USS Arizonan ( ID - 4542A ) USS " Arizonan " ( ID - 4542A ) , also written ID - 4542 - A was a United States Navy cargo ship and troop transport in commission from 1918 to 1919 . Construction and commercial service , 1902 - 1918 . " Arizonan " was launched in 1902 at San Francisco , California , by the Union Iron Works as the commercial cargo ship SS " Arizonan " for the American - Hawaiian Steamship Company . She was completed early in 1903 and entered commercial service . " Arizonan " and her sister ship SS " Alaskan " — which later served in the U . S . Navy as USS " Alaskan " ( ID - 4542 ) — represented , according to a contemporary account , the " most advanced practice in the construction of ocean - going freighters and . . . a most important addition to the American merchant marine . " Intended exclusively for carrying freight , " Arizonan " was designed as a very strong ship with a large stowage capacity . After the United States entered World War I in 1917 , " Arizonan " came under the control of the United States Shipping Board , which placed her in service under a United States Army account with a U . S . Navy Naval Armed Guard detachment aboard . United States Navy service , 1918 - 1919 . World War I service . In the summer of 1918 , plans were made to have " Arizonan " manned by the U . S . Navy for the Army account . The Commandant of the 5th Naval District was authorized to fit out the ship for operation by the Naval Overseas Transportation Service ( NOTS ) as long as the turnover could be accomplished without delaying the loading of the ship ' s next consignment of cargo . Accordingly , the Shipping Board transferred " Arizonan " on 10 August 1918 to the U . S . Navy , which gave her the Naval Registry Identification Number ( Id . No . ) 4542A ( sometimes written as 4542 - A ) , and commissioned her on 14 August 1918 as USS " Arizonan " with Lieutenant Commander Henry R . Patterson , USNRF , in command as she lay at an Army pier in Norfolk , Virginia . On 16 August 1918 , " Arizonan " moved to Newport News , Virginia , where she took on cargo , including 50 trucks as a deck load , earmarked for the American Expeditionary Force in France . Underway on the morning of 30 August 1918 , she crossed the Atlantic Ocean in convoy and , after a brief stopover at Gibraltar from 17 September 1918 to 18 September 1918 , reached Marseilles , France , late in the afternoon of 21 September 1918 and , over the ensuing days , discharged her cargo . Departing Marseilles on 18 October 1918 , " Arizonan " returned to Newport News in ballast , reaching the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway piers on the evening of 7 November 1918 . Four days later , on 11 November 1918 — the same day upon which the armistice with Germany was signed , ending World War I - - " Arizonan " moved out into the stream , opposite the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company yards . After a drydocking and repairs , she departed for New York City on the afternoon of 18 November 1918 . Postwar service . Undergoing further repairs and alterations first at the Shewan and later at the Morse Drydock company yard , " Arizonan " was taken in hand for conversion to a troop transport , her armament being removed at the Morse Drydock yard . Reassigned to the Cruiser and Transport Force on 14 December 1918 , " Arizonan " remained at the Morse yard until late in January 1919 before shifting to one of the U . S . Army ' s major terminals , Bush Terminals , at Brooklyn , New York , to load additional gear in line with her recent metamorphosis into a troopship . Subsequently underway on the afternoon of 26 February 1919 , " Arizonan " streamed paravane s soon after sighting the European coast on 11 March 1919 , indicative of the precautions taken against any naval mine s which might still be in French waters . She reached Bassens , France , a northeastern suburb of Bordeaux where the U . S . Army had built a port facility during the war , on the evening of 12 March 1919 . She discharged her cargo there , then moved to Pauillac , France , where she embarked " doughboy s " for their trip home to the United States after their World War I service in France . She returned to Bush Terminals at Brooklyn on 3 April 1919 . " Arizonan " departed Bush Terminals on 12 April 1919 for Bordeaux , where she embarked troops . She returned to Bush Terminals with them on 20 May 1919 . She proceeded from Bush Terminals again on 7 June 1919 ; this time she embarked troops at St . Nazaire , France , and returned to Bush Terminals on 6 July 1919 . " Arizonan " left Bush Terminals on 11 July 1919 for her fourth voyage to Europe as a troop transport . On 15 July 1919 , during her outbound voyage , she encountered the disabled Naval Overseas Transportation Service troop transport USS " Edward Luckenbach " ( ID - 1662 ) and towed her 425 nautical miles ( 787 kilometers ) back toward Boston , Massachusetts . The United States Coast Guard cutter USCGC " Ossipee " joined the two troop transports on the afternoon of 17 July 1919 . On the morning of 19 July 1919 , " Ossipee " took over the towing duty from " Arizonan " , freeing " Arizonan " to continue on her voyage to France . " Arizonan " ultimately made port at St . Nazaire on the morning of 30 July 1919 . Completing her loading of return cargo — accomplished with an unusual labor force consisting of French stevedores and German prisoners - of - war — by 19 August 1919 , " Arizonan " embarked a comparatively small group of passengers ( 14 U . S . Army officers , six field clerks , and four enlisted men ) and got underway that morning for the United States . Reaching Hoboken , New Jersey , on 2 September 1919 , " Arizonan " finished discharging cargo and disembarking her passengers by 11 September 1919 and shifted to the Shewan ' s yard later that day . She then moved to Hoboken on the afternoon of 17 September 1919 . Over the ensuing days , workmen removed and dismantled the trappings of a troopship . As " Arizonan " lay moored alongside the U . S . Navy troop transport USS " Pretoria " at Pier 9 , Army Docks , Hoboken , she was decommissioned on 29 September 1919 . Her name was struck from the Navy List that same day . Commercial service from 1919 . Returned to the American - Hawaiian Steamship Company , the ship operated under the flag of that company as SS " Arizonan " until she was transferred to Japan ese ownership sometime during 1927 or 1928 . She disappears from mercantile records soon after that , suggesting that she was scrapped at the end of the 1920s .