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UNITED STATES NAVY
TEMPORARY AUXILIARY SHIPS
WORLD WAR I

Photo # NH 96088: Freighter Defiance in 1918


Online Library of Selected Images:
-- CIVILIAN SHIPS --

S.S. Defiance (American Freighter, 1918).
Served as USS Defiance (ID # 3327) in 1918-1919

The steamship Defiance, a 7898 gross ton freighter, was built in 1918 at Alameda, California, as part of the World War I emergency ship construction program. Upon completion in September 1918 she was taken over by the Navy and placed in commission as USS Defiance (ID # 3327). On her maiden voyage in September and October, she carried flour and naval stores from San Francisco to New York. Beginning later in October the ship, now loaded with U.S. Army supplies, joined a trans-Atlantic convoy bound for England and France. After more than two months in European waters, she arrived back in the U.S. in mid-February 1919. USS Defiance was decommissioned at the beginning of March and returned to the United States Shipping Board.

This page features all available views concerning the freighter Defiance, which was USS Defiance (ID # 3327) in 1918-1919.


Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: None

S.S. Defiance (American Freighter, 1918)

Photographed on August 20, 1918 at the yard of her builder, the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, Union Plant, Alameda, California.

Source: U.S. National Archives, RG-32-S.

 
Photo #: NH 96088

S.S. Defiance (American Freighter, 1918)

Photographed by her builder, the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, Alameda, California, probably while on her trial trip, circa early September 1918.
Acquired by the Navy upon completion, this ship was commissioned on 5 September 1918 as USS Defiance (ID # 3327). She was returned to the U.S. Shipping Board on 1 March 1919.
Note her pattern camouflage.

The original print is in National Archives' Record Group 19-LCM.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 61KB; 740 x 605 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 94489

S.S. Defiance (American Freighter, 1918)

Underway, probably while running trials in San Francisco Bay, California, circa early September 1918.
This ship served as USS Defiance (ID # 3327) in 1918-1919.
Note her pattern camouflage.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 51KB; 740 x 330 pixels

 


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Page made 20 April 2005