SS St. Louis (1894)
St. Louis seen off New York in 1900.
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| History | |
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 United States
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| Name: | SS St. Louis |
| Owner: | International Navigation Company |
| Operator: | American Line |
| Route: | |
| Builder: | William Cramp and Sons, Philadelphia |
| Launched: | 12 November 1894 |
| In service: | 1895 |
| Out of service: | 1918 |
| Homeport: | New York City |
| Fate: |
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 United States
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| Name: | USS St. Louis |
| Commissioned: | 24 April 1898 |
| Decommissioned: | 2 September 1898 |
| Fate: | Returned to owners, 1898 |
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United States
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| Name: | USS Louisville |
| Acquired: | 17 April 1918 |
| Commissioned: | 24 April 1918 |
| Decommissioned: | 9 September 1919 |
| Fate: | Returned to owners, 1919 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Passenger ship / Auxiliary cruiser / Troopship |
| Displacement: | 14,910 long tons (15,149 t) |
| Length: | 554 ft (169 m) |
| Beam: | 63 ft (19 m) |
| Draft: | 30 ft (9.1 m) |
| Speed: | 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph) |
| Complement: | 377 |
| Armament: |
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| Service record | |
| Operations: | |
SS St. Louis, was a transatlantic passenger liner built by the William Cramp & Sons Building & Engine Company, Philadelphia and was launched on 12 November 1894; sponsored by Mrs. Grover Cleveland, wife of the President of the United States; and entered merchant service in 1895, under United States registry for the International Navigation Co., of New York City with her maiden voyage between New York and Southampton, England. She was acquired by the United States Navy during the Spanish–American War and commissioned under the name USS St. Louis in 1898, and again during World War I under the name USS Louisville (ID-1644) from 1918 to 1919. After she reverted to her original name in 1919, she burned in 1920 while undergoing a refit. She was scrapped in 1924 in Genoa.
On a later voyage following the outbreak of the Spanish–American War, St. Louis was chartered for Naval service while at Southampton and returned to New York on 22 April 1898. Armed with four 5-inch rapid fire guns and eight 6-pounders, she was commissioned as an auxiliary cruiser in the United States Navy on 24 April, Capt. Caspar F. Goodrich in command. Manned by 27 officers and 350 men, she put to sea on 30 April 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, she severed the cable between St. Thomas and San Juan; and five days later exchanged fire with the Morro Castle batteries at Santiago de Cuba as she cut the cable between that port and Holland's Bay, Jamaica. When Admiral Pascual Cervera's fleet sailed into Santiago Harbor, the Spanish warships found themselves cut off from direct communications with Spain.
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Wikipedia