SS Gunston Hall
{{Short description|American merchant vessel}}
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{{Infobox ship image | Ship image =EMERGENCY FLEET CORPORATION. LAUNCHING OF GUNSTON HALL AT ALEXANDRIA, BUILT FOR THE CORPORATION LCCN2016869744.jpg | Ship caption = }}{{Infobox ship career | Hide header = | Ship country = | Ship flag = | Ship name = Gunston Hall | Ship owner = | Ship operator = | Ship registry = | Ship ordered = | Ship builder = Virginia Shipbuilding Corporation | Ship yard number = 1 | Ship laid down = May 30, 1918 | Ship launched = February 27, 1919 | Ship completed = | Ship identification = | Ship acquired = | Ship in service = | Ship out of service = | Ship commissioned = | Ship recommissioned = | Ship decommissioned = | Ship fate = Scrapped, 1930 | Ship notes = | Ship nickname = }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= | Ship class = Design 1015 ship | Ship type = Cargo ship | Ship tonnage = 9,455 dwt | Ship length = {{convert|402|ft|0|in|m|abbr=on}} | Ship beam = {{convert|53|ft|0|in|m|abbr=on}} | Ship draft = {{convert|32|ft|0|in|m|abbr=on}} | Ship depth = | Ship horsepower = | Ship propulsion = | Ship range = | Ship complement = | Ship notes = }} |
SS Gunston Hall was a Design 1015 steel-hulled cargo ship built in 1919 by the Virginia Shipbuilding Corporation for the United States Shipping Board's Emergency Fleet Corporation. Initially intended for service in World War I, Gunston Hall was not completed until after the war's end. The ship was sold for scrap in 1930.
Construction
In 1918, the Virginia Shipbuilding Corporation received a government contract to construct 12 Design 1015 cargo ships for the Emergency Fleet Corporation. The keel of the first ship was laid on May 30, 1918 at the company's new shipyard in Alexandria, Virginia. President Woodrow Wilson was at the shipyard to drive the first rivet, saying, "I haven't got my union card, but I guess it's all right!"{{citation |title= Virginia Shipbuilding Corporation |author=National Park Service |accessdate=September 10, 2023 |url=https://www.nps.gov/articles/virginia-shipbuilding-corporation.htm}} First Lady Edith Wilson announced the first ship would be named Gunston Hall after George Mason's home of the same name.
Gunston Hall was launched on February 27, 1919 and was christened by the wife of Virginia Shipbuilding Corporation general manager and vice president Benjamin W. Morse.{{cite news |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=February 28, 1919 |page=1 |title=Gunston Hall, First of Fleet, Launched |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-washington-post-gunston-hall-first/131592306/| via=Newspapers.com |accessdate=September 10, 2023}}{{free access}}
Operational history
In 1919, the Virginia Shipbuilding Corporation purchased or leased all of the ships, including Gunston Hall, it had built for the Emergency Fleet Corporation, intending to pay for them by operating them a private merchant vessels.
Gunston Hall left the port of Baltimore in November 1919.{{cite news |newspaper=The Baltimore Sun |date=February 24, 1921 |page=13 |title=News Along the Water Front |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-baltimore-sun-gunston-hall-arrives-i/131593047/| via=Newspapers.com |accessdate=September 10, 2023}}{{free access}} The ship was loaded in New York and traveled to Bordeaux. Leaving France, Gunston Hall put into Gibraltar before sailing to Buenos Aires. After loading grain bound for Dunkirk, Gunston Hall put to sea on February 19, 1920.{{cite news |newspaper=New York Herald |date=February 23, 1920 |page=14 |title=Shipping News From All Parts of The World: Cable Reports |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/new-york-herald-shipping-news-from-all-p/131596060/| via=Newspapers.com |accessdate=September 10, 2023}}{{free access}} However, the ship broke down and had to be towed into port on Saint Vincent on March 19, 1920. Gunston Hall remained there until July 30, 1920, until she was towed across the Atlantic Ocean to Funchal and finally to Dunkirk, six months after leaving Buenos Aires. The ship was repaired at Dunkirk, after which she loaded a cargo of kainite and manure salts in Antwerp. Gunston Hall sailed for Baltimore via Southampton and New York on or about January 5, 1921,{{cite news |newspaper=New-York Tribune |date=February 20, 1921 |page=16 |title=Reports of Shipping and News of Foreign Trade: Marine Reports |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/new-york-tribune-reports-of-shipping-and/131596282/| via=Newspapers.com |accessdate=September 10, 2023}}{{free access}} and arrived on February 24, 1921. By July 1921, Gunston Hall was laid up with 30 other Shipping Board steamers in the James River near Norfolk, Virginia.{{cite news |newspaper=The Baltimore Sun |date=July 30, 1921 |page=12 |title=Shipping |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-baltimore-sun-gunston-hall-laid-up-i/131593570/| via=Newspapers.com |accessdate=September 10, 2023}}{{free access}}
Various investigations into the Virginia Shipbuilding Corporation alleged that government funds intended to construct ships had been misused for shipyard construction and a housing project. The government seized the ships, including Gunston Hall, back in 1922.
In September 1929, the Shipping Board invited bids to scrap Gunston Hall and 21 other merchant ships that had been laid up for several years.{{cite news |newspaper=The Virginian-Pilot |date=September 5, 1929 |page=10 |title=Board Invites Bids on Laid-Up Ships |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-virginian-pilot-board-invites-bids-o/131594141/| via=Newspapers.com |accessdate=September 10, 2023}}{{free access}} In 1930, Gunston Hall was sold for scrap to Union Shipbuilding Company in Baltimore, Maryland for $24,769.{{citation |title= Fourteenth Annual Report of the United States Shipping Board (1930) |page=104 |publisher= U.S. Government Printing Office |url=https://www.maritime.dot.gov/sites/marad.dot.gov/files/docs/outreach/history/historical-documents-and-resources/7416/ussbannualreport1930.pdf |accessdate=September 10, 2023}}
Legacy
File:Gunston Hall lawn at Jones Point park.jpg in Alexandria, Virginia.]]
The site of the former Virginia Shipbuilding Corporation shipyard is now in Jones Point Park and is crossed by the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. One of the few visible remnants of the shipyard is the fitting-out dock, next to which is a grass lawn bound by a concrete retaining wall representing the length and width of Gunston Hall{{'}}s hull.{{citation|title=The Fitting-Out Dock |author= Allen C. Browne |url=https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=62201 |via= The Historical Marker Database |accessdate=September 10, 2023}}