by the Italian shipowner Albert Ravano.[17][18][20]

The ship was broken up in 1954, either by Patapsco Scrap Company at Baltimore, or by Shipbreaking Industries Ltd, Faslane, Scotland, arriving on 9 April.[3][17][18][21]

Footnotes
  1. Both McCormick Steamship and Pope & Talbot originated in the Pacific Northwest lumber business. See the article Port Gamble, Washington sections Sale of Puget Mill Company and the next section Creation of Pope & Talbot Co. for some of the background. In 1946 the McCormick Steamship name, legally identified as the Pope & Talbot-McCormick Steamship Division, itself was absorbed into the Pope & Talbot identity.
  2. Sources vary of whether it was Prima Vista or Primavista with MARAD and DANFS using Prima Vista, while Lloyd's Register of Shippping and later sources have Primavista.

References
  1. Fifty-Fourth Annual List of Merchant Vessels of the United States, Year ended June 30, 1922. Washington, D.C.: Department of Commerce, Bureau of Navigation. 1922. p. 55. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  2. "Absaroka (Id. No. 2581)". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Navy Department, Naval History and Heritage Command. June 1, 2020. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  3. McKellar, Norman L. (September–October 1962). "Steel Shipbuilding under the U. S. Shipping Board, 1917-1921, Contract Steel Ships, Part III" (PDF). The Belgian Shiplover. p. 475a. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 July 2021. Retrieved 13 July 2021 – via ShipScribe.
  4. Colton, Tim (March 9, 2016). "Skinner & Eddy, Seattle WA". ShipbuildingHistory. Retrieved 15 July 2021.
  5. "Engines Built by Seattle Machine Works During the War and Vessels in Which They Were Installed". Pacific Marine Review. J.S. Hines. December 1919. p. 130c. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  6. Eleventh Annual Report of the United States Shipping Board (PDF) (Report). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. 1927. p. 108. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  7. "McCormick Changes Name to Pope & Talbot Lines". Pacific Marine Review. J.S. Hines. April 1946. p. 52. Retrieved 14 July 2021.
  8. Red Sea Space Charter Rates. Hearings Before the Committee on the Merchant Marine and Fisheries, House of Representatives (Report). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. 1944. p. 165. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  9. "The Battle of Los Angeles". California State Military History and Museums Program. 23 June 2017. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  10. Young, Donald J. (July 1998). "West Coast War Zone". Historynet. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  11. Bareilles, Jack (May 2005). World War comes to Humboldt County (Masters thesis). Humboldt State University. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  12. Yenne, Bill (2016). Panic on the Pacific: How America Prepared for the West Coast Invasion. Washington, DC: Regnery History. ISBN 978-1621574972. LCCN 2017304401. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  13. "The Attacks on the SS Montebello and the SS Idaho". California State Military History and Museums Program. 8 February 2016. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  14. Screening Level Risk Assessment Package — Camden (PDF) (Report). Washington, D.C.: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. March 2013. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  15. Wilma, David (February 17, 2005). "Japanese submarine torpedoes and shells the freighter Fort Camosun off Cape Flattery on June 20, 1942". HistoryLink. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  16. "Absaroka". Maritime Administration (Ship History Database Vessel Status Card). Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  17. Starke, Tony; Schell, William A. Register of Merchant Ships completed in 1918 (June 2002 ed.). Gravesend: World Ship Society. p. 1.
  18. "Absaroka (2215986)". Miramar Ship Index. Retrieved 17 July 2021.
  19. "Ship Panenterprise arrivals to Argentina". Jewish Genealogy in Argentina. Archived from the original on 27 January 2017. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
  20. "Ravano v. Commissioner". Leagle Inc. Archived from the original on 17 July 2021. Retrieved 17 July 2021.
  21. Merchant Ships Totally Lost, Broken Up, etc in Quarter Ended 30th June 1954 (PDF). London: Lloyd's Register of Shipping. December 1954. p. 16. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 July 2021. Retrieved 17 July 2021.


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