Santiago Str

Santiago

(Str.: dp. 7,792; 1. 370'; b. 44'9"; dr. 22'3"; s. 10 k.; cpl. 52; a. 1 5", 1 6-pdr.)

Santiago (ex-Tabaristan) was launched in 1906 by Wm. Hamilton and Co., Ltd., Port Glasgow, Scotland, and prior to her acquisition by the Navy was operated out of Havana, under Cuban registry, by the New York and Cuba Mail S.S. Co. She was taken over by the U.S. Navy on 3 June 1918 at New York for service in World War I; assigned the identifieation number 2253, and commissioned as a Naval Overseas Transportation Service vessel on 11 June 1918.

Refitted for Navy use, she took on general Army cargo and sailed in convoy for Brest on 18 June. Returning in ballast, on 30 July, she sailed again on 5 August; discharged her cargo at Verdon, and put into Hoboken, N.J., on the 22d. After completing her third eastward passage at St. Nazaire on 20 October, she carried out cross-channel runs between French and British ports until after the cessation of hostilities. She completed postwar duties in mid-February 1919 and sailed for the United States, arriving in Hampton Roads on 3 March. A week later she proceeded to New York where she was decommissioned on the 21st and turned over to the United States Shipping Board for return to her owner.