SS Antilles (1906)

SS Antilles, official number 204018, was a 6,879 gross ton vessel constructed in the shipyards of William Cramp & Sons Shipbuilding Company, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania delivered April 1907.[2][3] Antilles was a twin screw steam vessel with nominal speed of 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) and dimensions of 421 feet 11.5 inches (128.6 m) on load line, extreme beam 53 feet (16.2 m) and mean draft of 26 feet (7.9 m) with a displacement at normal coal supply of 10,500 tons.[4]

The vessel was operated as a combined passenger and cargo ship by the Southern Pacific Steamship Company from the time of its launch until 1917.[2] Antilles and sister ship Momus, along with several other ships, operated between New York and New Orleans with Southern Pacific Steamship's Morgan Line.[5]

With America's first convoy. The troop ships are the Henderson, Antilles, Momus and Lenape.

Following American entry into World War I, selected by the Shipping Control Committee, Antilles was turned over 26 May 1917 and chartered by the United States Army for use as a civilian crewed U.S. Army Chartered Transport (USACT).[2][6][note 1] The ship was among those in the first troop convoy to depart on 14 June, after considerable confusion and delays in troop loading, from the Hoboken Port of Embarkation.[7] Antilles sailed from New York on 24 September in a four ship convoy, designated Group Number 8, composed of Antilles, a new Navy transport Henderson, another Army chartered transport Finland and another Army chartered ship that turned back, Lenape.[8] The convoy made the crossing successfully but both Antilles and Finland were torpedoed on the return voyage.[8]

Landing U.S. Army personnel at Saint Nazaire

On 17 October 1917, three days out of Saint Nazaire, France and two days out of Quiberon Bay where another ship had joined the convoy for the return voyage, Antilles was torpedoed by German U-boat U-62 reportedly sinking in four and a half minutes after being hit.[2][9] The ship was in a small convoy composed of Antilles, Henderson and Willehad escorted by the patrol yachts USS Alcedo, USS Aphrodite, USS Corsair and USS Kanawha.[10] Both Aphrodite and Corsair had been among the escort on that first convoy to France in June.[11] In rough weather Kanawha had been forced to turn back due to the weather with the convoy slowed by the same weather.[10] At about 6:45 a.m., during a course change, Antilles was astern of Corsair and seen to suddenly sheer out of formation and began settling by the stern.[12] Alcedo turned back to where Antilles had sunk and began picking up survivors while Corsair circled in a search for the submarine until about 8:30 with no sign of a submarine found and the search for survivors and the submarine discontinued at 10:30.[13]

The survivors of the U.S. Army Chartered Transport (USACT) Antilles were rescued by USS Alcedo.

The majority, 118 survivors, were rescued by Alcedo with 50 rescued by Corsair.[2][14][15] Among the fifty persons rescued by Corsair was then Brigadier General William Sharp McNair who had been ordered to return to take command of 151st Field Artillery Brigade.[16][17] A total of 67 people died in the sinking.[2] The loss of life was the first case in the war involving a large number of American casualties.[18]

Survivors were landed in France on 21 October where they were immediately cared for by the Red Cross.[19][20] Those that died were some of the first to come under the new war-insurance law allowing payment of $6,000 ($ 137,000 in 2023) payable to families in installments of $25 ($570 in 2023) per month over twenty years.[18]