View source for SS Great Northern

{{Short description|Passenger ship built in 1914}}
{|{{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image
| Ship image = [[Image:GREAT NORTHERN on builder's trials.jpg|300px|''Great Northern'' running builder's trials]]
| Ship caption = ''Great Northern'' running builder's trials, {{c.}} late 1914 or early 1915
}}
{{Infobox ship career
| Hide header = 
| Ship country = United States
| Ship flag = {{USN flag|1915}}
| Ship name = *1915: ''Great Northern''
*1917: USS ''Great Northern'' (ID-4569)
*1919: USAT ''Great Northern''
*1921: USS ''Great Northern'' (AG-9)
*1921: USS ''Columbia'' (AG-9)
*1922: ''H. F. Alexander''
*1942: USAT ''George S. Simonds''{{sfn|DANFS: ''Great Northern''}}
| Ship namesake = Great Northern Railway
| Ship owner = 
| Ship operator = *1915: Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway Company
*1917: U.S. Navy
*1919: U.S. Army
*1921: U.S. Navy
*1922: Pacific Steamship Company
*1942: U.S. Army{{sfn|DANFS: ''Great Northern''}}
| Ship ordered = 
| Ship awarded = 26 April 1913
| Ship builder = [[William Cramp & Sons]], [[Philadelphia]]
| Ship original cost = 
| Ship yard number = 407
| Ship way number = 
| Ship laid down = 22 September 1913
| Ship launched = 7 July 1914
| Ship sponsor = 
| Ship christened = 
| Ship completed = April 1915{{sfn|Clay|2011|p=2153}}
| Ship acquired = 
| Ship commissioned = 
| Ship recommissioned = 
| Ship decommissioned = 
| Ship maiden voyage = 
| Ship in service = April 1915{{sfn|Clay|2011|p=2153}}
| Ship out of service = Entered reserve fleet at Lee Hall, Virginia 5 March 1946{{sfn|Maritime Administration}}
| Ship renamed = 
| Ship refit = 
| Ship struck = 
| Ship homeport = 
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| Ship honors = 
| Ship fate = Sold to Boston Metals Company on 25 February 1948{{sfn|International Marine Engineering| 1914}}
| Ship notes = 
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}}
{{Infobox ship characteristics
| Hide header = 
| Header caption = 
| Ship type = [[Passenger ship]]
| Ship tonnage = 8,255 [[gross register tonnage|GRT]]
| Ship length = {{cvt|509|ft|6|in}}
| Ship beam = {{cvt|63|ft|1|in}}
| Ship draft = {{cvt|21|ft}}
| Ship hold depth = 
| Ship power = 
| Ship propulsion = 
| Ship speed = {{cvt|23|kn|mph kph|lk=in}}
| Ship range = 
| Ship capacity = 
| Ship complement = 559 (Navy){{sfn|DANFS: ''Great Northern''}}
| Ship armament = 4 × {{convert|6|in|adj=on}} guns (Navy){{sfn|DANFS: ''Great Northern''}}
| Ship notes = 
}}
|}

'''''Great Northern''''' was a [[passenger ship]] built at [[Philadelphia]] by [[William Cramp & Sons]] under supervision of the Great Northern Pacific Steam Ship Company for the [[Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway|Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway Company]], itself a joint venture of the [[Great Northern Railway (U.S.)|Great Northern Railway]] and [[Northern Pacific Railway]]. ''Great Northern'', along with sister ship {{SS|Northern Pacific||2}}, were built to provide a passenger and freight link by sea between the northern transcontinental rail lines via the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway terminal at [[Astoria, Oregon]] and [[San Francisco]] beginning in spring of 1915.

The ship was acquired for military service in September 1917 and served as '''USS ''Great Northern''''' (AG-9), '''USAT ''Great Northern''''' and '''USS ''Columbia''''' before returning to commercial Pacific Coast service as '''''H. F. Alexander'''''. In 1942 the ship was acquired by the [[War Shipping Administration]] and again became an Army transport, '''USAT ''George S. Simonds'''''. After layup in the reserve fleet 5 March 1946 the ship was sold to Boston Metals Company on 25 February 1948 for scrapping.

==Construction and design==
''Great Northern'' and sister ship ''Northern Pacific'' were built by William Cramp & Sons for the Great Northern Pacific Steam Ship Company, Astoria, Oregon to the order of the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway Company to serve between Astoria and San Francisco.{{sfn|Clay|2011|p=2153}}{{sfn|International Marine Engineering|1914|p=535}} The Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway line itself was a joint venture between the Great Northern Railway and the Northern Pacific Railway that would give two ships their names.{{sfn|The Washington Historical Quarterly (January 1923)|p=14}} Contracts for both ships were let on 26 April 1913 with keel laying for ''Great Northern'' on 22 September 1913 and launch on 7 July 1914 with service due to start in March 1915.{{sfn|International Marine Engineering| 1914|p=535}}

Both ships were designed for 856 passengers and 2,185 tons of freight with a 23-knot speed making possible the run between the ports in 25–26 hours, equal to the time for an overland route, under favorable conditions and thus allowing direct service to San Francisco from the east using the two northern rail lines.{{sfn|International Marine Engineering| 1914|p=535}}{{sfn|The Washington Historical Quarterly (January 1923)}} Both ships were classed A100 according to British Lloyds and met the latest requirements of the U.S. [[Steamboat Inspection Service]].{{sfn|International Marine Engineering| 1914|p=535}}

Design specifications were for a {{GRT|8,255}} ship with {{cvt|524|ft|1}} length overall, {{cvt|500|ft|1}} length between perpendiculars, {{cvt|63|ft|1}} beam, {{cvt|21|ft|1}} full load draft, {{cvt|50|ft|8|in|1}} depth molded to A deck with {{DWT|2,185}} and approximately 200,000 cubic feet of cargo space.{{sfn|International Marine Engineering| 1914|p=535}} The 856-passenger capacity was broken down into 550 first class, 108 second class and 198 third class served by a crew of 198.{{sfn|International Marine Engineering| 1914|p=535}} The double-bottomed hull was divided into eleven watertight compartments with ten extending to the bottom of the second deck above full load waterline.{{sfn|International Marine Engineering| 1914|p=536}}

Twelve [[Babcock & Wilcox]] [[Water-tube boiler|water tube boilers]] provided steam for [[C. A. Parsons and Company|Parsons turbines]] on three shafts with a requirement that the 23-knot speed be available with steam from only ten boilers.{{sfn|International Marine Engineering| 1914|p=536}} One high-pressure turbine {{cvt|21|ft|7.5|in|1}} long with {{convert|5|ft|8|in|1|-diameter|adj=mid}} rotor drum with four stages of expansion and two low-pressure turbines, with integrated astern and each {{cvt|32|ft|2|in|1}} long with {{convert|7|ft|8|in|1}} ahead and {{convert|6|ft|7|in|1|-astern-diameter|adj=mid}} rotor drums, develop about 25,000 shaft horsepower at 325 revolutions.{{sfn|International Marine Engineering| 1914|pp=542–543}} Four 35-kilowatt, 110-volt, steam-driven Diehl Manufacturing Company generators provided electric power for lighting and auxiliary electric machinery.{{sfn|International Marine Engineering| 1914|p=544}}

==Commercial service 1915–1917==
[[File:Great Northern Pacific Steamship Company postcard.jpg|thumb|Great Northern Pacific Steamship Company postcard for sending messages written on board ''Great Northern'']]
[[File:SS Great Northern Observation Room.png|thumb|''Great Northern''{{'s}} Observation Room]]
During summer ''Great Northern'', advertised with her sister as "Palaces of the Pacific," was engaged in the Astoria to San Francisco service.{{sfn|The Daily Colonist (March 24, 1915)|p=10)}} The service was inaugurated during the [[Panama–Pacific International Exposition]] with a schedule of departure from Portland by steamer train with a three and a half hour trip to the pier in Astoria departing at 1:30&nbsp;p.m. on the 26-hour trip to San Francisco, scheduled to arrive at Pier 25 of the Greenwich Street wharf at 3:30&nbsp;p.m. starting 25 March.{{sfn|The Daily Colonist (March 24, 1915)|p=10)}} In winter ''Great Northern'' changed to a luxury service to Hawaii on a route of San Francisco–[[San Pedro, Los Angeles|San Pedro]]–[[Hilo, Hawaii|Hilo]]–Honolulu with passage out taking four days with the stop in Hilo long enough for a volcano visit by tourists.{{sfn|Castle|1917|p=82}} The two ships maintained into 1917 the Great Northern Railway's sea link between the sights of the northwestern states and California with advertisements of the parks and sights connected by the railroad and the ship's link to San Francisco.{{sfn|Travel, May 1917}}

==Military service 1917–1922==
[[File:111-SC-41588a - NARA - 55242327-cropped.jpg|thumb|USS ''Great Northern'' as an armed transport returning U.S. troops in 1919]]
The entry of the United States into World War I brought the end of the ship's commercial service with wartime service as a fast troop transport.

===Navy===
''Great Northern'' was acquired from her owners on 19 September 1917, by the [[United States Shipping Board]]; converted to a transport at the [[Puget Sound Navy Yard]]; and commissioned as USS ''Great Northern'' (ID-4569) on 1 November 1917.{{sfn|DANFS: ''Great Northern''}} Six officers and men of the civilian crew joined the Navy to serve on board.{{sfn|Romig|1919|p=7}}

Embarking nearly 1,400 passengers at [[Puget Sound]], including 500 "enemy aliens," women and children as well as men, ''Great Northern'' sailed for the [[U.S. East Coast]] on 21 January 1918, reaching [[New York City]] on 9 February via the [[Panama Canal]] and [[Charleston, South Carolina]]. On 7 March, she sailed from the Army's then Hoboken Port of Embarkation, later designated the [[New York Port of Embarkation]], for [[Brest, France]] with 1,500 members of the [[American Expeditionary Force]] (AEF). ''Great Northern'' returned to Hoboken on 30 March with wounded veterans. From then until August 1919, she made a total of 18 [[transatlantic crossing|transatlantic]] voyages, first carrying troops to the fighting zones and then bringing home the victorious "doughboys". ''Great Northern'' [[Ship decommissioning|decommissioned]] at New York on 15 August 1919 and was transferred to the [[U.S. Army Transportation Service]] the same day.{{sfn|DANFS: ''Great Northern''}}

===Army===
''Great Northern'' was transferred to the [[Army Transport Service]] (ATS) on 15 August 1919.{{sfn|Clay|2011|p=2153}} USAT ''Great Northern'' was home ported at the New York Port of Embarkation 1919–1920 and then transferred to [[Fort Mason]] in San Francisco for Pacific service and home ported there 1920–1921.{{sfn|Clay|2011|p=2153}} In February 1920 the ship transported Y.M.C.A. and Red Cross workers from [[Vladivostok]] to San Francisco and in April transported approximately 3,000 American officers and men of the [[American Expeditionary Force, Siberia]] from Siberia to the Philippines.{{sfn|Clay|2011|p=2153}}{{sfn|DANFS: ''Great Northern''}} ''Great Northern'' also took a Congressional party on a long Pacific inspection, touching at [[Hong Kong]], [[Honolulu]], [[Cavite]], and then returning to [[San Francisco]], California in the summer of 1920.{{sfn|DANFS: ''Great Northern''}} The ship was laid up at San Francisco on 1 November 1920.{{sfn|Clay|2011|p=2153}} By this time the Army found both ''Great Northern'' and ''Northern Pacific'', then laid up in New York, too fast and too expensive to operate in peacetime and was attempting to lease them to private operators.{{sfn|United States Congress, Hearings, 1921|pp=11, 267}} ''Great Northern'' was turned over to the Navy by Executive Order on 29 July 1921.{{sfn|Clay|2011|p=2153}}{{sfn|United States Congress, Hearings, 1921|p=272}}

===Navy and rename===
[[File:USS Columbia (AG-9).jpg|thumb|USS ''Columbia'' (AG-9) At Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, dressed with flags for George Washington's Birthday, 22 February 1922. This ship served as USS ''Great Northern'' in 1917–1919.]]
The ship was reacquired by the Navy from the [[United States Department of War|War Department]] 3 August 1921 and commissioned 11 August as ''Great Northern'' (AG-9). On 19 November 1921, ''Great Northern''{{'}}s name was changed by Presidential order to ''Columbia'' to honor a name long famous in Navy annals. She remained in [[New York Harbor]], functioning as a floating command post, through the rest of 1921. ''Columbia'' sailed for the [[Caribbean]] to join the annual [[United States Fleet Forces Command|Atlantic Fleet]] winter exercises on 7 January 1922, reaching [[Guantánamo Bay]], [[Cuba]], via Charleston and [[Key West, Florida]] on 18 January. Three days later she joined the [[battleships]] {{USS|Wyoming|BB-32|2}}, {{USS|Arkansas|BB-33|2}}, {{USS|North Dakota|BB-29|2}} and {{USS|Delaware|BB-28|2}} at [[Guantanamo Bay Naval Base|Guantanamo Bay]].{{sfn|DANFS: ''Great Northern''}}
 
''Columbia'' sailed north on 24 February, reaching New York on 27 February. That same day, Admiral Jones shifted his flag to {{USS|Maryland|BB-46|2}}, and ''Columbia'' sailed for [[Chester, Pennsylvania]]. She decommissioned there on 4 March 1922 and was transferred to the [[U.S. Shipping Board]].{{sfn|DANFS: ''Great Northern''}}

==Commercial service 1922–1942==
The ship returned to merchant service with Admiral Lines' Pacific Steamship Company under the name ''H. F. Alexander'' as the line's flagship, noted in 1933 as the fastest coastwise vessel in the American Merchant Marine.{{sfn|DANFS: ''Great Northern''}}{{sfn|Pacific Marine Review|1933|p=1}}

==World War II service==
On 25 July 1942 she was taken over by the [[War Shipping Administration]] and transferred to the Army under [[bareboat charter]] as the troop transport USAT ''George S. Simonds''.{{sfn|International Marine Engineering| 1914}} ''Simonds'' had a capacity for 1,803 troops and was one of the U.S. Army Transports carrying troops to Normandy from England in June 1944.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.transchool.lee.army.mil/museum/transportation%20museum/mulberry.htm |archive-url=https://archive.today/20121212024728/http://www.transchool.lee.army.mil/museum/transportation%20museum/mulberry.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 12, 2012 |title=OPERATION MULBERRY (D-Day 1944) |author=U.S. Army Transportation Museum |publisher=U.S. Army Transportation Museum |access-date=16 July 2014}}</ref> The ship went into the reserve fleet at Lee Hall, Virginia 5 March 1946 and was sold to Boston Metals Company on 25 February 1948.{{sfn|International Marine Engineering| 1914}}

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

==Bibliography==
{{refbegin}}
*{{cite journal |last=Advertisement (''Daily Colonist'') |year=1915 |title=Columbia River and Pacific Ocean De Luxe |journal=The Daily Colonist |issue=March 24, 1915 |page=10 |place=Victoria, British Columbia, Canada |publisher=The Colonist Printing & Publishing Company |url=https://archive.org/stream/dailycolonist57y89uvic#page/n9/mode/1up/ |access-date=2 January 2015 |ref={{sfnref|The Daily Colonist (March 24, 1915)}}}}
*{{cite journal |last=Advertisement (''Travel'') |year=1917 |title=Glacier Has Something More |journal=Travel |issue=May 1917 |place=New York, New York |publisher=Travel Club of America |url=https://archive.org/stream/travel291917newy#page/n58/mode/1up/ |access-date=2 January 2015 |ref={{sfnref|Travel, May 1917}}}}
*{{cite book |last=Castle |first=William Richards |title=Hawaii Past and Present |year=1917 |location= New York |publisher=Dodd, Mead and Company |lccn=17005138 |page=2153 |url=https://archive.org/stream/afj6710.0001.001.umich.edu#page/82/mode/1up/ |access-date=2 January 2015 }}
*{{cite book |last1=Clay |first1=Steven E. |title=U. S. Army Order Of Battle 1919-1941 |series=Volume 4. The Services: Quartermaster, Medical, Military Police, Signal Corps, Chemical Warfare, And Miscellaneous Organizations, 1919-41 |volume=4 |year=2011 |location=Fort Leavenworth, KS |publisher=Combat Studies Institute Press |isbn=9780984190140 |lccn=2010022326 |url=http://usacac.army.mil/cac2/cgsc/carl/download/csipubs/OrderOfBattle/OrderofBattle4.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120916224518/http://usacac.army.mil/cac2/cgsc/carl/download/csipubs/OrderOfBattle/OrderofBattle4.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 16, 2012 |access-date=6 November 2014 }}
*{{cite journal |last1=International Marine Engineering |title=S.S. ''Great Northern'' and ''Northern Pacific'' |year=1914 |volume=XIX |issue=December 1914 |pages=535–545|publisher=Aldrich Publishing Company |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=827mAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA535 |access-date=6 November 2014 }}
*{{cite web |url=http://www.marad.dot.gov/sh/ShipHistory/Detail/8392 |title=''H. F. Alexander'' |author=Maritime Administration |work=Ship History Database Vessel Status Card |publisher= U.S. Department of Transportation, Maritime Administration |access-date=16 July 2014}}
*{{cite web |url=https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/g/great-northern.html |title=''Great Northern'' |author=Naval History And Heritage Command |work=Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships|ref={{sfnRef|DANFS: ''Great Northern''}} |publisher=Naval History And Heritage Command |access-date=17 July 2014}}
*{{cite journal |last1=Pacific Marine Review |year=1933 |title=Pacific Marine Review |volume=Consolidated 1933 issues |issue=January |page=1 |publisher='Official Organ: Pacific American Steamship Association/Shipowners' Association of the Pacific Coast |url=https://archive.org/details/pacificmarinerev3033paci |access-date=16 July 2014}}
*{{cite book |last1=Romig |first1=Donald King |date=January 9, 1919 |title=The United States Ship Great Northern—History of a Troop Transport |location=Brooklyn |publisher=Eagle press |lccn=19002560 |url=https://archive.org/stream/unitedstatesship00romi#page/n0/mode/1up |access-date=8 November 2014 }}
*{{cite web |url=http://www.transchool.lee.army.mil/museum/transportation%20museum/mulberry.htm |archive-url=https://archive.today/20121212024728/http://www.transchool.lee.army.mil/museum/transportation%20museum/mulberry.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 12, 2012 |title=OPERATION MULBERRY (D-Day 1944) |author=U.S. Army Transportation Museum |publisher=U.S. Army Transportation Museum |access-date=16 July 2014}}
*{{cite book |last=United States Congress; House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries |year=1921 |title=Transport Service of the Government: Hearings Before the Committee on the Merchant Marine and Fisheries, House of Representatives, Sixty-Seventh Congress |location=Washington, DC |publisher=Government Printing Office |url=https://archive.org/details/transportservic00housgoog |ref={{sfnref|United States Congress, Hearings, 1921}}}}
*{{cite journal |last=Gillman |first=L. C. |year=1923 |title=The Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railroad Company |journal=The Washington Historical Quarterly |volume=14 |issue=January |place=University Station, Seattle |publisher=The Washington State University State Historical Society |url=https://archive.org/stream/washingtonhistor14wash#page/14/mode/1up |access-date=2 January 2015 |ref={{sfnref|The Washington Historical Quarterly (January 1923)}}}}
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20011005083318/http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/#Anchor-Editoria-14954 Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships]
*{{navsource|09/49/49009}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060418065327/http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-g/id4569.htm Photo archive] at the Naval Historical Center.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Great Northern}}
[[Category:1914 ships]]
[[Category:Ships built by William Cramp & Sons]]
[[Category:Passenger ships of the United States]]
[[Category:Troop ships of the United States]]
[[Category:World War I auxiliary ships of the United States]]
[[Category:World War II auxiliary ships of the United States]]
[[Category:Transport ships of the United States Army]]
[[Category:Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway]]