SS Minnesotan 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 " ( ID - 4545 ) 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 . In the latter half of 1943 , " Minnesotan " sailed between Indian Ocean ports . The following year the cargo ship sailed between New York and ports in the United Kingdom , before returning to the Caribbean . In July 1949 , American - Hawaiian sold " Minnesotan " to Italian owners who renamed her " Maria Luisa R . " ; she was scrapped in 1952 at Bari . Design and construction . In September 1911 , the American - Hawaiian Steamship Company placed an order with the Maryland Steel Company of Sparrows Point , Maryland , for four new cargo ships — " Minnesotan " , , , and . The contract cost of the ships was set at the construction cost plus an 8 % profit for Maryland Steel , but with a maximum cost of $ 640 , 000 per ship . The construction was financed by Maryland Steel with a credit plan that called for a 5 % down payment in cash with nine monthly installments for the balance . Provisions of the deal allowed that some of the nine installments could be converted into longer - term notes or mortgages . The final cost of " Minnesotan " , including financing costs , was $ 65 . 65 per deadweight ton , which totaled just under $ 668 , 000 . " Minnesotan " ( Maryland Steel yard no . 124 ) was the first ship built under the original contract . She was launched on 8 June 1912 , and delivered to American - Hawaiian in September . " Minnesotan " was , and was in length and abeam . She had a deadweight tonnage of , and her cargo holds had a storage capacity of . " Minnesotan " had a speed of , and was powered by a single quadruple - expansion steam engine with oil - fired boilers , that drove a single screw propeller . Early career . When " Minnesotan " 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 . " Minnesotan " sailed in this service on the east 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 " Minnesotan " , returned to the Straits of Magellan route again . " Minnesotan " s exact movements from this time through early 1917 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 . 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 the same day , with Lieutenant Commander E . L . Smith , , 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 " . Interwar years . " Minnesotan " 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 , " Minnesotan " continued inter - coastal service through the Panama Canal . Hints at cargos she carried during this time can be gleaned from contemporary news reports from the " Los Angeles Times " . In March 1928 , for example , the newspaper reported that " Minnesotan " sailed from Los Angeles with a $ 2 , 500 , 000 cargo that included raw silk and of copper bullion . The 1 , 000 bales of silk , picked up in Seattle , were worth $ 1 , 000 , 000 on their own , while the load of copper was reportedly the largest water shipment of Arizona copper to that time . Canned goods , grape juice , and locally grown cotton completed the load . The " Los Angeles Times " also reported that " Minnesotan " delivered a then - record cargo from the East Coast to Los Angeles in October 1930 . " Minnesotan " also carried some less - traditional cargo . In February 1928 , she delivered one R - class and four six - meter ( twenty - foot ) sloops to Los Angeles . The five racing yachts , all from East Coast yacht clubs , arrived to sail in the national championships of six - meter and R - class sloops held 10 – 18 March . " Minnesotan " delivered two other six - meter sloops for new owners in November 1938 . " Minnesotan " did have one mishap during the interwar period . On 3 May 1936 , " The New York Times " reported that the day before , a receding tide had stranded " Minnesotan " about a half - mile ( 800 m ) off of Monomoy Point , Massachusetts . Any damage the freighter sustained must have been minor ; the cargo ship sailed from New York for San Francisco two weeks later . Labor difficulties . " Minnesotan " played a part in several labor difficulties in the interwar years . In March 1935 , the crew of " Minnesotan " called a wildcat strike that delayed the ship ' s sailing from Los Angeles by a day , but ended the strike after they were ordered back to work by their union . In October 1935 , the deckhands and firemen of " Minnesotan " and fellow Hawaiian - American ships " Nevadan " and " Golden Tide " walked out — this time with the sanction of their union , the Sailors ' Union of the Pacific ( SUP ) — after American - Hawaiian had suspended a member of the International Seamen ' s Union . In that same month , " Minnesotan " s deck engineer , Otto Blaczinsky , was murdered while the ship was in Los Angeles Harbor . The Industrial Association of San Francisco , an organization of anti - union businessmen and employers , believed that Blaczinsky was killed because he opposed union policies , and offered a $ 1 , 000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Blaczinsky ' s killer . Threats of another Pacific coast strike in late 1936 caused west coast shippers to squeeze as much cargo as possible into " Minnesotan " and other ships ; when " Minnesotan " arrived at Boston in October , " The Christian Science Monitor " reported that the ship had arrived " literally laden to her Plimsoll line " . In September 1941 , " Minnesotan " played a peripheral part in a larger protest by union sailors over war bonuses for sailing in the West Indies . The SUP struck on " Minnesotan " and fellow American - Hawaiian ship " Oklahoman " on 18 September in sympathy with the Seafarers International Organization , which had called a strike on eleven ships a week before . Both of the American - Hawaiian ships were idled while docked in New York . President Franklin D . Roosevelt called on the unions to end the strike three separate times during his press conference on 24 September . Roosevelt ' s admonition was heeded and both unions ended their strike after the National Mediation Board agreed to address the wartime bonus dispute . World War II . By January 1941 , " Minnesotan " , though still operated by American - Hawaiian , was engaged in defense work for the U . S . government , sailing to ports in South Africa . After the United States entered World War II , " Minnesotan " was requisitioned by the War Shipping Administration and frequently sailed in convoys . Though complete records of her sailings are unavailable , partial records indicate some of the ports " Minnesotan " visited during the conflict and some of the cargo she carried . From July 1942 to April 1943 , " Minnesotan " sailed between New York and Caribbean ports , calling at Trinidad , Key West , Hampton Roads , Guantánamo Bay , and Cristóbal . In June 1943 , " Minnesotan " called at Bombay . She sailed in the Indian Ocean between Calcutta , Colombo , and Bandar Abbas through August . On her last recorded sailing in the Indian Ocean , " Minnesotan " carried steel rails between Colombo and Calcutta . " Minnesotan " was back in New York by early December , and sailed to Florida and back by the end of the month . On 29 December , " Minnesotan " , loaded with a general cargo that included machinery and explosives , sailed as part of convoy HX 273 from New York for Liverpool . " Minnesotan " developed an undisclosed problem and returned to St . John ' s , Newfoundland , where she arrived on 13 January 1944 . Thirteen days later , she sailed from St . John ' s to join convoy HX 276 for Liverpool , where she arrived with the convoy on 7 February . After calling at Methil and Loch Ewe , " Minnesotan " returned to New York in mid March . " Minnesotan " sailed on another roundtrip to Liverpool in May , but was back in New York by early June . Her last recorded World War II sailings were from New York to Key West , Guantánamo Bay , and Cristóbal , where she arrived in late July 1944 . Sources do not reveal where or in what capacity " Minnesotan " spent the remainder of the war . Later career . After the war ' s end , American - Hawaiian continued operating " Minnesotan " for several more years , but in mid - July 1949 , the company announced the sale of " Minnesotan " to Italian owners in a move approved by the United States Maritime Commission several days later . The sale of " Minnesotan " was protested by the Congress of Industrial Organizations which urged the United States Congress to intervene and to help retain American Merchant Marine jobs . Nevertheless , " Maria Luisa R . " , the new name of the former " Minnesotan " , remained in Italian hands until she was scrapped in 1952 at Bari .