Twenty-Seven of the U.S. Navy's plumb-bow WWI era transports had one smokestack and two masts. In origin, size and configuration they were a very diverse bunch. One was the first ship specifically built as a U.S. Navy transport. Another was an older vessel long employed by the Army. Eleven were ex-German steamers, some commissioned by the Navy during the war and others entered service in 1919 after U.S. merchant marine service. Another eleven were American-built former merchantmen, and three had been Dutch.
The largest of the twenty-seven measured more than 12,000 gross tons, while others were of less than 5000 gross tons. Many of them, originally designed to carry both passengers and a significant amount of cargo, had relatively more length devoted to holds than was typical of specialized passenger liners.
To facilitate identification, these vessels have been placed in ten sub-groupings, some containing ships of essentially identical design ("sister ships"), while others consist of quite different designs. To distinguish among them, additional features are introduced, including deck profiles, superstructure height and length, and kingposts.
This page features a table (with links to individual ships) of World War I era U.S. Navy passenger liner type transports with one smokestack and two masts, plus a photograph of each ship in this group.
TWENTY-SEVEN SHIPS with ONE SMOKESTACK (Funnel) and TWO MASTS, subdivided as shown below:
Note: Some of these ships also had KINGPOSTS, as noted below in entries for individual ships.
Appearance Coding: Passenger liner type transports with one funnel and two masts, and freighters converted to transports (all of which had one smokestack), have their arrangement of masts, kingposts and funnels coded similarly to other widely-used merchant ship identification schemes. Since a "M-F-M" arrangment is typical of the great majority of ships on this page, coding is not given for those vessels. It is, however, provided for all transports fitted with kingposts.
Click each ship name to access that ship's complete Online Library entry.
Click the small photographs to prompt a larger view of the same image, and the words "Picture Data" to access the Picture Data Sheet for that image.
TWO SHIPS -- Flush Main Deck and Three Superstructure Levels (plus pilothouse):
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SIX SHIPS -- Flush Main Deck and Two Superstructure Levels (plus pilothouse).
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TWO SHIPS -- Wells in Main Deck fore and aft of a two or three level Midships Superstructure:
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THREE nearly identical SHIPS -- Wells in Main Deck fore and aft of a quite long one-level Midships Superstructure (plus pilothouse forward of stack, and upper deckhouse aft of it). Rather thick Smokestack:
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ONE SHIP -- Raised Forecastle and Poop, with Midships Superstructure inset from hull side:
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TWO SHIPS -- Well in Main Deck forward of a two-level (plus pilothouse) Midships Superstructure:
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ONE SHIP -- Short well in Main Deck forward of a three-level superstructure. Separate deck houses extending to hull sides below masts. Very tall smokestack. Arrangement: M-F-M
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FIVE SHIPS -- Well in Main Deck forward of a one-level (plus pilothouse) Midships Superstructure:
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ONE SHIP -- Well in Main Deck forward of the Midships Superstructure, and the After Deck one level lower than Main Deck:
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FOUR essentially identical SHIPS (plus one used as a cargo ship) -- Raised Forecastle and High (four levels) Superstructure:
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NOTES:
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 21 March 2007
New image and ship data added 28 February 2008