SS Ancon
{{Short description|American cargo and passenger ship; first to officially transit the Panama Canal (1914)}}
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image |Ship image=File:SS Ancon (1902 ship) NARA 185-G-0886 cropped.jpg |Ship caption=Ancon at the opening of the Panama Canal, 1914 }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country=United States |Ship flag={{USN flag|1919}} |Ship name=Shawmut |Ship namesake= |Ship ordered= |Ship builder=Maryland Steel Company, Sparrows Point, Maryland |Ship laid down= |Ship launched=15 December 1901 |Ship acquired= |Ship commissioned= |Ship decommissioned= |Ship in service= |Ship out of service=1909 |Ship struck= |Ship reclassified= |Ship homeport=Boston |Ship owner=Boston Steamship Company |Ship identification=*Official Number: 117125
|Ship motto= |Ship nickname= |Ship honours= |Ship fate= |Ship notes= }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header=title |Ship country=United States |Ship flag= |Ship name=*Ancon (1909)
|Ship namesake= |Ship ordered= |Ship builder= |Ship laid down= |Ship launched= |Ship acquired=1909 |Ship commissioned= |Ship decommissioned= |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= 28 March – 25 July 1919 for service with Navy |Ship homeport=New York |Ship owner=United States Government under Panama Railroad Company{{sfn|Bennett|1915|p=93}} |Ship motto= |Ship nickname= |Ship honours= |Ship fate=Sold private, Permanente Steamship Company, renamed Permanente, scrapped 1950{{sfn|Lloyd's Register 1944–45}} |Ship notes= }} {{Infobox ship image |Ship image=USS Ancon (ID - 1467).jpg |Ship caption=USS Ancon (ID # 1467) In port in 1919, while engaged in transporting U.S. troops home from Europe. The original image was printed on postal card ("AZO") stock . }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header=title |Ship country=United States |Ship flag= |Ship name=USS Ancon (ID-1467) |Ship namesake= |Ship ordered= |Ship builder= |Ship laid down= |Ship launched= |Ship acquired=16 November 1918 |Ship commissioned=28 March 1919 |Ship decommissioned=25 July 1919 |Ship in service= |Ship out of service=Returned to The Panama Canal 25 July 1919 |Ship struck= |Ship reclassified= |Ship homeport= |Ship motto= |Ship nickname= |Ship honours= |Ship fate= |Ship notes= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship type=Cargo liner, later Troop transport |Ship tonnage=9606 Gross Tons |Ship displacement={{convert|9332|LT|t|0|lk=in|abbr=on}} |Ship length={{convert|489.5|ft|m|abbr=on}} |Ship beam={{convert|58|ft|m|abbr=on}} |Ship draft={{convert|28.9|ft|m|abbr=on}} |Ship hold depth= |Ship propulsion=Steam, Triple Expansion 533 NHP |Ship speed={{convert|13|kn|lk=in}} |Ship range= |Ship complement=In naval service, 126 |Ship armament=In naval service, 3 × 6 pdrs |Ship armor= |Ship notes=Dimensions from Lloyd's Register, 1906 & 1914 }} |
SS Ancon was an American cargo and passenger ship that became the first ship to officially transit the Panama Canal in 1914 although the French crane boat Alexandre La Valley completed the first trip in stages during construction prior to the official opening. The ship was built as Shawmut for the Boston Steamship Company by the Maryland Steel Company, Sparrows Point, Maryland and put into Pacific service operating out of Puget Sound ports for Japan, China and the Philippine Islands. Shawmut and sister ship Tremont were two of the largest United States commercial ships in service at the time and the company eventually found them too expensive to operate.
Shawmut and Tremont were acquired by the United States Government through the agency of the Panama Railroad Company's Panama Railroad Steamship Line, whose assets were entirely owned by the government and critical to construction of the canal, to serve between New York and the Atlantic terminus during canal construction. Both ships were renamed for features of the canal; Shawmut for the Pacific side terminus Ancon and Tremont as {{SS|Cristobal|1902|2}} for the Canal's Atlantic port. Though not the first vessel to make a complete transit, Ancon made the first official and ceremonial transit with a delegation of some two hundred dignitaries aboard. After the end of World War I the ship saw very brief service from 28 March to 25 July 1919 as a commissioned United States Ship, USS Ancon (ID-1467), making two round trip voyages from the New York Port of Embarkation to France returning troops home. Ancon was returned to Panama Canal service and was in service with the canal until 1939 when the ship was sold to private parties known as the Permanente Steamship Company and renamed Permanente.
Construction and design
The steamer was constructed by Maryland Steel, Sparrows Point, Maryland, for the Boston Steamship Line as the SS Shawmut launched December 1901 and completed in 1902.{{sfn|Marine Engineering (January 1902)}}Lloyd's Register, 1906 The launch date is given as "today" in a piece in The New York Times datelined December 21, 1901, and published on 22 December while the journal Marine Engineering gives the date as 23 December.{{sfn|Marine Engineering (January 1902)}}{{sfn|New York Times (December 22, 1901)}}The New York Times published 22 December 1901 release gives the launch "today" in a piece datelined 21 December. The Marine Engineering January 1902 issue gives the date of 23 December 1901. A "data card" the journal Marine Engineering published with some major ship articles for retention by readers states "Launched January 1902" with ship's characteristics but the card was probably prepared early for publication in the January issue. The journal's articles for January publication, perhaps based on scheduled times, were probably being prepared about the time of launch with the daily newspaper's article likely more current.
Commercial service
Shawmut was put into service by the Boston Steamship Company in association with the Northern Pacific and Great Northern Railways acting as booking agents with monthly passenger and freight sailings from Puget Sound ports of Tacoma and Seattle, Washington and Victoria, British Columbia to Yokohama, Kobe and Moji, Japan; Shanghai and Hong Kong, China and Manila, Philippines.{{sfn|Blue Book of American Shipping 1905|p=277}}{{sfn|The Official Guide of the Railways and Steam Navigation Lines, January 1908|p=606}}
Shawmut's maiden voyage led to questions about whether such large ships could be profitable with specific questions concerning even larger ships being built by James J. Hill for trans Pacific trade.{{sfn|Morning Oregonian (January 2, 1903)|p=12}} The ship had arrived in Seattle to begin loading for the voyage on 22 July 1902 sailing for Tacoma on 25 July to load cargo, largely of lumber that had to be transshipped due to the fact the ship was too large to enter the lumber port, and took until 22 August to fully load cargo from scattered origins.{{sfn|Morning Oregonian (January 2, 1903)|p=12}} She sailed on 22 August with a stop at Seattle before proceeding to sea that night and reached Yokohama 12 September unloading a small consignment.{{sfn|Morning Oregonian (January 2, 1903)|p=12}} The lumber was destined for Shanghai, but the ship was too large to reach the docks on arrival 20 September and had to unload by lighter taking until 13 October before departure for Hong Kong.{{sfn|Morning Oregonian (January 2, 1903)|p=12}} On reaching Hong Kong 18 October where there was little cargo to load and only a small amount to carry on to Manila upon departure 8 November.{{sfn|Morning Oregonian (January 2, 1903)|p=12}} By 22 November Shawmut was in Yokohama for a final stop before departure for Seattle on 23 November where she arrived 8 December, 139 days for the voyage.{{sfn|Morning Oregonian (January 2, 1903)|p=12}} The ship had carried a then record breaking 13,000 tons of cargo, but returned with only about 2,500 tons and an estimated deficit of over $21,000 for the trip.{{sfn|Morning Oregonian (January 2, 1903)|p=12}} There was speculation that Hill had used a Boston company to "experiment" on using large ships for the trade before committing his vessels.{{sfn|Morning Oregonian (January 2, 1903)|p=12}}
The ship had arrived in Yokohama early in the Russo-Japanese War reporting Japanese torpedo boats hundreds of miles at sea investigating all ships.{{sfn|The Tacoma Times March 21, 1904|p=3}} She departed Yokohama with Jewish businessmen from the Russian port of Vladivostok who had been suddenly ordered out by Russian authorities and escaped through Korea where Japanese authorities had detained them before bringing them to Yokohama where they boarded Shawmut which had reached Seattle in late March.{{sfn|The Tacoma Times March 21, 1904|p=3}} The ship was also under close surveillance by Japanese "special service agents" who even kept a guard at one passenger's door.{{sfn|The Tacoma Times March 21, 1904|p=3}} Among the passengers bound for Seattle were 235 Filipinos on the way to the St. Louis World's Fair along with material for the Filipino and Japanese villages at the fair.{{sfn|The Tacoma Times March 21, 1904|p=3}} Shawmut sailed for Japan again on 16 July 1904 with 15,000 tons of cargo that included 900,000 pounds of canned beef destined for Kobe, Japan and was at sea when a cable from London instructed marine insurance agents to not accept risks on ships or cargoes for Japan for fear of seizure by belligerents.{{sfn|San Francisco Call 22 July 1904|p=1}}
Shawmut had grounded off the coast of China in the fall of 1904 due to weather suffering loss of her rudder, propellers and suffering a double fracture to her stern frame and "spectacle" supports for her propellers but, after repair in an overseas dry dock, managed a return to home waters and one round trip before making permanent repairs.{{sfn|The Steamship (October, 1905)}}{{sfn|Marine Engineering (May 1905)}} The replacement stern frame and propeller supports were built by the ship's original builder and sent to Seattle to meet the ship there in January 1905 for the permanent repair.{{sfn|The Steamship (October, 1905)}} Moran Brothers' Company of Seattle proposed to do the repairs using the only dry dock of sufficient size, the naval dry dock at Bremerton, but the Navy's charges were "exorbitant" and Moran devised a means of using their small floating dry dock to do the repairs by only lifting the stern of Shawmut using a cofferdam to seal and de-water the work space.{{sfn|The Steamship (October, 1905)}}{{sfn|Marine Engineering (May 1905)}}
By 1907 predictions of economic trouble had become fact with Shawmut and Tremont withdrawn from Pacific service and replaced in the Philippine trade by the British firm of Andrew Weir and Company.{{sfn|Horne 1908|p=17}} The consequence, in the words of His Majesty's consul in Manila in his report for 1907, was that "the American flag disappears from the Pacific trade with the single exception of the Northern Pacific Steamship Company's passenger-freighter Minnesota."{{sfn|Horne 1908|p=17}}The {{SS|Minnesota|1904|2}} referenced would be the 20,602 ton ship of 1904, a predecessor of Northern Pacific's {{SS|Great Northern|1914|2}} and sister of {{SS|Dakota||2}}, that was built by Eastern Shipbuilding Company, New London, Connecticut and sold for scrap in 1923. By October 1908 the annual meeting of the Boston Steamship Company was reported to be postponed pending news of the sale of both Shawmut and Tremont because the company stated they could not be operated without a subsidy.{{sfn|The American Marine Engineer October, 1908}}
The Panama Canal service
In 1909 the ship was purchased by the Panama Canal.{{sfn|65th Congress, First Session: Senate Documents|p=30}} The ship was renamed for the Panama Canal's Pacific side terminus at Ancon. Both Ancon and her sister ship Cristobal operated under The Panama Railroad Company's Panama Railroad Steamship Line.{{sfn|65th Congress, First Session: Senate Documents|p=30}}{{sfn|Bennett|1915|p=93}} Both ships played a crucial role in building the canal, bringing workers and supplies, notably massive amounts of cement, from New York to Panama for the construction project.David McCullough, The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal 1870–1914, Simon and Schuster (1977) p. 594
On 15 August 1914 Ancon made the first official transit of the canal as part of the canal's opening ceremonies. (Her sister ship Cristobal had made the first unofficial transit on 3 August, delivering a load of cement, while an old French crane boat Alexandre La Valley had crossed the canal from the Atlantic in stages during construction, finally reaching the Pacific on 7 January.)McCullough, pp. 607–609
Five days after the end of World War I, on 16 November 1918, Ancon was acquired at New Orleans by the United States Navy from the Department of War (Army) and commissioned on 28 March 1919 under the command of Lt. Comdr. Milan L. Pittman, USNRF as the troop transport USS Ancon (ID-1467).{{sfn|Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships: Ancon (ID-1467)}} The ship was assigned to the Atlantic Fleet's Cruiser and Transport Force making two round-trip voyages from the United States to France returning troops home.{{sfn|Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships: Ancon (ID-1467)}} On completion of the second voyage Ancon was decommissioned at New York City on 25 July 1919 and returned to the War Department.{{sfn|Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships: Ancon (ID-1467)}}
The Panama Railroad Company replaced SS Ancon in 1938 with a larger steam turbine cargo liner named Ancon which later saw considerable action as the Navy command and communications ship {{USS|Ancon|AGC-4}} in World War II. The old Ancon remained in Panama Canal service as Ex Ancon until sold privately.{{sfn|Lloyd's Register 1940–41}}
Further service
In 1941, the ship was sold to the Permanente Steam Ship Company in Oakland, California and renamed Permanente. After the end of World War II, the vessel changed hands to the Tidewater Commercial Company in Panama who renamed it Tidewater in 1946, and again to Continental in 1948. Two years later, the Bernstein Line in Panama acquired the ship and renamed her back to Ancon before sending her to Italian shipbreakers, arriving on 26 October 1950. The Ancon was finally scrapped by the Trosidea Ricuperi Metallici company in Savona.[https://www.miramarshipindex.nz/ship?idno=2117125 Miramar Ship Index]
See also
{{commons category|Ancon (ship, 1902)}}
Footnotes
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References
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Bibliography
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- {{cite journal |last=The American Marine Engineer |year=1908 |title=News Brevities |journal=The American Marine Engineer |volume=3 |issue=October, 1908|place=New York/Chicago |publisher=National Marine Engineer's Beneficial Association |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IqsvAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA14-PA31|ref={{sfnref|The American Marine Engineer October, 1908}}}}
- {{cite book |last=Bennett |first=Ira E. |year=1915 |title=History of the Panama Canal – Its Construction and Builders |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=Historical Publishing Company|lccn=15012012 | url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.153628}}
- {{cite book |last=Blue Book of American Shipping |year=1905 |title=From Pacific Coast Ports to the Orient |location=Cleveland, Ohio |publisher=Penton Publishing Company |lccn=01019463| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WmrNAAAAMAAJ|ref={{sfnref|Blue Book of American Shipping 1905}}}}
- {{cite book |last=Horne (Acting Consul General, Manila) |first=H. |year=1908 |title=Report on the Trade and Commerce of the Philippine Islands for the Year 1907 |series=Diplomatic and Consular Reports. Annual Series |issue=4161 |location=London |publisher=His Majesty's Stationery Office | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iYEmAQAAIAAJ|ref={{sfnref|Horne 1908}}}}
- {{cite web |url=https://plimsoll.southampton.gov.uk/shipdata/pdfs/40/40a0081.pdf |title=Lloyd's Register 1940–41|author=Lloyds |publisher=Lloyd's Register (through PlimsollShipData) |access-date=16 March 2015 |ref={{sfnref|Lloyd's Register 1940–41}}}}
- {{cite web |url=https://plimsoll.southampton.gov.uk/shipdata/pdfs/44/44b0829.pdf |title=Lloyd's Register 1944–45|author=Lloyds |publisher=Lloyd's Register (through PlimsollShipData) |access-date=23 January 2014 |ref={{sfnref|Lloyd's Register 1944–45}}}}
- {{cite journal |last1=Marine Engineering |year=1902 |title=New Ships of the Boston Steamship Company |journal=Marine Engineering |volume=7 |issue=January 1902 |place=New York |publisher=Marine Engineering, Inc.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rW3mAAAAMAAJ|ref={{sfnref|Marine Engineering (January 1902)}}}}
- {{cite journal |last1=Marine Engineering |year=1905 |title=Repairs to the Steamship Shawmut |journal=Marine Engineering |volume=10 |issue=May 1905 |place=New York |publisher=Marine Engineering, Inc. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6XIfAQAAMAAJ|ref={{sfnref|Marine Engineering (May 1905)}}}}
- {{cite journal |last1=Morning Oregonian |year=1902 |title=Too Big For Profit: Shawmut's Expensive Experience in Oriental Trade |journal=Morning Oregonian |issue=January 2, 1903 |place=Portland |url=http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn83025138/1903-01-02/ed-1/seq-12/|ref={{sfnref|Morning Oregonian (January 2, 1903)}}}}
- {{cite web |url=https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/a/ancon-i.html |title=Ancon (Id. No. 1467) |author=Naval History And Heritage Command |date=4 December 2014 |work=Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships |publisher=Naval History And Heritage Command|ref={{sfnref|Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships: Ancon (ID-1467)}}}}
- {{cite journal |last1=New York Times |year=1901 |title=New Ocean Freighter Launched |journal=The New York Times |issue=December 22, 1901 |place=New York |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9904E5DD153FE433A25751C2A9649D946097D6CF|ref={{sfnref|New York Times (December 22, 1901)}}}}
- {{cite journal |last=The Official Guide |year=1905 |title=Advertisement: Boston Steamship Company |journal=The Official Guide of the Railways and Steam Navigation Lines of the United States|issue=January, 1908|place=New York |publisher=The National Railway Publication Company|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kLgbTCc-AOcC&pg=PA606|ref={{sfnref|The Official Guide of the Railways and Steam Navigation Lines, January 1908}}}}
- {{cite journal |last=San Francisco Call |year=1902 |title=No More Japanese Risks |journal=San Francisco Call |volume=96 |issue=22 July 1904 |place=San Francisco |url=http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SFC19040722.2.13|ref={{sfnref|San Francisco Call 22 July 1904}}}}
- {{cite journal |last=The Steamship |year=1905 |title=Dry Docking Under Difficulties |journal=The Steamship |volume=17 |issue=October 1905|place=New York |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wxA_AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA147|ref={{sfnref|The Steamship (October, 1905)}}}}
- {{cite journal |last1=The Tacoma Times |year=1902 |title=Steamship Shawmut Brings Refugees From Vladivostok |journal=The Tacoma Times |issue=March 21, 1904 |place=Tacoma, Washington |url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88085187/1904-03-21/ed-1/seq-3/#words=/|ref={{sfnref|The Tacoma Times March 21, 1904}}}}
- {{cite book |last=United States Government Printing Office |year=1917 |title=Senate Documents, 65th Congress, First Session |volume=10 |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher= United States Government Printing Office | url=https://archive.org/stream/congressionalse22offigoog#page/n62/mode/1up/|ref={{sfnref|65th Congress, First Session: Senate Documents}}}}
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Category:Ships built in Sparrows Point, Maryland
Category:Transports of the United States Navy
Category:World War I auxiliary ships of the United States
Category:Steamships of the United States