USS Orizaba (ID-1536)

USS Orizaba (ID–1536) departing New York via the North River for France in World War I (1918)
History
United States
Name:	USS Orizaba (ID-1536)
Namesake:	Orizaba, Veracruz, Mexico
Builder:	William Cramp & Sons Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Launched:	February 1917 as Orizaba
Acquired:	11 April 1918
Commissioned:	27 May 1918
Decommissioned:	4 September 1919
In service:	after 4 September 1919 as USAT Orizaba
Out of service:	1920
Fate:	returned to Ward Line, 1920
Name:	SS Orizaba
Owner:	Ward Line
Acquired:	1920
Port of registry:	New York
In service:	1920
Refit:	1924
Route:	New York–Cuba–Spain, 1920–1921 New York–Cuba–Mexico, 1921–1939
Out of service:	1939
Fate:	Chartered to United States Lines, 1939; Sold to War Department, 1941
United States
Acquired:	early 1941, by War Department
In service:	early 1941
Out of service:	March 1941
Refit:	April–May 1941, Bethlehem Steel Co.
Acquired:	4 June 1941, by US Navy
Commissioned:	15 June 1941
Decommissioned:	23 April 1945
Struck:	20 July 1953
Identification:	Call sign: NUBY
Honors and awards:	1 battle star, World War II
Fate:	To Brazilian Navy, 16 July 1945 at Tampa, Florida under Lend-Lease; Permanent transfer to Brazil, June 1953
Brazil
Name:	Duque de Caxias (U11)
Namesake:	Luís Alves de Lima e Silva, Duke of Caxias
Acquired:	16 July 1945
Commissioned:	16 July 1945
Decommissioned:	13 April 1959
Struck:	1960
Fate:	Scrapped in 1963
General characteristics
Tonnage:	6,937 gross tons (as USAT Orizaba)
Displacement:	11,293 tons (as USS Orizaba)
Length:	443 ft 3 in (135.10 m)
Beam:	60 ft (18.3 m)
Draft:	24 ft 4 in (7.42 m)
Propulsion:	2 steam turbines
Speed:	16.5 knots (30.6 km/h)
Range:	6,200 nautical miles (11,500 km)
Capacity:	35,455 cubic feet (1,004.0 m3)
Troops:	World War I: 3,100 4,100 (after Armistice) World War II: 2,928
Complement:	323 officers and enlisted
Armament:	World War I: 4 × 5" guns 2 × 1 pounder World War II: 2 × 5"/38 caliber Dual Purpose (DP) gun mounts 4 × 3"/50 caliber DP gun mounts as Duque de Caxias: 2 × 5"/38 caliber gun mounts 12 × 20 mm AA gun mounts

USS Orizaba (ID-1536/AP-24) was a transport ship for the United States Navy in both World War I and World War II. She was the sister ship of Siboney but the two were not part of a ship class. In her varied career, she was also known as USAT Orizaba in service for the United States Army, as SS Orizaba in interwar civilian service for the Ward Line, and as Duque de Caxias (U-11) as an auxiliary in the Brazilian Navy after World War II.

Orizaba made 15 transatlantic voyages for the Navy carrying troops to and from Europe in World War I with the second-shortest average in-port turnaround time of all Navy transports. The ship was turned over to the War Department in 1919 for use as Army transport USAT Orizaba. After her World War I service ended, Orizaba reverted to the Ward Line, her previous owners. The ship was briefly engaged in transatlantic service to Spain and then engaged in New York–Cuba–Mexico service until 1939, when the ship was chartered to United States Lines. While Orizaba was in her Ward Line service, American poet Hart Crane leapt to his death from the rear deck of the liner off Florida in April 1932.

In World War II the ship was requisitioned by the War Shipping Administration and again assigned to the War Department as USAT Orizaba. After completing one voyage as an Army transport, the ship was transferred to the U.S. Navy, where she was re-commissioned as USS Orizaba (AP-24). The ship made several transatlantic runs, was damaged in an air attack in the Allied invasion of Sicily, and made trips to South America. The transport also served in the Pacific Theatre, making several transpacific voyages, and one to the Aleutians.