SS Kentuckian SS " Kentuckian " was a cargo ship built in 1910 for the American - Hawaiian Steamship Company . During World War I she was known as USAT " Kentuckian " in service for the United States Army and USS " Kentuckian " ( ID - 1544 ) in service for the United States Navy . After her Navy career , she reverted to her original name of SS " Kentuckian " . She was built by the Maryland Steel Company as first of three ships ordered by 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 " Kentuckian " carried cargo and animals to France under charter to the U . S . Army . When transferred to the U . S . Navy in December 1918 , a month after the Armistice , USS " Kentuckian " was converted to a troop transport and returned almost 8 , 900 American troops from France . Returned to American - Hawaiian in 1919 , " Kentuckian " resumed inter - coastal cargo service . Shortly before World War II , " Kentuckian " was requisitioned by the War Shipping Administration and sailed between Trinidad and African ports , between New York and Caribbean ports , and in transatlantic convoys through mid 1944 . In mid - July 1944 , the ship was scuttle d as part of the breakwater for one of the Mulberry artificial harbors built to support the Normandy Invasion . Design and construction . In the second quarter of 1909 , American - Hawaiian , looking to expand its fleet , placed an order with the Maryland Steel Company of Sparrows Point , Maryland , for three new cargo ships — " Kentuckian " , " Georgian " , and " Honolulan " . The contract for the ships required that American - Hawaiian pay $ 1 , 000 , 000 in cash and a further $ 650 , 000 in twelve monthly notes at 5 % interest . Provisions of the deal allowed that the monthly notes could be converted into longer - term mortgages at 6 % interest , and secured by the ships themselves . The final cost of " Kentuckian " , including financing costs , was $ 58 . 33 per deadweight ton , which came out to just under $ 579 , 000 . " Kentuckian " ( Maryland Steel yard no . 104 ) was the first ship built under the contract . She was launched on 19 March 1910 , by Miss Nancy Johnson , the daughter of U . S . Representative Ben Johnson ( D - KY ) , who christened the ship with sparkling spring water from the Kentucky farms of Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis . The completed ship , delivered to American - Hawaiian on 1 June , was , and was in length ( between perpendiculars ) and abeam . She had a deadweight tonnage of , and her cargo holds had a storage capacity of . " Kentuckian " had a single quadruple - expansion steam engine powered by oil - fired boilers that drove a single screw propeller at a speed of . Early career . When " Kentuckian " began sailing for American - Hawaiian , the company shipped cargo from East Coast ports via the Tehuantepec Route to West Coast ports and Hawaii , and vice versa . Shipments on the Tehuantepec Route would arrive at Mexican ports — Salina Cruz , Oaxaca , for eastbound cargo , and Coatzacoalcos , Veracruz , for westbound cargo — and would traverse the Isthmus of Tehuantepec on the Tehuantepec National Railway . Eastbound shipments were primarily sugar and pineapple from Hawaii , while westbound cargoes were more general in nature . " Kentuckian " sailed in this service but it is not clear from sources whether on the east or west side of North America . After the United States occupation of Veracruz on 21 April 1914 ( which found six American - Hawaiian ships in Mexican ports ) , the Huerta - led Mexican government closed the Tehuantepec National Railway to American shipping . This loss of access coupled with the fact that the Panama Canal was not yet open , caused American - Hawaii to return in late April to its historic route of sailing around South America via the Straits of Magellan . With the opening of the Panama Canal on 15 August , American - Hawaiian ships switched to taking that route . In October 1915 , landslides closed the Panama Canal and all American - Hawaiian ships , including " Kentuckian " , returned to the Straits of Magellan route again . " Kentuckian " s exact movements from this time through early 1918 are unclear . She may have been in the half of the American - Hawaiian fleet that was chartered for transatlantic service . She may also have been in the group of American - Hawaiian ships chartered for service to South America , delivering coal , gasoline , and steel in exchange for coffee , nitrate s , cocoa , rubber , and manganese ore . World War I . At some point after the United States declared war on Germany in April 1917 , the United States Army chartered " Kentuckian " for transporting animals to Europe in support of the American Expeditionary Force . Although there is no information about the specific conversion of " Kentuckian " , for other ships this typically meant that any passenger accommodations had to be ripped out and replaced with ramps and stalls for the horses and mules carried . Details about " Kentuckian " s first animal transport journey are not known , but her second trip began 14 March 1918 when she sailed from Newport News , Virginia , with 848 animals for Saint - Nazaire , where she unloaded all but the four animals that had died or were destroyed during the voyage . On 24 April , during a convoy crossing in Army service , Naval Armed Guard smen on " Kentuckian " sighted a torpedo heading towards the second ship behind her in the column . Opening fire on the torpedo , the gun crew claimed the hit that caused the torpedo to explode short of its intended target . Further details of " Kentuckian " s Army service are not available . With the signing of the Armistice on 11 November , the fighting came to an end and the task of bringing home American soldiers began almost immediately . To that end , " Kentuckian " was acquired by the United States Navy on 16 December , and commissioned on 28 January 1919 with Lieutenant Commander Carrol E . Higgins , NAR , in command . Before she could begin returning troops , though , " Kentuckian " had to undergo conversion from a cargo and animal ship . Though sources do not indicate the specific modifications " Kentuckian " underwent , typical conversions for other ships included the installation of berths for troops , and adding greatly expanded cooking and toilet facilities to handle the large numbers of men aboard . Similar modifications on a fellow American - Hawaiian cargo ship , the two - years - younger , took three months , but it is not known how long " Kentuckian " s refit took . " Kentuckian " departed New York for her first trooping voyage on 2 March , picking up nearly 2 , 000 soldiers at Saint - Nazaire — among them some 1 , 500 men of the 363rd Infantry Regiment of the U . S . 91st Infantry Division , and a number from the U . S . 33rd Infantry Division — before returning to New York on 1 April . Her arrival on another trooping run in June returned 1 , 860 men , including over 1 , 500 members of the 345th Field Artillery Regiment of the U . S . 90th Infantry Division . An officer of that unit brought back a black police dog named Pat , who , purportedly , had been the personal dog of Germany ' s Crown Prince Wilhelm . Another trip in July returned another 1 , 852 men from Saint - Nazaire . In all , " Kentuckian " made a total of five trooping runs from France , bringing back 8 , 895 men by the time she completed her last trip on 31 August at Norfolk , Virginia . She was decommissioned on 15 September and returned to American - Hawaiian the same day . Interwar years . " Kentuckian " resumed cargo service with American - Hawaiian after her return from World War I service . Though the company had abandoned its original Hawaiian sugar routes by this time , " Kentuckian " continued inter - coastal service through the Panama Canal with a few incidents that interrupted what was a mostly uneventful twenty years . In September 1928 , a day after sailing from San Francisco , " Kentuckian " was rammed by the General Petroleum tanker " Los Alamos " near Point Sur , California , in a thick fog . " Kentuckian " had a leak in her number two cargo hold and damage to her port bilge keel and returned to San Francisco for repairs . In early April 1933 , a fire broke out in " Kentuckian " s number two cargo hold , which resulted in the delay of the ship at Panama from 8 to 14 April . " Kentuckian " made her way to Los Angeles over the next ten days , where surveyors examined the ship and her general cargo . For the most part , " Kentuckian " primarily carried general cargoes whose contents were not noteworthy . One exception occurred in July 1929 , when " The New York Times " reported that " Kentuckian " was carrying , " Pirate " , an R - class racing yacht to races at Larchmont and Marblehead . The newspaper reported that " Pirate " was the first West Coast designed and built yacht to race in the East . Unlike , a fellow American - Hawaiian ship that was plagued with labor difficulties , " Kentuckian " seems to have escaped much of the maritime labor turmoil of the mid - 1930s . One incident was reported by the " Los Angeles Times " in August 1936 . The news item reported that a portion of " Kentuckian " s crew went on strike in protest against unsafe working conditions . The ship ' s master had ordered the deckhands to rig one of the cargo booms after the ship docked in Los Angeles , but they refused because the deck was slippery and therefore , in their opinion , unsafe . World War II . Shortly before the United States entered World War II , " Kentuckian " was requisitioned by the War Shipping Administration ( WSA ) , but continued to be operated by American - Hawaiian . On 19 November 1941 , " Kentuckian " sailed from New York for Durban , where she arrived on 21 December . " Kentuckian " spent the next two months sailing between ports in South Africa and Mozambique , calling at Port Elizabeth , Cape Town , and East London in the former , and Lourenco Marques , and Beira in the latter , before heading to Trinidad from Cape Town on 28 February 1942 . Arriving at Trinidad three weeks later , she made her way up to Boston by early April , before putting in at New York for about six weeks . Sailing from New York in late May , " Kentuckian " joined a southbound Hampton Roads , Virginia – Key West , Florida convoy . She left the convoy before Key West and headed back across the $ 3 to Cape Town , where she arrived on 7 July . " Kentuckian " spent the next month sailing between Cape Town , East London , and Durban . " Kentuckian " concluded her second trip to Africa when she sailed for South America on 1 August . After a three - week crossing of the South Atlantic , " Kentuckian " arrived at Paramaribo on 22 August , where she took on a load of bauxite and made her way to New York , where she docked on 20 September . The cargo ship slowly made her way south , calling at Charleston , Key West , and Guantánamo Bay along her way to Trinidad , where she arrived on 5 November . Sailing 11 November , " Kentuckian " began her third and final trip to Africa . She arrived at Freetown on 25 November and called at Bathurst and Takoradi over the next two months before returning to Trinidad on 31 January 1943 . Sailing from Trinidad on 4 February , she called at Guantánamo Bay and Baltimore on her way to New York , where , arriving in late March , she prepared to begin transatlantic convoy sailings to the United Kingdom . On 1 April , " Kentuckian " , loaded with grain and general cargo , departed as a part of Convoy HX - 232 , the 232nd New York – Halifax – Liverpool convoy . Developing some unreported problem , she returned to New York on 3 April . The problem must have been minor , because she sailed as part of Convoy HX - 233 three days later . This convoy was attacked by no fewer than eight German submarines , which resulted in the loss of only one ship , the British cargo ship " Fort Rampart " , and the sinking of " U - 175 " by convoy escorts . There is no evidence that " Kentuckian " played any direct part in the sinking of the German submarine , but , nevertheless , members of her Naval Armed Guard were awarded a battle star for actions in the convoy from 16 – 18 April . " Kentuckian " arrived at Liverpool on 21 April . Over the next ten months , " Kentuckian " made nine more convoy crossings between the UK — where she called at Liverpool , Swansea , Milford Haven , Methil , Loch Ewe , Immingham , and Belfast Lough — and New York . She ended her tenth North Atlantic crossing when she arrived at New York on 16 February 1944 . Sailing from New York on 26 February , " Kentuckian " made two circuits between that port and the Caribbean , calling at Nuevitas , Cuba , and Manatí , Puerto Rico , and making stops at Key West and Philadelphia along the way , before putting in at New York on 15 April . " Kentuckian " departed the United States for the final time on 19 May and headed for Milford Haven . After arriving there on 3 June , the cargo ship arrived at Barry via Plymouth , Belfast Lough , and Falmouth , on 27 June . Departing Barry on 8 July as a part of Convoy EBC - 35 , " Kentuckian " arrived at Arromanches on 10 July and was scuttle d there as part of a breakwater protecting the mulberry harbor constructed there in support of the Normandy invasion . In March 1945 , the WSA offered a payment of $ 565 , 910 to American - Hawaiian for " Kentuckian " as part of a $ 7 . 2 million settlement for eleven requisitioned American - Hawaiian ships that had either been sunk , scuttled ( like " Kentuckian " ) , or were to be retained by the government .