 Artemis (U.S. Shipping Board Transport, 1917-1919) in port during or immediately after World War I.
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Name |
|
| Namesake | State of Iowa, Kingdom of Bohemia, goddess Artemis, and bittern, a bird |
| Owner |
|
| Operator |
|
| Port of registry | |
| Builder | Harland & Wolff, Belfast |
| Yard number | 349 |
| Launched | 5 July 1902 |
| Completed | 11 November 1902 |
| Acquired | by the US Shipping Board in April 1917; allocated to the US Navy 23 February 1919 (USSB ownership) |
| Commissioned | 8 April 1919 as USS Artemis (ID-2187) at Hoboken, New Jersey |
| Decommissioned | 18 October 1919 at Brooklyn |
| Stricken | By the U.S. Navy 18 October 1919 |
| Identification |
|
| Captured | Seized by the US in 1917 |
| Fate | Sunk as a blockship in Normandy in 1944 |
| Notes | Laid up about 1923, "abandoned" out of registry 1933, transferred UK 1941. |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Cargo ship and livestock carrier |
| Tonnage | |
| Displacement | 17,837 long tons (18,123 t) |
| Length | 500.5 ft (152.6 m) |
| Beam | 58.3 ft (17.8 m) |
| Draft | 27 ft (8.2 m) |
| Depth | 34.0 ft (10.4 m) |
| Installed power | 814 NHP |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) |
| Complement |
|
| Armament |
|
Empire Bittern was a steamship, built as a livestock-carrying cargo ship in 1902 at Belfast, Ireland as Iowa for the White Diamond Steamship Company Ltd of Liverpool. The ship was sold to the Hamburg America Line and renamed Bohemia in 1913.
The German ship was seized by U.S. Customs at New York City at the start of American involvement in World War I, title transferred to the United States Shipping Board (USSB) and renamed Artemis. She was the USSB United States Army Chartered Transport USACT Artemis under time charter to the Army from 1917 to war’s end.[note 1] The ship's last Army chartered voyage reached New York on 23 February 1919. The ship was transferred to the Navy and commissioned 8 April 1919 as USS Artemis with the designation ID-2187. On 18 October 1919 the ship was decommissioned and transferred back to the USSB (later the United States Maritime Commission (USMC)). Converted to cargo only, Artemis was a merchant ship until about 1923. The ship was laid up still showing in the U.S. register until 1933 when listed among the ships dropped from the register due to abandonment for age and deterioration.
With the World War II emergency in shipping the ship was transferred to the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT) in 1941, becoming one of the Empire ships, Empire Bittern. The ship was operated for MoWT by Royal Mail Lines Ltd. and made several Atlantic crossings in convoy. In July 1944 Empire Bittern was sunk as a blockship in support of Operation Overlord.
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