Transport ship in service of the U.S. Army from 1898 to 1927
U.S.A.T Thomas in dock at Fort Mason, California April 1920.
History
Name
Persia (1894–97)
Minnewaska (1897–1898)
Thomas (1898–1929)
Port of registry
Hamburg, Germany (Persia)
London, U.K. (Minnewaska)
United States (Army's Pacific service based in San Francisco)
Builder
Harland & Wolff, Belfast
Launched
8 May 1894
Completed
Delivered: 15 July 1894
In service
May 1894
Out of service
May 1929
Identification
Persia: Code letters RKBG
Minnewaska: British Official Number 108287, code letters PWMV
Thomas: Signal (1928) GWBM[note 1]
Fate
Sold for scrap 14 May 1929
General characteristics
Type
Passenger/cargo
Tonnage
1897: 5,796 GRT, 3,687 NRT (Persia)
1899: 5,713 GRT, 3,653 NRT (Minnewaska)
1902: 5,713 GRT, 3,653 NRT
1928: 7,685 GRT, 5,644 NRT
Displacement
7,685 tons
Length
445.5 ft (135.8 m) (registry)
Beam
50 ft 2 in (15.29 m)
Depth
29.8 ft (9.1 m)
Decks
3
Propulsion
Triple expansion engine, 499 nhp, twin screws
Speed
14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)
USAT Thomas was a United States Army transport ship purchased on 26 July 1898 for Spanish–American War service. Thomas served with the Army Transport Service (ATS) until retired in 1929.
The ship was built by Harland & Wolff, Belfast and launched as Persia in May 1894 for the Hamburg-American Packet Company (Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfarhrt Aktien-Gesellschaft (HAPAG)) with service to New York. She was bought by the Atlantic Transport Line in 1897 because she was "practically a sister" to other Massachusetts class of ships already in service there. She was renamed Minnewaska by her new owners.
The United States Army Transport Thomas served in the Atlantic until fitted for Pacific service during 1899. At first the ship transported troops from New York to the Philippines via the Suez Canal with the first trip in November 1899 with 1,490 passengers. In 1900 the ship's capacity was officially given as 95 officers and 1,654 men. By 1901 Thomas was operating out of the ATS home port in San Francisco making routine trips to the Philippines.
In July 1901 the ship made the popular press and history outside its military support duties when it departed San Francisco with about 557 teachers sent by the Philippine Commission to establish an education system in the Philippines. Thomas transported the largest group of teachers with all, regardless of ship, subsequently being given the name Thomasites for the ship.
From 1919 until 1928 the ship was based in San Francisco making routine trips to the Philippines on a regular route normally involving stops in Honolulu, Guam, Nagasaki, Japan and after World War I briefly serving Vladivostok as a result of the Allied intervention in Siberia. In association with that service the ship was one of ten Army transports involved in evacuation of the Czechoslovak Legion from Vladivostok to Trieste, Italy.
The ship's last voyage for the service was in March 1928 after which Thomas was turned over to the United States Shipping Board for disposal and sold to the American Iron and Metal Company 14 May 1929 for scrapping at Oakland, California.
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USATThomas was a United States Army transport ship purchased on 26 July 1898 for Spanish–American War service. Thomas served with the Army Transport Service...
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