SS Dakotan

SS Dakotan prior to World War I
History
NameSS Dakotan
OwnerAmerican-Hawaiian Steamship Company
Port of registryNew York[1]
OrderedSeptember 1911[2]
Builder
Cost$672,000[3]
Yard number125[4]
Launched10 August 1912
CompletedNovember 1912[4]
IdentificationU.S. official number: 210753
Fateexpropriated by U.S. Army, 29 May 1917
United States
NameUSAT Dakotan
Acquired29 May 1917[5]
Fatetransferred to U.S. Navy, 29 January 1919
United States
NameUSS Dakotan
Acquired29 January 1919
Commissioned29 January 1919
Decommissioned31 July 1919
IdentificationID-3882
Fatereturned to owners, 31 July 1919[6]
NameSS Dakotan
OwnerAmerican-Hawaiian Steamship Company
Acquired31 July 1919
Faterequisitioned by War Shipping Administration; transferred to Soviet Union under Lend-Lease
Soviet Union
NameSS Zyrianin (Зырянин in Cyrillic)[7]
NamesakeKomi peoples
Operator
AcquiredDecember 1942
IdentificationIMO number: 5399664[8]
FateScrapped 1969
General characteristics
TypeCargo ship
Tonnage6,537 GRT[3] 10,175 LT DWT[3]
Length
Beam53 ft 6 in (16.31 m)[6]
Draft23 ft (7.0 m)[6]
Depth of hold29 ft 6 in (8.99 m)[9]
Propulsion
Speed15 knots (28 km/h)[6]
Capacity
  • Cargo: 492,549 cubic feet (13,947.4 m3)[3]
  • Passengers: 16[9]
Crew18 officers, 40 crewmen
NotesSister ships: Minnesotan, Montanan, Pennsylvanian, Panaman, Washingtonian, Iowan, Ohioan[4]
General characteristics (as USS Dakotan)
Displacement14,375 t[6]
Troops1,685[11]
Complement88[6]
Armament2 × 5-inch (130 mm) guns (World War I)[6]

SS Dakotan was a cargo ship built in 1912 for the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company that served as a transport ship in the United States Army Transport Service in World War I, and then was transferred to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease in World War II before being finally scrapped in 1969. During World War I, she was taken over by the United States Army as USAT Dakotan. Near the end of that war she was transferred to the United States Navy and commissioned as USS Dakotan (ID-3882). During World War II, the ship was transferred to the Soviet Union and renamed SS Zyrianin (or Зырянин in Cyrillic).

Dakotan was built by the Maryland Steel Company as one of eight sister ships for the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company, and was employed in inter-coastal service via the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and the Panama Canal after it opened. During World War I, as USAT Dakotan, the ship carried cargo and animals to France. Dakotan was in the first American convoy to sail to France after the United States entered the war in April 1917. In Navy service, USS Dakotan carried cargo to France and returned over 8,800 American troops after the Armistice.

After her Navy service ended in 1919, she was returned to her original owners and resumed relatively uneventful cargo service over the next twenty years. Dakotan ran aground off the coast of Mexico in 1923 but was freed and towed to port for repairs. Early in World War II, the ship was requisitioned by the War Shipping Administration and transferred to the Soviet Union under the terms of Lend-Lease in December 1942. Sailing as SS Zyrianin, the ship remained a part of the Soviet merchant fleet into the late 1960s.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference NYT-freight_steamer was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cochran and Ginger, p. 358.
  3. ^ a b c d Cochran and Ginger, p. 365.
  4. ^ a b c Colton, Tim. "Bethlehem Steel Company, Sparrows Point MD". Shipbuildinghistory.com. The Colton Company. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 12 August 2008.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference CW-315 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Cite error: The named reference DANFS was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference FESCO was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference Miramar was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference WP-steamer_dakotan was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ a b Cochran and Ginger, p. 357.
  11. ^ Crowell and Wilson, p. 568.