SS American (1900)

For other ships with the same name, see SS American, SS Honolulan, and USS American.

USS American
History
Name
  • 1900: SS American
  • 1925: SS Honolulan[1]
OwnerAmerican-Hawaiian Steamship Company
Port of registryUnited States New York
RouteHawaii – New York
Ordered1899[2]
BuilderDelaware River Iron Shipbuilding and Engine Works
Cost$540,000[3] ($425,000 for the ship,[2] $115,000 financing costs)
Yard number308[1]
Launched14 July 1900[1]
CompletedOctober 1900[1]
IdentificationU.S. official number: 107591[1]
Fatescrapped in Osaka, November 1926[1]
History
United States
NameUSS American (ID-2292)
Commissioned25 May 1918[4]
Stricken14 March 1919[4]
General characteristics
Tonnage6,861 GRT[3] 8,850 LT DWT[3]
Displacement13,000 long tons (13,200 t)[4]
Length
  • 430 ft 1 in (131.09 m) (oa)[4]
  • 406 ft 10 in (124.00 m) (lpp)[1]
Beam51 ft 2 in (15.60 m)
Draft28 ft (8.5 m)
Propulsion
Speed12 knots (22 km/h)[1]
CapacityCargo: 376,699 cubic feet (10,667 m3)[3]
Complement70 (as USS American)
NotesSister ships: Hawaiian, Oregonian, Californian[3]

SS American was a steel-hulled, single propeller cargo ship built at Chester, Pennsylvania, by the Delaware River Iron Shipbuilding and Engine Works for the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company and the Hawaiian sugar trade. During World War I service for the United States Navy, the ship was known as USS American (ID-2292). Late in her career for American-Hawaiian, she was renamed SS Honolulan.

American was a little more than 430 feet (130 m) long and 51 feet (16 m) abeam. Coal-fired boilers powered a single triple-expansion steam engine which turned a single screw propeller. This power plant—supplemented with auxiliary sails—was capable of moving the ship at up to 12 knots (22 km/h). As one of the first four ships ordered by the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company after its 1899 formation, American was used on the Hawaii – New York sugar trade via the Straits of Magellan. In 1901 she set a record for the fastest New York – San Francisco ocean passage, making the voyage in 59 days. After 1905, she was employed in inter-coastal service via the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and, after it opened in 1914, the Panama Canal.

Taken up for wartime service after the United States entered World War I in April 1917, she completed two round-trip voyages to France without incident. Shortly after the start of her third such voyage, however, she collided with another U.S. Navy vessel, USS West Gate, sinking that vessel with the loss of seven of her crew in October 1918. She completed one more round trip in U.S. Navy service, sailing to Gibraltar after the Armistice in November. She returned to New York in February 1919, was decommissioned, and returned to American-Hawaiian.

SS American resumed cargo service with American-Hawaiian after her return from naval service, being renamed Honolulan in 1925. She was sold in 1926 and taken to Osaka where she was broken up sometime after her arrival there in November that same year.

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i "American (2107591)". Miramar Ship Index. Retrieved 11 May 2009.
  2. ^ a b Cochran and Ginger, p. 346
  3. ^ a b c d e Cochran and Ginger, p. 364.
  4. ^ a b c d Naval History & Heritage Command. "American". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.
  5. ^ a b Cochran and Ginger, p. 357.