USS Neptune (AC-8)

USS Neptune c. 1911–1915
History
United States
Name:	USS Neptune
Builder:	Maryland Steel Co., Sparrows Point, Maryland
Laid down:	23 March 1910
Launched:	21 January 1911
Commissioned:	20 September 1911
Decommissioned:	28 June 1922
Struck:	14 May 1938
Identification:	AC-8
Fate:	sold for scrap, 18 April 1939
General characteristics
Type:	Collier

The third USS Neptune (AC–8), a collier of the U.S. Navy, was laid down by the Maryland Steel Co., Sparrows Point, Md. 23 March 1910; launched 21 January 1911; and placed in service with a merchant crew at Norfolk Navy Yard 20 September 1911, Master F. E. Horton, Naval Auxiliary Service, in command.

Except for a period out of service at Norfolk Navy Yard 6 May to 5 December 1912, Neptune operated along the east coast and in the Caribbean from Boston to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, supporting ships and installations of the Atlantic Fleet into 1913. Continuing her replenishment operations, she made two coaling voyages to Vera Cruz, Mexico in the spring and summer of 1913, returned to Norfolk 8 September, decommissioned there 13 October, and was placed in reserve.

Neptune commissioned with a naval complement 7 December 1914 and resumed collier service with the Atlantic Fleet. Assigned to the Auxiliary Division, Atlantic Fleet on 28 December 1915, she continued this duty into 1917. She made four voyages to Santo Domingo between June 1916 and February 1917, carrying Marines, fuel and mail to support Navy and Marine Corps Units protecting American interests in the Dominican Republic during unrest there.

When the United States entered World War I, Neptune was at Baltimore, Maryland, loading general cargo. Departing that port, she put into Norfolk to embark a division of the 1st Aeronautical Detachment and sailed 25 May 1917 for France escorted by destroyers Jarvis and Perkins. Arriving at St. Nazaire on 8 June, the ship offloaded her cargo and disembarked her troops, the first American forces to land in Europe for service against the enemy. Neptune sailed for home 28 June, arriving at New York on 11 July. The vessel again resumed service with the Train, Atlantic Fleet, making one voyage to the Caribbean, 12 July to 27 August, and then operated off the Atlantic Coast, delivering coal to ports in Chesapeake Bay through the end of the war.