The collier USS ''Proteus'' (AC-9) was laid down on 31 October 1911, by the

Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS), a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries, is the largest industrial employer in Virginia, and sole designer, builder and refueler of United States Navy aircraft carriers and one of two providers of U.S. Navy ...

, and launched on 14 September 1912. She was the lead ship of her class of four colliers. She was commissioned on 9 July 1913, to 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 ...

Service history

Following her fitting out and shakedown, ''Proteus'' steamed out of

Norfolk, Virginia Norfolk ( ) is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. Incorporated in 1705, it had a population of 238,005 at the 2020 census, making it the third-most populous city in Virginia after neighboring Virginia B ...

on 11 November 1913, on the first of four runs to

Veracruz Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...

to coal

battleship A battleship is a large armour, armored warship with a main artillery battery, battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1 ...

s and

cruiser A cruiser is a type of warship. Modern cruisers are generally the largest ships in a fleet after aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, and can usually perform several roles. The term "cruiser", which has been in use for several ...

s of the Atlantic Fleet off

Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

. On 17 December 1914, ''Proteus'' left

Hampton Roads Hampton Roads is the name of both a body of water in the United States that serves as a wide channel for the James, Nansemond and Elizabeth rivers between Old Point Comfort and Sewell's Point where the Chesapeake Bay flows into the Atlantic ...

carrying men, fuel, and stores to the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. She completed the final of four such runs on 4 August of that year. Sailing again from Norfolk on 25 September 1914, ''Proteus'' supplied coal, oil, men and stores for ships of the Atlantic Fleet at

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

and

Montevideo Montevideo () is the capital and largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2011 census, the city proper has a population of 1,319,108 (about one-third of the country's total population) in an area of . Montevideo is situated on the southern co ...

. Assigned to the

Naval Overseas Transport 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 ...

, she operated between Norfolk, Boston and New York City for the next several years. ''Proteus'' set forth from New York on 14 July 1918, for the British Isles, returning to Hampton Roads on 19 September. She left again on Christmas Eve of 1918 for

Brest, France Brest (; ) is a port city in the Finistère department, Brittany. Located in a sheltered bay not far from the western tip of the peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French ...

, and spent the next six months shipping coal from

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a ...

and

Barry, Wales Barry ( cy, Y Barri; ) is a town in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, on the north coast of the Bristol Channel approximately south-southwest of Cardiff. Barry is a seaside resort, with attractions including several beaches and the resurrected B ...

, to Brest. ''Proteus'' returned to Norfolk on 6 August 1919, and during the greater part of the next three years cruised from Norfolk to replenish the Fleet in the Caribbean. In the aftermath of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, ''Proteus'' cruised from Norfolk to replenish the U.S. Fleet in the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean ...

. Crossing the

Panama Canal The Panama Canal ( es, Canal de Panamá, link=no) is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a condui ...

four times, she delivered fuel and stores to

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the ...

in 1920, and to

Callao, Peru Callao () is a Peruvian seaside city and region on the Pacific Ocean in the Lima metropolitan area. Callao is Peru's chief seaport and home to its main airport, Jorge Chávez International Airport. Callao municipality consists of the whole C ...

in 1921. Her last supply run to the Caribbean ended at Hampton Roads on 12 April 1923. ''Proteus'' spent the remainder of her career in operations between Norfolk and Melville, Rhode Island. She decommissioned at Norfolk on 25 March 1924 and remained inactive until her name was struck from the

Naval Vessel Register The ''Naval Vessel Register'' (NVR) is the official inventory of ships and service craft in custody of or titled by the United States Navy. It contains information on ships and service craft that make up the official inventory of the Navy from t ...

on 5 December 1940. She was sold to Saguenay Terminals Ltd. of Montreal, Quebec on 8 March 1941 and thereafter operated in the

Canadian Merchant Navy Canada, like several other Commonwealth nations, created the Canadian Merchant Navy () in a large-scale effort during World War II. 184 ships are involved in merchant shipping activity in the Canadian shipping industry. History An informal m ...

under the command of Master Walter Henry Millar.

Loss at sea

''Proteus'' was lost at sea to an unknown cause sometime after 23 November 1941. There are no German U-boat claims for this vessel. One suggestion, having no supporting documentation, is that the vessel's disappearance can be attributed to the

Bermuda Triangle The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is an urban legend focused on a loosely defined region in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean where a number of aircraft and ships are said to have disappeared under mysteri ...

. A memorial listing of her crew can be found at the

CWGC The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations mi ...

Halifax Memorial. A Canadian website suggests ''Proteus''s possible fate as having foundered in heavy seas on 25 November 1941 somewhere in the Caribbean Sea with the loss of all of her 58 crewmembers.Canadian Merchant Ship Losses of the Second World War, 1939-1945
/ref> Two of ''Proteus''s three sister-ships, and , also vanished without a trace in the

area while doing similar duty during

and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, respectively, but confer the statement above concerning the so-called Bermuda Triangle. Her third sister-ship, , was converted into the very first U.S

aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a ...

and renamed . ''Langley'' was scuttled after being severely damaged by Japanese aircraft during World War II.

References

External links

Photo from 1919
{{DEFAULTSORT:Proteus Ships built in Newport News, Virginia World War I auxiliary ships of the United States Missing ships Bermuda Triangle 1912 ships Proteus-class colliers Colliers of the United States Navy Ships lost with all hands Maritime incidents in November 1941 World War II merchant ships of Canada Fleet of the Canadian Merchant Navy