USS ''William Isom'' (ID-1555) was an

oil tanker An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk transport of oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined crud ...

that was built in 1917 and briefly served in the

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 ...

. She spent three decades in the

United States Merchant Marine United States Merchant Marines are United States civilian mariners and U.S. civilian and federally owned merchant vessels. Both the civilian mariners and the merchant vessels are managed by a combination of the government and private sectors, an ...

. In 1931 she was renamed ''Edwin B. De Golia''. In 1947 or 1948 she was sold to a company that renamed her ''Demosthenes'' and flagged her out to

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...

. She was scrapped in 1955.

Building

The Baltimore Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company built ''William Isom'' for the Sinclair Gulf Corporation in 1917, completing her that November. She was named after a Vice President of the North American Transportation and Trading Company. ''William Isom''s main engines were two steam turbines, which drove her single propeller shaft by single-deduction gearing. She had two

water-tube boiler A high pressure watertube boiler (also spelled water-tube and water tube) is a type of boiler in which water circulates in tubes heated externally by the fire. Fuel is burned inside the furnace, creating hot gas which boils water in the steam-gene ...

s, made by W. & A. Fletcher Company of

Hoboken, New Jersey Hoboken ( ; Unami: ') is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 60,417. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 58,690 i ...

US Navy service

On 24 April 1918 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 ...

took control of ''William Isom''. On 1 May the US Navy took her over, gave her the naval registry Identification Number 1555 and commissioned her as USS ''William Isom''. Her first commander was

Lt Cdr Lieutenant commander (also hyphenated lieutenant-commander and abbreviated Lt Cdr, LtCdr. or LCDR) is a Officer (armed forces), commissioned officer military rank, rank in many navy, navies. The rank is superior (hierarchy), superior to a l ...

Wenzel Habel,

USNRF The United States Navy Reserve (USNR), known as the United States Naval Reserve from 1915 to 2005, is the Reserve Component (RC) of the United States Navy. Members of the Navy Reserve, called Reservists, are categorized as being in either the Sele ...

. ''William Isom'' was assigned first 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 ...

. By 1 July 1918 she had been transferred to the Fleet Train as a depot tanker, carrying

bunker oil Fuel oil is any of various fractions obtained from the distillation of petroleum (crude oil). Such oils include distillates (the lighter fractions) and residues (the heavier fractions). Fuel oils include heavy fuel oil, marine fuel oil (MFO), bun ...

to US ships and stations. She seems to have remained in US home waters throughout her 15 months of naval service. On 21 August 1919 ''William Isom'' was decommissioned and returned via the US Shipping Board to the Sinclair Gulf Corporation.

Further civilian service

The American Italian Commercial Corporation bought ''William Isom'' in 1920, and sold her in the mid-1920s to the Cuba Distilling Company. In 1930 Edwin B. De Golia bought her and renamed her ''Edwin B. De Golia''. From 1931 her owner is listed as the

Hillcone Steamship Company The Hillcone Steamship Company was a United States based steamship company that operated from 1929 to 1970. It was based in San Francisco, California and was owned by businessmen Joseph J. Coney and Stanley Hiller, Sr. Ships it is known to have owne ...

. Despite her change of name, ''Edwin B. De Golia'' seems to have kept the same

code letters Code letters or ship's call sign (or callsign) Mtide Taurus - IMO 7626853"> SHIPSPOTTING.COM >> Mtide Taurus - IMO 7626853/ref> were a method of identifying ships before the introduction of modern navigation aids and today also. Later, with the i ...

LJBC until 1933. In 1934 they were superseded by the

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...

WLCN. By 1935 ''Edwin B. De Golia'' was equipped with wireless direction finding. In 1947 the Artemis Maritime Company bought ''Edwin B. De Golia'', renamed her ''Demosthenes'' and registered her in

Panama City Panama City ( es, Ciudad de Panamá, links=no; ), also known as Panama (or Panamá in Spanish), is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has an urban population of 880,691, with over 1.5 million in its metropolitan area. The city is locat ...

. She was scrapped on 4 February 1955 in Trieste.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:William Isom (ID-1555) 1917 ships Ships built in Baltimore Steamships of Panama Steamships of the United States Unique oilers and tankers of the United States Navy World War I tankers of the United States