SS El Sol

SS El Sol was a cargo and passenger steamship launched on 11 May 1910 by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co. of Newport News, Virginia (yard no. 130), and delivered to the Atlantic division of the Morgan Line on 20 August 1910. She was the first of four sister ships; the other three being El Mundo, {{SS|El Oriente||2}}, and {{SS|El Occidente||2}}.{{cite news | title = Southern Pacific liner launched | newspaper = The Washington Post | date = 12 May 1910 | page = 3 }}{{cite web | last = Colton | first = Tim | url = http://www.shipbuildinghistory.com/history/shipyards/1major/active/newportnews.htm | title = Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co., Newport News VA | publisher = Colton Company | access-date = 2008-08-06 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080829134102/http://www.shipbuildinghistory.com/history/shipyards/1major/active/newportnews.htm | archive-date = 29 August 2008}} El Sol was {{GRT|6,008|disp=long}}, was {{convert|430|ft|1|in|m}} long by {{convert|53|ft|1|in|m}} abeam, and made {{convert|16|knots|km/h}}.{{cite DANFS | author = Naval Historical Center | author-link = Naval Historical Center | title = El Sol | url = http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/e2/el_sol.htm | short = on }} The vessel sailed for the Morgan Line, the brand name of the Southern Pacific Steamship Company (a subsidiary of the Southern Pacific Railroad), which employed her to carry cargo and a limited number of passengers between New York; New Orleans, the eastern terminus of the Southern Pacific line; and Galveston, Texas.

After the United States declared war on Germany in April 1917, El Sol was requisitioned by the United States Shipping Board (USSB) on behalf of the United States Army, who designated her as an animal transport ship.Krenzelok Although there is no information about the specific conversion of El Sol, for other ships, this typically meant that any second- or third-class passenger accommodations had to be ripped out and replaced with ramps and stalls for the horses and mules carried.Crowell and Wilson, pp. 313–14.

Sources do not reveal all of El Sol's movements, but it is known that she departed on her second trip to France from Newport News on 10 February 1918. Carrying 650 animals, El Sol headed to New York to join in a convoy with fellow Army transport {{USAT|Pastores||2}}, and U.S. Navy troop transports {{USS|Covington|ID-1409|2}}, {{USS|DeKalb|ID-3010|2}}, {{SS|Manchuria|1903|2}}, {{USS|George Washington|ID-3018|2}}, {{USS|President Grant|ID-3014|2}}, and {{USS|Susquehanna|ID-3016|2}}. The convoy was escorted by {{USS|Huntington|CA-5|2}} when it departed from New York on 18 February,Crowell and Wilson, p. 605. and arrived at Saint-Nazaire on 4 March. Ten animals on board El Sol died or were destroyed during the crossing.

The next recorded activity of El Sol was on 3 August, when she was transferred from the Army to the U.S. Navy and commissioned the same day. El Sol was assigned to the Naval Overseas Transportation Service (NOTS) and continued to carry animals and supplies for the U.S. Army.

By August, each animal transport ship had a transport veterinarian and a permanent veterinary detachment to care for the animals on the ship. El Sol had also been joined by two of her sister ships, {{USS|El Oriente|ID-4504|2}} and {{USS|El Occidente|ID-3307|2}} in animal transport duty. She next departed Newport News on 23 August 1918 with 520 horses and mules on board. Upon arrival at Saint-Nazaire on 19 September, El Sol delivered her complete load of animals; none had died during the passage. After returning to the U.S., El Sol departed again on 30 October with another 620 animals on board. Docking in Bordeaux on 13 November—two days after the Armistice—she again delivered her full load of animals.

Image:USS El Sol with boat, 1919.jpg from {{USS|Scranton|ID-3511|6}}. Three men in the launch died when it capsized after this photograph was taken.]]

El Sol made two more roundtrips for the NOTS over the next five months. While returning to the United States from her last NOTS sailing in late March 1919, El Sol responded to distress calls from {{USS|Scranton|ID-3511|2}}, a Navy troop transport which had a damaged rudder and was disabled. El Sol came to the aid of the stricken ship {{convert|900|nmi|km}} east of New York to attempt to take her under tow.{{cite news | title = Troop ship Scranton reported disabled | work = The Atlanta Constitution | date = 30 March 1919 | page = 2 }} During the day on 28 March,{{cite web | url = http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/h99000/h99449c.htm | archive-url = https://archive.today/20121212235733/http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/h99000/h99449c.htm | url-status = dead | archive-date = 12 December 2012 | title = Photo #: NH 99449 picture data | work = Online Library of Selected Images | publisher = Navy Department, Naval Historical Center | date = 5 July 2004 | access-date = 2008-08-07 }} Scranton attempted to run a towline to El Sol by sending a launch in the rolling seas, but it capsized, killing three men.{{cite news | title = 82 Nurses return; served under fire | newspaper = The Washington Post | date = 4 April 1919 | page = 5 }} Ultimately, El Sol stood by Scranton for over 40 hours until minesweeper {{USS|Penguin|AM-33|2}} arrived and took Scranton under tow.{{cite web | url = http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/albums/s583/s583.htm | archive-url = https://archive.today/20121212210843/http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/albums/s583/s583.htm | url-status = dead | archive-date = 12 December 2012 | title = USS Scranton (ID # 3511) Photo Album, 1919 | work = Online Library of Selected Images: Photo Albums | publisher = Navy Department, Naval Historical Center | date = 11 July 2004 | access-date = 2008-08-07 }}

After her last NOTS voyage on 3 April, El Sol was converted to a troop transport and assigned to the Navy's Cruiser and Transport Force on 15 April. El Sol returned 2,714 healthy and wounded American servicemen from France in two voyages.Gleaves, pp. 254–55 Decommissioned on 18 September, El Sol was returned to the Morgan Line soon after.Gleaves (p. 255) reports that El Sol was given to the Ward Line in August 1919, which contradicts the entry in the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The ownership information contradicts that recorded in the Miramar Ship Index, a database of historical ship information (See: {{cite web | url = http://www.miramarshipindex.org.nz/ship/show/164752 | title = El Sol | work = Miramar Ship Index | publisher = R.B.Haworth | access-date = 2008-08-07 }}.)

El Sol resumed cargo service with the Morgan Line, where she had eight years of uneventful operation. On 11 March 1927, however, El Sol was inbound to New York with a $1,000,000 cargo of pig iron, copper, and bales of cotton.{{cite news | title = A salvage job in New York | work = The New York Times | date = 31 July 1927 | page = XX3 }} When a heavy fog settled over New York Harbor, Captain Charles H. Knowles ordered his ship to anchor until the fog cleared. As El Sol was being maneuvered into position at about 07:45, the American Diamond Line ship Sac City hit a glancing blow to El Sol, bounced off, and then struck El Sol a second time, ripping through El Sol's plating.{{cite news | title = Rammed fighter founders in harbor | work = The New York Times | date = 12 March 1927 | page = 3 }} Sac City's bow had some slight damage, but El Sol sank quickly in about {{convert|60|ft|m}} of water about a half-mile (800 m) south of the Statue of Liberty. Out of El Sol's crew of 45 men, 44 were rescued; the ship's carpenter, who could not swim, was last seen clutching the ship's rail as it went below the surface.{{cite news | agency = Associated Press| title = Ship sinks, man lost, off Statue of Liberty | newspaper = The Washington Post | date = 12 March 1927 | page = 3 }}

El Sol settled on the bottom at a 45° angle with only the tops of her masts protruding above the surface; the Morgan Line house flag—a blue house flag with a red M inside a white star{{cite web | last = McMillan | first = Joe | url = http://flagspot.net/flags/us~hfmo.html#morgan | title = Morgan Steamship Co. | work = House Flags of U.S. Shipping Companies | publisher = FOTW: Flags Of The World website | date = 31 October 2001 | access-date = 2008-08-07 }}—still fluttered in the breeze. Even though the sunken vessel was not considered a hazard to navigation, in another fog two days later, a Staten Island Ferryboat nearly hit El Sol's wreck.{{cite news | title = Ferryboat in fog nearly hits wreck | work = The New York Times | date = 13 March 1927 | page = 20 }}

In hearings before the United States Steamboat Inspection Service, Captain Knowles of El Sol and the captain of Sac City were cleared of wrongdoing in the collision. The blame was laid on the heavy fog.{{cite news | title = Collision caused by fog | work = The New York Times | date = 16 March 1927 | page = 30 }} On 31 July, The New York Times reported on the cargo salvage operations still underway on the wreck of El Sol. In three months of continuous operations, the salvage company reported that about 35% of the sunken ship's cargo had been recovered. The hulk of El Sol was scrapped later in 1927.

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• {{cite book | last = Crowell | first = Benedict | author-link = Benedict Crowell |author2=Robert Forrest Wilson | title = The Road to France: The Transportation of Troops and Military Supplies, 1917–1918 | url = https://archive.org/details/roadtofrancetra04wilsgoog | series = How America Went to War: An Account From Official Sources of the Nation's War Activities, 1917–1920 | location = New Haven | publisher = Yale University Press | year = 1921 | oclc = 18696066 }}
• {{Gleaves}}
• {{cite web | last = Krenzelok | first = Greg | title = Newport News Animal Transport ship List overseas to France during WW1 | url = http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~gregkrenzelok/veterinary%20corp%20in%20ww1/newportnewsshiplist.html | access-date = 2008-08-06 }}
• {{cite DANFS | author = Naval Historical Center | author-link = Naval Historical Center | title = El Sol | url = http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/e2/el_sol.htm | access-date = 2008-08-06 }}

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• {{navsource|12/174505|El Sol}}

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{{1927 shipwrecks}}

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Category:Ocean liners

Category:World War I passenger ships of the United States

Category:World War I auxiliary ships of the United States

Category:Transport ships of the United States Army

Category:Maritime incidents in 1927

Category:Shipwrecks of the New York (state) coast

Category:1910 ships

Category:Cargo ships of the United States Navy

Category:Ships sunk in collisions

Category:Ships built in Newport News, Virginia