USS Wharton

USS Wharton c. 1941
History
United States
Name
  • Sea Girt
  • Southern Cross
  • Wharton
NamesakeFranklin Wharton
Laid down8 October 1918
Launched20 July 1919[1]
Completed24 September 1921
Acquired8 November 1939
Commissioned7 December 1940
Decommissioned26 March 1947
Stricken4 April 1947
Honors and
awards		3 battle stars (World War II)
FateSold for scrapping, 21 March 1952
NotesU.S. Official Number: 221574[2]
General characteristics
TypeDesign 1029 ship
Displacement
  • 12,250 long tons (12,447 t) light
  • 21,900 long tons (22,251 t) full
Length636 ft 2 in (193.90 m)
Beam72 ft (22 m)
Draft31 ft 3 in (9.53 m)
PropulsionSteam turbine
Speed16.6 knots (30.7 km/h; 19.1 mph)
Complement666 officers and enlisted
Armament

USS Wharton (AP-7) was a troop transport in the service of the United States Navy during World War II. The ship was originally an Emergency Fleet Corporation Design 1029 type built for the United States Shipping Board. The ship was laid down as Manmasco but renamed and launched as Sea Girt then completed September 1921 as Southern Cross.[3] The ship was first allocated by the United States Shipping Board to the Munson Steamship Line until purchased by the line in 1925.[3] Munson operated the Southern Cross in the South American trade from 1921 until 1938 when the ship was sold at a Marshall's sale and taken over by the United States Maritime Commission which paid the full mortgage claim.[3][2][4][5]

Southern Cross was acquired by the Navy from the Maritime Commission on 8 November 1939 and two days later renamed Wharton and designated a transport with the hull number AP-7. She was converted to a troop transport by the Todd Shipbuilding Corp., in the Robbins Drydock in Erie Basin at Brooklyn, New York. The transport was commissioned USS Wharton at the New York Navy Yard on 7 December 1940.[6]

  1. ^ Priolo 2020.
  2. ^ a b Maritime Administration.
  3. ^ a b c McKellar, Norman L. "Contract Steel Ships, Part III" (PDF). Steel Shipbuilding under the U. S. Shipping Board, 1917-1921. ShipScribe. Retrieved 15 August 2018.
  4. ^ United States Shipping Board 1926, p. 89.
  5. ^ Villard: The Nautical Gazette, 4 June 1921, p. 732.
  6. ^ Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships: Wharton.