USS General G. W. Goethals (ID-1443) was a Germancargo liner that the United States seized during the First World War. She was launched in 1911 for the Hamburg America Line (HAPAG) as Grunewald. In 1917 the US seized her in Panama, and the Panama Canal Railway (PCR) operated her for the United States Shipping Board (USSB). In 1919 she spent six months in the United States Navy, in which she made three round trips to and from France to repatriate US troops. In 1920 the PRC bought her from the USSB. In 1925 the Black Star Line owned her. In 1926 the Munson Steamship Line bought her and renamed her Munorleans. She was scrapped in Scotland in 1937.
This was the first of three steamships that HAPAG named Grunewald. The second was her sister ship Wasgenwald, which HAPAG renamed in 1926.[1] The third was a ship that was built in 1940, and HAPAG bought and renamed in 1951.[2]
Grunewald was completed in 1911 or 1912. Her lengths were 367 ft (112 m) overall and 353.1 ft (107.6 m) registered. Her beam was 48.7 ft (14.8 m), her depth was 25.0 ft (7.6 m), and her draft was 27 ft 6 in (8.4 m). Her tonnages were 4,707 GRT, 2,883 NRT, and 2,783 tons displacement. Bremer Vulkan built her quadruple-expansion engine, which was rated at 400 NHP, and gave her a speed of 11 knots (20 km/h).[5][6]
At 11:00 hrs on 1 August 1914, with the First World War imminent, HAPAG announced the suspension of its services.[8] Germany ordered its merchant ships to take refuge in the nearest German or neutral port. Grunewald took refuge in Colón, Panama. On 12 September 1916 it was reported that her Chief Engineer was drowned when a launch in which he was traveling overturned in the Chagres River below the spillway of the Gatun Dam.[9]
General G. W. Goethals
General G. W. Goethals in port sometime between 1917 and 1919
On 6 April 1917 the USA declared war on Germany, and seized German ships in US ports. On 30 June President Woodrow Wilson issued an executive order authorising the USSB to take possession and title of 87 German ships, including Grunewald.[10] The USSB appointed the Panama Canal Railway to manageGrunewald. She was renamed after General George Washington Goethals, who had supervised the building of the Panama Canal, and was now General Manager of the Emergency Fleet Corporation. The ship General G. W. Goethals was registered in New York; her US official number was 215106; and her code letters were LHDT.[11]
A ship, probably General G. W. Goethals, off Newport News in 1919
General G. W. Goethals made three transatlantic round trips between the US and France. On each trip she took supplies to France, and repatriated American Expeditionary Forces troops to the US. On her first voyage she left New York on 2 April, sailed to Bordeaux, and returned on 4 May. On her three return voyages she repatriated a total of nearly 3,000 troops.[6]
On 21 August 1919 General G. W. Goethals left Charleston carrying supplies to New Orleans, San Cristóbal, Panama, and San Juan. On 13 September she arrived in New York, was decommissioned, and transferred to the US Department of War for return to the USSB.[6] By June 1920 ownership of the ship had passed from the USSB to the PRC.[13]
USS S-5 rescue
On 24 August 1920 General G. W. Goethals left Colón for New York via Haiti.[14] At about 14:00 hrs on 1 September the submarine USS S-5 sank accidentally during a practice crash dive at position 38°36′N74°00′W / 38.600°N 74.000°W / 38.600; -74.000, 55 nautical miles (102 km) east of Cape Henlopen. Her crew partly refloated her, raising her stern at a 60-degree angle about 30 feet (9 m) above the surface of the sea. Using a various drills and other tools they made a hole in her hull,[15] about 7 by 5⁄8 inch (178 by 16 mm).[16] Through it they poked a brass pipe on which they waved a man's undershirt as an improvised white flag.[15]
Alanthus (right) standing by the disabled USS S-5 (left)
On 2 September the cargo steamship Alanthus sighted S5's stern and saw her white flag being waved. Alanthus' crew secured the submarine to the ship's stern, and rigged a floating staging around it. With a hose and a deck pump they supplied S-5's crew with air,[17] and with buckets and a funnel they supplied fresh water,[15] but they were unable to enlarge the hole to enable the submariners to escape. Alanthus had a wireless, but no wireless operator, so she was unable to radio for help.[18]
At about 17:20 hrs on 2 September General G. W. Goethals was about 45 nautical miles (83 km) east of the Delaware Capes when her lookout sighted Alanthus about 7 nautical miles (13 km) off her port bow. Alanthus was flying a distress signal with signal flags. Goethals'Master, Captain EO Swensen, changed course toward Alanthus. When Goethals was 1⁄2 nautical mile (1 km) away she lowered a boat, in which her Chief Engineer, Chief Officer, Chief Wireless Operator and two ship's doctors transferred to Alanthus.[17]
The Chief Engineer, William Grace, returned to Goethals to fetch tools and his first assistant. The Chief Wireless Operator, CF Asche, found that Alanthus' transmitter had a range of only about 20 nautical miles (37 km). His Assistant Wireless Operator, HO Byers, used Goethals' apparatus to transmit the first signal about the emergency at 18:00 hrs. The Fourth Naval District at Philadelphia Navy Yard received the signal, and sent the destroyerUSS Breckinridge to assist.[17]
The plates of S-5's hull were about 3⁄4 inch (19 mm) thick. At about 19:00 hrs Grace, using a ratchet drill, started making a line of holes around an area of hull plating about 12 by 10 inches (300 by 250 mm). He then used a chisel to cut the steel between each pair of holes. At about 01:20 hrs Grace and his first assistant, R McWilliam, used a crowbar to prise the cut-out section from S-5's hull. At about 01:45 hrs the first submariner emerged through the hole. S-5's commander, Lieutenant Commander Charles M. Cooke, Jr., was last to leave. He ensured that all the watertight doors in the submarine were closed, to help to keep her afloat, and emerged through the hole at 02:45 hrs.[17]
Alanthus' crew had swung the boom of a derrick over the stern. From it they suspended a bosun's chair, with which each submariner was brought aboard. All 37 submariners were rescued. After the rescue was completed, Breckinridge arrived, and Goethals resumed her voyage to New York.[17] On 9 September Goethals left New York on her next voyage to Haiti.[19]
On 10 January 1925 the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) bought General G. W. Goethals for the Black Star Line.[21] However, in March 1926 the UNIA was forced to sell her to pay mooring charges and repair costs. In June 1926 a Winthrop Waite was registered as her legal owner.[13] This may have been the Winthrop Waite who later became President of the Northern Railroad of New Jersey.[22] Munson Line bought the ship at auction for a fraction of what the UNIA had paid for her,[21] and renamed her Munorleans.[23]
On 4 November 1926 Munorleans left San Juan, Puerto Rico. She called at Havana, Cuba and Nassau, Bahamas, and on 27 November 1926 arrived in New York. There United States Customs Service officers found 14 Spanish and Portuguese stowaways hiding under a wooden structure in one of her coal bunkers. The stowaways were sent to Ellis Island, and three members of Munorleans' crew were arrested on suspicion of helping them.[24]
In 1929 Munorleans' route was between New York and Brazil.[25] By 1934 her wireless call sign was WNCG, and this had superseded her code letters.[23] She was scrapped in Ardrossan, Scotland in 1937.[1]
Haws, Duncan (1980). The Ships of the Hamburg America, Adler and Carr Lines. Merchant Fleets in Profile. Vol. 4. Cambridge: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN0-85059-397-2.
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