SS Ophir
{{short description|Dutch steamship that served in the US Navy and was gutted by fire}}
{{other ships|RMS Ophir}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2023}}
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image |Ship image= Ophir NH-99588.jpg |Ship caption= Ophir with Dutch neutrality markings }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country= Netherlands |Ship flag= |Ship name= Ophir |Ship namesake= Ophir |Ship owner= Rotterdamsche Lloyd |Ship operator= *1904: Wm Ruys & Zonen
|Ship registry= {{flagicon|Netherlands}} Rotterdam |Ship route= *1904: Rotterdam – Dutch East Indies
|Ship ordered= |Ship builder= Kon Maats 'De Schelde' |Ship original cost= |Ship yard number= 112 |Ship laid down= 30 November 1903 |Ship launched= 27 August 1904 |Ship completed= 14 November 1904 |Ship acquired= by US Govt, 21 March 1918 |Ship commissioned= into US Navy, 25 March 1918 |Ship decommissioned= 16 January 1920 |Ship honours= |Ship maiden voyage= |Ship refit= |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship identification= *code letters PNLC
|Ship fate= Gutted by fire 1918, scrapped 1922 |Ship notes= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship type= ocean liner |Ship tonnage= {{GRT|4726}}, {{NRT|1005}}, {{DWT|4650}} |Ship displacement= |Ship length= {{cvt|394.4|ft|abbr=on}} |Ship beam= {{cvt|47.1|ft|abbr=on}} |Ship draught= |Ship depth= {{cvt|27.2|ft|abbr=on}} |Ship decks= 3 |Ship power= 521 NHP, 3,600 ihp |Ship propulsion= *1 × screw |Ship speed= {{convert|14|kn|km/h}} |Ship capacity= passengers: 60 × 1st class, 32 × 2nd class, 24 × 3rd class and 30 × steerage |Ship crew= |Ship armament= *in US Navy: |Ship sensors= by 1910: submarine signalling |Ship notes= sister ships: Wilis, Rindjani }} |
SS Ophir was a Dutch steamship that was built in 1904. She carried passengers, cargo and mail between Rotterdam and the Dutch East Indies until March 1918, when the United States seized her under angary and she became USS Ophir (ID-2800). In November 1918 a fire and explosion damaged her beyond economic repair. She was scrapped in 1922.
Building
Between 1903 and 1906 Koninklijke Maatschappij 'De Schelde' in Vlissingen built three sister ships for Rotterdamsche Lloyd. Ophir was built as yard number 112. She was laid down on 30 November 1903, launched on 27 August 1904, undertook her sea trials on 8 November, and was completed on 14 November.{{cite web |url= https://www.marhisdata.nl/schip&id=4926 |title=Ophir – ID 4926 |work=Stichting Maritiem-Historische Databank |language=nl |access-date=29 May 2023}} She was followed by Wilis, launched in 1905, and Rindjani, launched in 1906.{{cite web |url= https://www.marhisdata.nl/schip&id=7306 |title=Wilis – ID 7306 |work=Stichting Maritiem-Historische Databank |language=nl |access-date=29 May 2023}}{{cite web |url= https://www.marhisdata.nl/schip&id=5510 |title=Rindjani – ID 5510 |work=Stichting Maritiem-Historische Databank |language=nl |access-date=29 May 2023}}
Ophir{{'}}s registered length was {{cvt|394.4|ft|abbr=on}}, her beam was {{cvt|47.1|ft|abbr=on}} and her depth was {{cvt|27.2|ft|abbr=on}}.{{sfn|Lloyd's Register 1910|loc=OPE–ORA}} Her tonnages were {{GRT|4726}}, {{NRT|1005}} and {{DWT|4650}}. She had berths for 146 passengers: 60 first class, 32 second class, 24 third class, and 30 steerage.
Ophir had a single screw, driven by a three-cylinder triple-expansion steam engine. The engine was rated at 521 NHP{{sfn|Lloyd's Register 1910|loc=OPE–ORA}} or 3,600 ihp, and gave her a speed of {{convert|14|kn|km/h}}.
Rotterdamsche Lloyd service
Rotterdamsche Lloyd registered Ophir at Rotterdam. Her code letters were PNLC. By 1910 she was equipped for submarine signalling and wireless telegraphy.{{sfn|Lloyd's Register 1910|loc=OPE–ORA}} By 1913 her wireless call sign was MRJ, but by 1914 it had been changed to PFB.{{sfn|The Marconi Press Agency Ltd|1913|p=270}}{{sfn|The Marconi Press Agency Ltd|1914|p=415}}
Ophir{{'}}s peacetime route between Rotterdam and the Dutch East Indies was via the Strait of Gibraltar and Suez Canal. In the First World War the Netherlands were neutral, but Rotterdamsche Lloyd re-routed Ophir via the Cape of Good Hope to avoid hostilities in the Mediterranean. In 1916 the route was changed again, and Ophir went via the Panama Canal. Early in 1918 her route was shortened to San Francisco – Java.{{cite web |url= https://www.theshipslist.com/ships/descriptions/ShipsO.shtml |last1=Swiggum |first1=Susan |last2=Kohli |first2=Marjorie |title=Ship Descriptions – O |work=TheShipsList |date=3 December 2008 |access-date=29 May 2023}}
US Navy service
On 20 March 1918 President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation seizing all Dutch merchant ships in ports of the USA and its territories. The next day Ophir was taken over at Honolulu, and on 25 March she was commissioned as USS Ophir, with the ID number ID–2800. Her commander was Lieutenant Commander MP Nash, USNRF.{{cite web |url= https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/o/ophir.html |title=Ophir |work=DANFS |publisher=Naval History and Heritage Command |access-date=29 May 2023}}
Ophir was armed with one 6-inch/50-caliber gun and one 4-inch/50-caliber gun.{{cite web |url= http://www.navsource.net/archives/12/172800.htm |last=Radigan |first=Joseph M |title=Ophir (ID 2800) |website=NavSource |access-date=29 May 2023}} She was assigned to the Naval Overseas Transportation Service. On 2 April 1918 she left Pearl Harbor for the Panama Canal. On 14 May she reached New York. She then made three transatlantic round trips between the USA and France.
On the first voyage she left New York on 1 June with four other ships and reached La Pallice on 7 or 9 June. As well as cargo, she carried sailors, tugboat men, and 500 sacks of mail. She returned to New York via Verdun, Quebec, where she called on 27 June.{{cite news |url= https://gibraltarinsight.com/2019/09/16/uss-ophir-the-burning-question/ |last=Baker |first=Paul |title=USS Ophir – The Burning Question |newspaper=Gibraltar Insight |date=16 September 2019 |access-date=29 May 2023}}
=Fire and sinking=
On 25 October, Ophir started a fourth transatlantic voyage from the East Coast of the United States. Her cargo included coal, drums of "aviation oil" (possibly castor oil), ambulances, and five Jeffery Quad trucks. On 1 November, an ensign of her ship's company died of Spanish flu.{{cite web |url= https://www.naval-history.net/WW1NavyUS-CasualtiesChrono1918-11Nov.htm |title=by Date and Ship/Base – November 1918 |work=Casualties of the United States Navy and Coast Guard |publisher=Naval-History.net |date=5 August 2011 |access-date=29 May 2023}} On 8 November Ophir left Gibraltar for Marseille. But fire was discovered aboard, thought to be in the lower part of her number two hold, in which she was carrying about 500 tons of coal. She turned back, re-entered Gibraltar on the evening of 10 November, and anchored off the North Mole.
File:Cargo ship USS Ophir (ID 2800) burning at Gibraltar in November 1918.jpg in November 1918]]
Ophir{{'}}s crew fought the fire with her own firefighting equipment until the evening of 11 November, when an explosion blew the hatches off number two hold and killed two of her enginemen. Water that had been pumped through firehoses into the hold threatened to break through the bulkhead into her fire room. This would extinguish her furnaces and thus disable her pumps. Lieut Cmdr Nash asked permission from the Royal Navy Senior Naval Officer (SNO) for the ship to be beached. The SNO agreed, and a pilot took her to shallows where she was grounded in {{convert|4+1/2|fathom|m|0}} of water. Her boilers were put out of action, and the ship continued to burn.
On 16 November 1918 the two dead crewmen were buried in North Front Cemetery, but in June 1919 their bodies were repatriated to the USA. In January 1919 HM Tug Crocodile pumped the water out of Ophir. On 18 January her number one hold and after hold were dry, only {{convert|3|ft|m|0}} of water remained in her number two hold. Her surviving crew was repatriated to the USA, and a team was sent from the USA to refloat and repair her. She was refloated on 10 February 1919. On 22 May 1919 the five Jeffrey Quad trucks, which had spent weeks under {{convert|16|ft|0}} of water, were sold to a buyer in Cadiz. On 30 July her wreck was offered at auction in London, but no-one bought her.
=Return voyage=
File:Ophir NH-43072.jpg in January 1920]]
On 25 November 1919, Ophir left Gibraltar under her own power, crewed by six officers and 68 enlisted men, and carrying the wives of eight of the enlisted men as passengers. Only one of her three boilers was working. She called at the Azores, and two days later she broke down. Off Bermuda the minesweeper {{USS|Bobolink|AM-20|6}} took her in tow. About {{convert|100|nmi|km}} off Cape Henry they encountered a storm, which broke the tow rope. Ophir drifted for 36 hours in {{convert|100|mph|adj=on}} wind and heavy sea. Eventually she storm abated, and on 9 January 1920 she reached Norfolk, Virginia under her own power. On 16 January she was decommissioned and transferred to the Department of War.
In February 1920 the Beaver Steamship Company bought the wreck. She remained at Philadelphia until 1922, when she was scrapped.
References
{{reflist}}
Bibliography
- {{cite book |last1=Cooper |first1=James |last2=Haws |first2=Duncan |year=1998 |title=Rotterdam Lloyd |series=Merchant Fleets |volume=35 |place=Pembroke |publisher=Travel Creatours Ltd Publications |isbn=0-946378-35-5}}
- {{cite book |year=1910 |title=Lloyd's Register of British and Foreign Shipping |volume=I.–Steamers |place=London |publisher=Lloyd's Register of Shipping |url= https://archive.org/details/HECROS1911ST/page/n774/mode/1up |via=Internet Archive |ref={{harvid|Lloyd's Register 1910}} }}
- {{cite book |author=The Marconi Press Agency Ltd |author-link=Marconi Company |year=1913 |title=The Year Book of Wireless Telegraphy and Telephony |place=London |publisher=The St Katherine Press}}
- {{cite book |author=The Marconi Press Agency Ltd |author-link=Marconi Company |year=1914 |title=The Year Book of Wireless Telegraphy and Telephony |place=London |publisher=The Marconi Press Agency Ltd}}
External links
{{commons category-inline|Ophir (ship, 1904)}}
{{November 1918 shipwrecks}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ophir, SS}}
Category:Maritime incidents in 1918
Category:Ships built by Koninklijke Maatschappij De Schelde
Category:Steamships of the Netherlands
Category:Steamships of the United States Navy
Category:Transports of the United States Navy