USS Bridgeport (AD-10)

USS Bridgeport (Id. No. 3009) at New York on 1 October 1917. She was originally the German liner SS Breslau.
History
Germany
Name:	SS Breslau
Namesake:	Breslau, Germany
Owner:	North German Lloyd
Builder:	Bremer Vulkan Vegesack, Germany
Laid down:	1901
Launched:	14 August 1901
Maiden voyage:	23 November 1901 to New York
Route:	Bremen–Baltimore, April 1902 Bremen–Baltimore–Galveston, September 1903 Bremen–Philadelphia, March 1910 Bremen–Boston–New Orleans, May 1914
Captured:	Interned at New Orleans, summer 1914; Seized by the United States, April 1917
United States
Name:	USS Bridgeport Repair Ship No. 2
Namesake:	Bridgeport, Connecticut
Cost:	$25,386 (refit costs)
Acquired:	Seized by the United States, April 1917
Commissioned:	25 August 1917
Refit:	Boston Navy Yard, September 1917 – March 1918
Reclassified:	Destroyer Tender No. 10, 1 March 1918
Reclassified:	AD-10, 17 July 1920
Decommissioned:	3 November 1924
Struck:	2 October 1941
United States
In service:	September 1943
Renamed:	USAHS Larkspur, September 1943
Refit:	Merrill-Stevens Drydock & Repair Co., Jacksonville, Florida, September 1943 – August 1944
Renamed:	USAT Bridgeport, January 1946
Refit:	Todd Shipyard, Hoboken, New Jersey, January 1946
Out of service:	16 April 1947
Fate:	Scrapped 1948
General characteristics
Class and type:	Köln class
Tonnage:	7,524 tons
Length:	136.36 m (447 ft 5 in)
Beam:	16.46 m (54 ft)
Propulsion:	2 quadruple expansion steam engines, 3,600 hp (2,700 kW), twin screws
Speed:	12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Capacity:	60 cabin-class passengers, 1,660 steerage passengers
Crew:	94–120
Differences as USS Bridgeport:
Displacement:	8,600 tons
Length:	447 ft 7.5 in (136.436 m)
Beam:	54 ft 4 in (16.56 m)
Draft:	29 ft 2 in (8.89 m)
Speed:	12.5 knots (23 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement:	786
Armament:	1917: 4 × 3-inch (76 mm) guns 1918: 8 × 5-inch (127 mm) / 40-caliber guns 2 × machine guns 1920: 8 × 5-inch 51-caliber gun guns 2 × machine guns
Differences as USAHS Larkspur:
Tonnage:	7,995 tons
Length:	447 ft 0 in (136.25 m)
Draft:	29 ft 2 in (8.89 m)
Speed:	10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Range:	9,300 nmi (17,200 km; 10,700 mi)
Capacity:	594 patients
Armament:	None
Differences as USAT Bridgeport:
Draft:	29 ft 0 in (8.84 m)
Range:	9,000 nmi (17,000 km; 10,000 mi)
Capacity:	352 adults, 182 children

USS Bridgeport (AD-10/ID-3009) was a destroyer tender in the United States Navy during World War I and the years after. She was a twin-screw, steel-hulled passenger and cargo steamship built in 1901 at Vegesack, Germany as SS Breslau of the North German Lloyd line. Breslau was one of the seven ships of the Köln class of ships built for the Bremen to Baltimore and Galveston route.

Interned at New Orleans, Louisiana at the outbreak of World War I, Breslau was seized in 1917 by the United States after her entry into the war and commissioned into the Navy as USS Bridgeport. Originally slated to be a repair ship, she was reclassified as a destroyer tender the following year. Bridgeport completed several transatlantic convoy crossings before she was stationed at Brest, France, where she remained in a support role after the end of World War I. After returning to the United States in November 1919, she spent the next five years along the East Coast and in the Caribbean tending destroyers and conducting training missions. She was decommissioned in November 1924 and placed in reserve at the Boston Navy Yard.

After being struck from the Naval Vessel Register in October 1941, and a brief, unsuccessful attempt at merchant service early in World War II, she was transferred to the War Department for use by the United States Army in November 1942. The ship was selected for employment as a Hague Convention hospital ship and renamed USAHS Larkspur. She made three round trips to the United Kingdom before an extended tour of duty in the Mediterranean.