| History | |
|---|---|
| Name |
|
| Namesake |
|
| Owner |
|
| Port of registry | |
| Builder | Edwards Shipbuilding Co, Howdon |
| Yard number | 69 |
| Launched | 21 June 1894 |
| Completed | September 1894 |
| Identification |
|
| Fate | sunk by torpedo, 1917 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | cargo ship |
| Tonnage | 3,508 GRT, 2,303 NRT |
| Length | 349.2 ft (106.4 m) |
| Beam | 43.0 ft (13.1 m) |
| Depth | 26.6 ft (8.1 m) |
| Decks | 2 |
| Installed power | 299 NHP |
| Propulsion |
|
| Crew | 1917: 34 + 13 US Navy gunners |
| Armament | March 1917: 2 × 5-inch guns |
SS Aztec was a cargo steamship that was built in England in 1894 as Canterbury. She was renamed Aztec when she changed owners in 1895. The Pacific Mail Steamship Company bought her in 1897. In March 1917 she was the first United States merchant ship to be defensively armed in response to the Central Powers' attacks on neutral US shipping in the First World War.
A U-boat sank Aztec in April 1917, killing 28 of her ship's company. 11 were US citizens, making her the third US merchant ship to suffer fatalities when sunk by the Imperial German Navy while the US was still neutral. Six of her crew were native Hawaiians, and all but one of them were killed. They were the first native Hawaiians killed by German forces in the First World War.
President Woodrow Wilson had already decided to ask the United States Congress to declare war before Aztec was sunk. The sinkings of other US merchant ships before her, including two with fatalities in March 1917, was one of the factors that helped to ensure a congressional majority to declare war before the news of Aztec's loss reached the US. However, the news did affect political and public opinion in the Territory of Hawaii.