USS George F. Elliott (AP-105)

Delbrasil was the first of three cargo and passenger liners, the later ships being SS Delorleans and SS Deltargentino, built for Delta Line operation with close cooperation between the U.S. Maritime Commission and the company's management to be the first passenger cargo vessels in the country meeting all current safety and efficiency requirements.[5] Naval architect V. M. Friede of New Orleans executed the company's particular design for the series of six ships and was later named the company's consulting naval architect.[5][6]

The ship's design was based on a Maritime Commission (CP-3) type with Delbrasil being built in 1939 by Bethlehem Steel at Sparrows Point, Maryland.[1] The ship was launched at 11:00 a.m. on 16 December 1939, sponsored by the wife of the Brazilian ambassador, Mrs. Maria Martins and intended for Delta Line, the Mississippi Shipping Company's operator, for service between the U.S. Gulf Coast and the East Coast of South America.[2] The ship was delivered to the Mississippi Shipping Company on 31 May 1940.[7]

The design was of a ship with six cargo holds and twenty-six staterooms for sixty-seven passengers and passenger spaces comparable to larger luxury liners that included a two deck high passenger entry hall, overlooked by the passenger lounge, with staircases to accommodations and the main dining hall that could seat seventy with a small private dining area seating ten.[5] An unusual feature was provision for boarding and entering the entry hall from the boat deck as well as main embarkation entry due to the fact that at certain stages of the Mississippi River the entry hall would be below the levee height.[5]

Delbrasil began operation with Delta Line on a maiden voyage departing from New Orleans' Market Street Wharf on 20 June 1940 to Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina on a route that passed close enough to islands of the West Indies to view beaches and the initial port of Recife before arrival in Rio de Janeiro on 4 July and continuation via Santos, Montevideo and termination at Buenos Aires for return by a similar route that would be the ship's normal commercial run.[8]

Commercial service continued until taken over by the War Shipping Administration on 28 April 1942 for wartime operations by Delta Line acting as the WSA agent.[1][5]

Delbrasil was allocated by WSA to the United States Navy under a sub-bareboat charter at San Francisco on 25 August 1943 to serve as the troop transport George F. Elliott during World War II.[1] She was commissioned as USS George F. Elliott on 23 September 1943 as the second US Navy ship to bear the name (the first being the transport AP-13, which was lost to enemy action in August 1942).[4]

From 3 October 1943 to 31 January 1944 two troop-carrying voyages out of San Diego brought fighting men to Nouméa, Guadalcanal, and Espiritu Santo.[4] On 4 February title to the ship was transferred from Mississippi Shipping Company to WSA while the ship was at sea.[1] Subsequently, George F. Elliott left San Francisco on 18 February to embark cargo and over 1,700 sailors and marines at Port Hueneme. She steamed thence to Havannah Harbor, New Hebrides, arriving on 9 March, and for the next two months made troop shuttle voyages between Espiritu Santo, Guadalcanal, the Russell Islands, Manus, and New Guinea before putting in at Pearl Harbor on 7 May 1944.[4]

The ship was taken out of reserve and operated under charter to the Maritime Administration by American South African Line (Farrell Lines of New York) on 1 March 1948 and then sold to the line on 22 December 1948 and renamed African Endeavor.[1] On 22 September 1960 title to African Endeavor was returned to the Maritime Administration as a trade in and she entered the reserve fleet in the James River on 26 October.[1] On 9 April 1969 the ship was sold to Boston Metals for scrapping and delivered to the company on 1 May.[1] She was scrapped in 1972.[7]

• This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

• The C3 Cargo Ship, Sub-Designs and Conversions—Design: C3 P & C (Delta-Type)
• Delbrasil (Image & information)
• Delta Line