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Photo # NH 52857:  USS Covington at the Boston Navy Yard, 4 October 1917

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Covington (ID # 1409), 1917-1918

USS Covington, a 16,339 gross ton transport, was built at Danzig, Germany, in 1908 as the passenger liner Cincinnati. When World War I broke out in August 1914 the German-flag ship took refuge in U.S. waters, and was seized at Boston, Massachusetts, when the United States entered the conflict in April 1917. She was later turned over to the Navy, renamed Covington and placed in commission in late July. The ship underwent shipyard work for the next few months and began her active war work in mid-October 1917 when she left port for her first voyage carrying U.S. troops to France. Covington made five additional trips to France during the rest of 1917 and the first half of 1918, taking nearly 22,000 men to participate in operations on the "Great War"'s Western Front. In the evening of 1 July 1918, while en route back to the U.S. on the return leg of her sixth trooping voyage, USS Covington was torpedoed by the German submarine U-86. She floated through the night and was taken in tow by tugs sent out from Brest, but sank on the afternoon of 2 July.

This page features, and provides links to, all the views we have concerning USS Covington (ID # 1409).

For additional images related to this ship, see:

  • USS Covington (ID # 1409) -- Torpedoed and Sunk, 1-2 July 1918.


    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.

    Photo #: NH 105615

    USS Covington
    (ID # 1409)

    Fitting out for Navy service in or near the Boston Navy Yard, circa mid-1917.
    Note the masts of USS Constitution in the background.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 52KB; 740 x 280 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 55503

    USS Covington
    (ID # 1409)

    Fitting out for Navy service, circa mid-1917.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 75KB; 740 x 460 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 52857

    USS Covington
    (ID # 1409)

    At the Boston Navy Yard, Massachusetts, 4 October 1917.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 100KB; 740 x 585 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 85173

    USS Covington
    (ID # 1409)

    Fine screen halftone reproduction of a photograph taken in 1918. This ship was torpedoed and sunk in July of that year.

    Courtesy of William H. Davis, 1977.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 82KB; 740 x 480 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 102874

    USS Covington
    (ID # 1409), at left

    In port, probably at Brest, France, in 1918.
    The ship at right is probably a British troop transport. A U.S. Navy destroyer is visible in the center distance.

    Courtesy of Boatswain's Mate First Class Robert G. Tippins, USN (Retired), 2005.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 29KB; 740 x 515 pixels

     

    For additional images related to this ship, see:

  • USS Covington (ID # 1409) -- Torpedoed and Sunk, 1-2 July 1918.


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


    Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

    Page made 6 November 2003
    New image added 8 April 2008