USS ''Alloway'' (Id. No. 3139) was a

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

Design 1015 ship The Design 1015 ship (full name Emergency Fleet Corporation Design 1015) was a steel- hulled cargo ship design approved for production by the United States Shipping Boards Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFT) during World War I. They were referred t ...

cargo ship A cargo ship or freighter is a merchant ship that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year, handling the bulk of international trade. Cargo ships are usu ...

in commission from 1918 to 1919 that served during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and its immediate aftermath. After decommissioning, she served as the commercial cargo ship SS ''Alloway'' until she was wrecked in 1929.

Construction and commissioning

SS ''Shintaka'', a screw steamer built in 1918 at

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, for the

United States Shipping Board The United States Shipping Board (USSB) was established as an emergency agency by the 1916 Shipping Act (39 Stat. 729), on September 7, 1916. The United States Shipping Board's task was to increase the number of US ships supporting the World War ...

by Moore & Scott, was acquired by the U.S. Navy on 11 July 1918 for World War I service. Renamed USS ''Alloway'' ( ID No. 3139), she was commissioned at

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, California, on 12 July 1918.

Service history

U.S. Navy

Assigned to the

Naval Overseas Transportation Service Military Sealift Command (MSC) is an organization that controls the replenishment and military transport ships of the United States Navy. Military Sealift Command has the responsibility for providing sealift and ocean transportation for all US m ...

(NOTS), ''Alloway'' departed from San Francisco soon after commissioning and set a course for the west coast of South America. She arrived at Arica,

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

, on 17 August 1918 and began loading a cargo of

nitrate Nitrate is a polyatomic ion A polyatomic ion, also known as a molecular ion, is a covalent bonded set of two or more atoms, or of a metal complex, that can be considered to behave as a single unit and that has a net charge that is not zer ...

s. She left Arica near the end of August 1918 and arrived at

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

, on 20 September 1918. She discharged the nitrates at Norfolk and moved on to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

for repairs. On 10 November 1918, the day before the armistice with Germany that ended World War I, ''Alloway'' departed New York City to begin her only voyage to

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

in U.S. Navy service. A little over a month later, on 11 December 1918, she entered port at

Quiberon Quiberon (; , ) is a commune in the French department of Morbihan, administrative region of Brittany, western France. It is situated on the southern part of the Quiberon peninsula, the northern part being the commune of Saint-Pierre-Quiberon. It ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. After unloading over 5,000 tons of

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

cargo, she continued on to

Brest Brest may refer to: Places *Brest, Belarus **Brest Region **Brest Airport **Brest Fortress *Brest, Kyustendil Province, Bulgaria *Břest, Czech Republic *Brest, France **Arrondissement of Brest **Brest Bretagne Airport ** Château de Brest *Brest, ...

, France. She loaded new cargo there for the return voyage, then crossed the Atlantic and entered

New York Harbor New York Harbor is at the mouth of the Hudson River where it empties into New York Bay near the East River tidal estuary, and then into the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of the United States. It is one of the largest natural harbors in t ...

on 13 February 1919. After discharging her cargo, she entered Schewan's

drydock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...

for overhaul. On 3 March 1919, ''Alloway'' was decommissioned and returned to the U.S. Shipping Board for disposition. Presumably, her name was struck from the

Navy list A Navy Directory, formerly the Navy List or Naval Register is an official list of naval officers, their ranks and seniority, the ships which they command or to which they are appointed, etc., that is published by the government or naval author ...

that same day.

Commercial service

As SS ''Alloway'', the ship entered commercial service, and the U.S. Shipping Board operated her commercially until 1928,wrecksite.eu SS Alloway (+1929)
/ref> when she was sold to the C. P. Box Corporation of

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

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. ''Alloway'' began her final voyage on 29 January 1929, when she departed Seattle under the command of

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

H. S. Throckmorton carrying a crew of 35 and a cargo of 4,500 tons of

lumber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...

bound for

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, where she was to be scrapped.Her

steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be trans ...

broke down during the voyage on 10 February 1929, and on 11 February 1929 the

American Mail Line American Mail Line of Seattle, Washington was a commercial steamship service with routes to and from Seattle, Washington and the Far East. American Mail Line was founded in 1920, by Pacific Steamship Company also with a $500,000 investment from ...

steamer ''Montauk'' – which was on a voyage to

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

– took her under

tow Towing is coupling two or more objects together so that they may be pulled by a designated power source or sources. The towing source may be a motorized land vehicle, vessel, animal, or human, and the load being anything that can be pulled. Th ...

.The towline broke in

Unimak Pass The Fox Islands Passes are waterways in the Fox Islands area of the U.S. state of Alaska, connecting the Bering Sea with the North Pacific Ocean . From the southward and eastward, bound for Bering Sea, there are three passes used by deep-draft ...

in the

Aleutian Islands The Aleutian Islands (; ; ale, Unangam Tanangin,”Land of the Aleuts", possibly from Chukchi language, Chukchi ''aliat'', "island"), also called the Aleut Islands or Aleutic Islands and known before 1867 as the Catherine Archipelago, are a cha ...

during a gale on 12 February, and ''Alloway'' collided with ''Montauk'' – which sustained US$10,000 in damage to her

superstructure A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships. Aboard ships and large boats On water craft, the superstruct ...

– immediately after the towline broke,then drifted quickly toward nearby

Ugamak Island Ugamak Island ( ale, Ugangax̂) is one of the Krenitzin Islands, a subgroup of the Fox Islands group of the eastern Aleutian Islands, Alaska. Ugamak is an Aleut word transcribed by Father Veniaminov (1840) which, according to R. H. Geoghegan, may ...

. Her crew attempted to anchor her, but she dragged the

anchor An anchor is a device, normally made of metal , used to secure a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the craft from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ''ancora'', which itself comes from the Greek ἄγ ...

, and all but one member of her crew abandoned ship when it became impossible to stop her from running aground on the coast of Ugamak Island. One crewman, 20-year-old oiler James L. Posey, remained aboard ''Alloway'' after the rest of the crew abandoned ship and even after she ran aground, despite the danger to his life.Anonymous, "Man Left on SS Alloway May Be Wise," ''The Daily Colonist'' (Victoria, British Columbia), February 14, 1929, p. 5 Retrieved June 7, 2019
/ref> ''Montauk'' radioed that Posey had become mentally deranged because of the stress of five days at sea in the gale and could not be forced to abandon ship, but merchant mariners in Seattle offered the opinion that Posey had remained aboard in order claim a possibly significant share of the salvage value of the US$200,000 ship and her US$80,000 cargo if any salvage attempt took place, and this motive eventually was confirmed. Posey finally abandoned ship on 14 February 1929 and was rescued by a

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mult ...

cutter shortly before ''Alloway'' broke up in the surf. She and her cargo were a total loss.

References

*
amnwr.com Shipwrecks on Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alloway (ID-3139) Design 1015 ships Ships built in Oakland, California 1918 ships Design 1015 ships of the United States Navy World War I cargo ships of the United States Maritime incidents in 1929 Shipwrecks of the Alaska coast