SS Montanan was a cargo ship operated by the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company. Built in 1912 by the Maryland Steel Company as one of eight sister ships, the freighter was employed in inter-coastal service, first via the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and then the Panama Canal, after it opened in 1914. The ship was 6,649 gross register tons (GRT), 428 ft 9 in (130.68 m) in length and 53 ft 7 in (16.33 m) abeam. Used by the United States Army Transport Service during World War I, USAT Montanan carried cargo and animals to France, and sailed in the first American convoy to France after the United States entered the war in April 1917. During another eastbound convoy in August 1918, Montanan was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-90 some 500 nautical miles (900 km) west of Le Verdon-sur-Mer, France. Of the 86 men aboard the ship, 81 were rescued by a convoy escort. The other five were killed, including two of the ship's Naval Armed Guardsmen, drowned when their lifeboat capsized in the heavy seas. (Full article...)