USS Culgoa, a 6000-ton store ship, was built in 1889 at Sunderland, England, as a merchant steamer. In June 1898, during the Spanish-American War, the Navy purchased her in the Philippines, placing her in commission in early December of that year. Culgoa spent the next two-and-a-half years supplying meat, ice and other provisions to U.S. Naval forces operating in Far Eastern waters. She steamed to the U.S., westbound, between July and September 1901 and was laid up at Boston, Massachusetts in mid-October.
Culgoa recommissioned in October 1902 for service in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. Again placed out of commission in August 1905, she was stricken from the Navy List in May 1906 but reinstated in June and again recommissioned in September 1907. After taking a shipment of beef to Panama, late in the year Culgoa left the East Coast to serve as supply ship for the U.S. Atlantic Fleet's battleships during their epic voyage around the World. While so employed in Chinese waters, she participated in radio communications experiments. In early January 1909 Culgoa conveyed relief supplies to Messina, Italy, after a powerful earthquake battered eastern Sicily.
During the next nine years, Culgoa mainly operated in the western Atlantic and Caribbean, but made a voyage to Europe in 1910-1911. In 1918 and the first several months of 1919 she carried supplies across the Atlantic to France and the British Isles. Though Culgoa spent most of her remaining career in the Caribbean area, in mid-1920 she operated in the Pacific, steaming as far west as Hawaii. When the Navy implemented its hull number system in July 1920, the ship was designated AF-3. USS Culgoa was placed out of commission at the end of 1921 and sold in January 1922.
This page features all the views we have concerning USS Culgoa (1898-1922, later AF-3).
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.
USS Culgoa is visible in the right background of the following photograph of another ship:
In addition to the images presented above, the National Archives appears to hold at least one other view of USS Culgoa (AF-3). The following list features this image:
The image listed below is NOT in the
Naval History and Heritage Command's collections.
DO NOT try to obtain it using the procedures described in our
page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions".
USS Culgoa (AF-3) alongside a pier at Honolulu, Hawaii, circa 1920. The original mount card is marked "Central News 8-26-20" Starboard bow surface view, with a motor launch alongside the ship and pier buildings beyond her.
Reproductions of this image should be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system for pictures not held by the Naval History and Heritage Command. The image listed in this box is NOT in the Naval History and Heritage Command's collections. DO NOT try to obtain it using the procedures described in our page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions". |
NOTES:
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 1 February 2007
Coding updated and text corrected 13 April 2009