page_title: SS Minnesotan
section_title: World War I
hierarchical_section_title: SS Minnesotan / World War I
caption_attribution_description: English: USS Minnesotan (ID # 4545) Arriving in a U.S. port, while bringing American troops home from Europe in 1919. Location may be Charleston, South Carolina. Panoramic photograph by Sargeant, Columbia, S.C. Donation of Dr. Mark Kulikowski, 2007. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
context_page_description: SS Minnesotan was a cargo ship built in 1912 for the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company. During World War I she was known as USAT Minnesotan in service for the United States Army and USS Minnesotan in service for the United States Navy. She ended her career as the SS Maria Luisa R. under Italian ownership. She was built by the Maryland Steel Company as one of eight sister ships for the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company, and was employed in inter-coastal service via the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and the Panama Canal after it opened.
  In World War I, USAT Minnesotan carried cargo and animals to France under charter to the U.S. Army from September 1917. When transferred to the U.S. Navy in August 1918, USS Minnesotan continued in the same duties, but after the Armistice she was converted to a troop transport and returned over 8,000 American troops from France. Returned to American-Hawaiian in 1919, Minnesotan resumed inter-coastal cargo service, and, at least twice, carried racing yachts from the U.S. East Coast to California.
  During World War II, Minnesotan was requisitioned by the War Shipping Administration and initially sailed between New York and Caribbean ports.
context_section_description: On 11 September 1917, some five months after the United States declared war on Germany, the United States Army chartered Minnesotan for transporting animals to Europe in support of the American Expeditionary Force. Although there is no information about the specific conversion of Minnesotan, for other ships this typically meant that passenger accommodations had to be ripped out and replaced with ramps and stalls for the horses and mules carried.
  On 23 August 1918, Minnesotan was transferred to the United States Navy at Norfolk, Virginia. She was commissioned into the Naval Overseas Transportation Service (NOTS) the same day, with Lieutenant Commander E. L. Smith, United States Naval Reserve Forces (USNRF), in command. Minnesotan was refitted and rearmed and made a brief roundtrip to New York. After taking on a general cargo, Minnesotan sailed 4 September to join a convoy from New York. After passing Gibraltar on 21 September, the cargo ship sailed on to Marseille and unloaded. Departing there on 21 October, she sailed for Newport News via Gibraltar, arriving back in the United States on 7 November.
  Minnesotan next took on a load of 798 horses and sailed on 30 November for Bordeaux, where she arrived on 13 December. Stopping at Saint-Nazaire the following day, Minnesotan departed for Norfolk on 21 December. After making port at Norfolk on 3 January 1919, the cargo ship sailed for New York, where she was inspected and found to be suitable for use as a troop transport. She was transferred to the Cruiser and Transport Force on 7 January and fitted with bunks and living facilities over the next three months.
  Sailing from New York on 30 March, Minnesotan began the first of her four voyages returning American servicemen from France. On 16 April at Saint-Nazaire, Minnesotan began her first homeward journey with troops, embarking several companies of the 111th Infantry Regiment of the U.S. 28th Infantry Division. George W. Cooper, historian of the 2nd Battalion of the 111th Infantry, reported that even though the fighting had been over for some five months, the fear of striking floating mines necessitated that the men wear life jackets for the first three days at sea. Minnesotan landed her 1,765 troops in New York on 28 April.
  On her next journey, Minnesotan loaded some 2,000 men of the 304th Ammunition Train and the U.S. 24th Infantry Division, for what turned out to be a rough passage with widespread seasickness. The men on board were greatly relieved when land was spotted, and the ship docked at Charleston, South Carolina, on 29 May.
  Details of Minnesotan's third journey are not available, but her final journey began by sailing from Brest on 23 July with elements of the U.S. 4th Infantry Division and ended upon arrival at Philadelphia on 3 August. In total, she carried 8,038 troops in four voyages from France. By 15 August, Minnesotan had entered dry dock at the Philadelphia Navy Yard to prepare for decommissioning, which took place six days later. She was then returned to American-Hawaiian. Leslie White, later a noted American anthropologist, was a crewman aboard USS Minnesotan.
caption: USS Minnesotan with returning troops in 1919 at Charleston, South Carolina
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