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USS Tasker H. Bliss (AP-42)

USS Tasker H. Bliss (AP-42).jpg
USS Tasker H. Bliss
History
United States
Name:
  • Golden State
  • President Cleveland
  • Tasker H. Bliss
Namesake:
Builder: Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock
Cost: $6,291,944.92
Yard number: 256
Launched: 17 July 1920
Acquired: 19 August 1942
Commissioned:
  • USS Tasker H. Bliss (AP-42),
  • 15 September 1942
Struck: 7 December 1942
Honors and
awards:
1 Battle Star
Fate: Torpedoed, 12 November 1942
Notes: U.S. O/N 220485
General characteristics
Type: Emergency Fleet Corporation Design 1029 ship
Displacement: 12,568 long tons (12,770 t)
Length: 535 ft (163 m)
Beam: 72 ft 2 in (22.00 m)
Draft: 27 ft 8 in (8.43 m)
Propulsion: Steam turbine(s)
Speed: 16.5 kn (19.0 mph; 30.6 km/h)
Complement: 235
Armament: Unknown

SS President Cleveland was originally built as Golden State for the United States Shipping Board (USSB), one of the planned World War I troop transports converted before construction into passenger and cargo vessels launched as Emergency Fleet Corporation Design 1029 ships first known, along with the smaller Design 1095 versions, in the trade as "State" ships due to names assigned for the nicknames of states and later as "535s" for their length overall. Almost all ships of both designs were renamed for United States presidents by May 1921, with Golden State being renamed President Cleveland. As one of the USSB-owned ships operated by agents of the board, President Cleveland was allocated to and operated by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company until sold by the USSB to the Dollar Steamship Line in 1925. After the demise of that line and creation of a new, replacement line, American President Lines, the ship remained with that line until government acquisition for the Second World War.

President Cleveland was acquired by the War Department and renamed Tasker H. Bliss and converted into a troop transport which served in the Pacific immediately preceding and after outbreak of the war. She was acquired from the United States Army by the United States Navy for war use, commissioned USS Tasker H. Bliss on 15 September 1942, and designated as transport AP-42. On 12 November 1942, while supporting Operation Torch of the North African campaign she was sunk after being struck by a German submarine’s torpedo at Fedala Bay, Morocco.


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