USS Howick Hall ( ID - 1303 ) USS " Howick Hall " ( ID - 1303 ) was a cargo ship that served in the United States Navy from 1918 to 1919 . Construction and service , 1910 - 1918 . " Howick Hall " was built as the commercial cargo ship SS " Howick Hall " in 1910 at Port Glasgow , Scotland , by the William Hamilton Company . In 1914 she was sold to the United States Steel Products Company of New York City . She was sold to the Isthmian Line in 1915 . In September 1917 , the United States Army acquired " Howick Hall " for use as a cargo ship during World War I . United States Navy service , 1918 - 1919 . The U . S . Navy acquired " Howick Hall " from the U . S . Army on 24 August 1918 . Assigned Identification Number ( Id . No . ) 1303 , she was commissioned at Baltimore , Maryland , the same day as USS " Howick Hall " with Lieutenant Commander Gust E . Jonsson in command . Assigned to the Naval Overseas Transportation Service , " Howick Hall " loaded cargo at Baltimore and joined a convoy at New York City . From there she steamed to St . Nazaire , France , which she reached on 30 September 1918 . She discharged her cargo and returned to Baltimore , where she arrived on 31 October 1918 . It proved to be her only wartime voyage in U . S . Navy service , as World War I ended on 11 November 1918 before she next put to sea . " Howick Hall " s second and final voyage in U . S . Navy service began at Newport News , Virginia , where she loaded cargo for Le Verdon - sur - Mer , France , on 25 December 1918 . From there " Howick Hall " went to Bassens for fuel , and on 3 February 1919 departed for the United States . However , a case of spinal meningitis in her crew necessitated her stopping at Bermuda on 21 February 1919 . Ship and crew were placed in quarantine and denied communication with the island of Bermuda until she departed for Newport News on 25 February 1919 . After calling at Newport News , " Howick Hall " arrived at Baltimore on 5 March 1919 and decommissioned there on 13 March 1919 . She was returned to her former owners the same day . Commercial service , 1919 - 1942 . Once again SS " Howick Hall " , she returned to commercial service . She was renamed SS " Doverden " in 1929 , then sold in 1930 to the Exeter Shipping Company of London , England . In 1931 she was sold to the McAllum Steamship Company of London , then in 1932 to the Lambert Brothers of London , then again in 1935 to H . Constant of London . " Doverden " was sold for scrap in 1935 , but was saved from scrapping when Ditta Luigi Pittaluga Vapori of Genoa , Italy , purchased her and placed her in service as the Italian commercial cargo ship SS " Ircania " . In 1937 she was sold to the S . A . Cooperativa di Nav Garibaldi of Genoa , and served as an Italian supply ship in the Second Italo - Abyssinian War of 1935 - 1936 . The U . S . Maritime Commission acquired " Ircania " on 24 June 1941 at Jacksonville , Florida , and renamed her SS " Raceland " . The Maritime Commission transferred " Raceland " to the South Atlantic Line on 31 December 1941 . In South Atlantic Line service early in World War II , " Raceland " joined Convoy PQ - 13 , which departed Boston , Massachusetts , for Reykjavík , Iceland , and then continued to Murmansk in the northern Soviet Union . Loss . " Raceland " was in Convoy PQ - 13 on the Reykjavík - Murmansk leg of its voyage when she was bomb ed and sunk by German bomber s south of Bear Island on 28 March 1942 at position 72° 40 ' N . , 20° 20 ' E . Two of four lifeboats her crew launched were lost in heavy seas . The remaining two finally reached the coast of Norway , after constant rowing , with 22 men dead from the cold .