USS Kerlew ca. 1918-1919.
History
United States
NameUSS Kerlew
NamesakePrevious name retained
BuilderCraig, Taylor and Company, Ltd., Stockton, England
Launched26 December 1905
Completed1906
Acquired13 November 1918
Commissioned13 November 1918
Decommissioned12 April 1919
FateTransferred to United States Shipping Board 12 April 1919 for simultaneous return to owner
NotesIn commercial service 1906-1918 and from 1919
General characteristics
TypeCargo ship
TonnageSee note[1]
Length336 ft 6 in (102.57 m)
Beam41 ft 9 in (12.73 m)
Draft25 ft (7.6 m) (mean)
Speed10 knots (maximum)
Complement77
Armament1 × 4-inch (102-millimeter) gun

USS Kerlew (ID-1325) was a United States Navy cargo ship in commission from 1918 to 1919.

Kerlew was built in 1906 at Stockton-on-Tees, England, by Craig, Taylor and Company, Ltd.[2] Prior to World War I, she served as the Austro-Hungarian commercial cargo ship Virginia. She was named Kerlew and owned by Kerr Navigation Corporation of New York City by the time the United States Army acquired her on a bareboat charter basis in October 1917.

The U.S. Navy acquired Kerlew on 13 November 1918, two days after the end of World War I, at Cardiff, Wales, assigned her the naval registry Identification Number (Id. No.) 1325, and commissioned her the same day as USS Kerlew.

Assigned to the U.S. Army coal trade at Cardiff, Kerlew transported coal across the English Channel from British to French ports. She continued this duty until 29 January 1919, when she arrived at Invergordon, Scotland, to load a cargo of American naval mines for return to the United States. Departing Invergordon on 19 February 1919, she arrived in the United States at Norfolk, Virginia, on 9 March 1919.

Kerlew was decommissioned on 12 April 1919 and transferred the same day to the United States Shipping Board for simultaneous return to her owner.

Kerlew returned to commercial service. She was renamed Mount Sidney in 1922 while serving as a merchant ship.

Notes

  1. ↑ According to the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (at http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/k3/kerlew.htm) and NavSource Online (at http://www.navsource.org/archives/12/171325.htm), the ship's displacement tonnage was 3,563, while according to the U.S. Naval Historical Center Online Library of Selected Images (at http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-k/id1325.htm) her Gross register tonnage was 3,563. It is highly unlikely that both tonnage figures were the same for the ship, but the confusion among the sources makes it impossible to determine which type of tonnage the figure actually represents.
  2. ↑ Shipbuilding on the River Tees

References

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