SS St. Louis (1894)

SS St. Louis was a passenger liner built in 1894 and sponsored by Frances Cleveland, the wife of Grover Cleveland. She entered merchant service in 1895, operating between New York and Southampton, England. St. Louis was registered in the United States and owned by the International Navigation Company of New York City. She was acquired by the U.S. Navy during both the Spanish–American War (when she was renamed USS St. Louis) and World War I (when she was renamed USS Louisville).[1] After the ship reverted to its original name in 1919, she caught fire and was scrapped in Genoa in 1924.

Service history

Service to Southampton

Shortly before St. Louis was put into service, the American Line made Southampton its UK destination. The Southampton Docks Company facilitated this change by building Prince of Wales Graving Dock. In 1895, St. Louis was the second ship to use this dry dock, the largest in the world. The dock was important for the line, because otherwise its ships would have to go to Tilbury to find a suitable dry dock.[2]

Spanish–American War

On a later voyage following the outbreak of the Spanish–American War, St. Louis was chartered for United States Navy service while at Southampton and returned to New York on 22 April 1898. Armed with four 5 in rapid-fire guns and eight 6-pounders, she was commissioned in the U.S. Navy as an auxiliary cruiser on 24 April 1898 with Captain Caspar F. Goodrich in command. St. Louis, crewed by 27 officers and 350 men, departed on 30 April 1898 for the Caribbean.

St. Louis was specially outfitted with heavy drag lines in order to destroy undersea cable communications in the West Indies and to the mainland of South America. On 13 May, the ship severed a cable between St. Thomas and San Juan, and on 18 May engaged in gunfire with the Morro Castle batteries at Santiago de Cuba while cutting another cable. When Admiral Pascual Cervera's fleet sailed into Santiago Harbor, the Spanish warships found themselves cut off from direct communications with Spain.

St. Louis next severed the cable between Guantanamo Bay and Haiti; then cut the cable off Cienfuegos to isolate Cuba from outside communications. She joined in the bombardment of fortifications at Caimanera in Guantanamo Bay on 3 June; captured a Spanish merchant ship on the 10th; intercepted two British ships bound for Cuba - the Twickenham on 10 June and Wary on 1 July; and was present at the Battle of Santiago de Cuba on 3 July when the Spanish Fleet was destroyed while trying to force its way to sea.

St. Louis received many prisoners of war, including Admiral Cervera, for internment in the United States and landed them at Portsmouth, N.H., on 11 July. She steamed south from Norfolk on the 28th to cruise among ports of Puerto Rico and Cuba until 10 August; then sailed for New York where she arrived on the 14th. She shifted to Philadelphia on 24 August to enter the Cramp shipyard for preparation for return to her owners. St. Louis was decommissioned on 2 September and was turned over to Mr. J. Parker, a representative of the American Lines.

country	United States
owner	International Navigation Company
operator	House flag of the American Line.svg American Line
route	New York City–Southampton New York City–Liverpool
builder	William Cramp & Sons, Philadelphia
yard number	277
launched	12 November 1894
in service	1895
out of service	1918
homeport	New York City
fate	Burned and scuttled January 1920 Scrapped 1925

SS St. Louis (1894)

Service history

Service to Southampton

Spanish–American War

World War I

Destruction

External links

References