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Section Patrol Craft Photo Archive

USAT Etolin
ex-USS Matsonia (ID 1589)

Matsonia served both the U. S. Navy and Army.
Transport:

  • Built in 1913 by the Newport News Ship Building Co., Newport News, VA
  • Acquired by the Navy, 22 January 1918
  • Commissioned USS Matsonia (ID 1589), 1 March 1918
  • Decommissioned, 12 September 1919 and returned to her owners
  • Laid up in 1932 at Antioch, CA
  • Sold in 1937 to the Alaska Packers and renamed Etolin
  • Chartered by the Army as a troopship in August 1940 as the USAT Etolin
  • Transferred to the War Shipping Administration in April 1946 and laid up in the James River, Virginia, reserve fleet
  • Scrapped in 1957 at Baltimore MD.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 16,500 t.
  • Length 501' 4"
  • Beam 58' 1"
  • Draft 29'
  • Speed 17 kts.
  • Armament: Four 6" mounts, two 1-pounders, and two machine guns.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    SS Matsonia
    Matsonia 77k In port, prior to her World War I Naval service.
    Naval Historical Center photo NH 99592    		 Robert Hurst
    Matsonia 132k Halftone reproduction of a photograph of the S.S. Matsonia taken prior to the ship's U.S. Navy service.
    Donation of Dr. Mark Kulikowski, 2006
    Naval Historical Center photo NH 103995    		 Robert Hurst
    USS Matsonia (ID 1589)
    Matsonia 59k Underway at sea in 1918, while transporting 4800 American Soldiers from the U.S. to France for World War I service.
    Donation of Dr. Mark Kulikowski, 2007.
    Naval Historical Center photo NH 104808    		 Robert Hurst
    Matsonia 204k 25 February 1919
    Officers and crew of Matsonia
    Photo by Lindsey, 188 9th Avenue, New York City    		 Jim Geldert
    Matsonia 84k Panoramic photograph of the ship in 1919. Photographed from on board another U.S. Navy troop transport. Stack marking on the tug at right indicates that the view was taken as Matsonia was leaving St. Nazaire, France.
    Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation. Collection of Lieutenant Charles Dutreaux.
    Naval Historical Center photo NH 99397    		 Robert Hurst
    Matsonia 84k Steams in a U.S. harbor, accompanied by tugs, circa 1919.
    Probably photographed by E.P. Griffith, Newport News, Virginia.
    Naval Historical Center photo NH 102019    		 Robert Hurst
    Matsonia 99k In port during 1919, while employed transporting U.S. troops home from Europe.
    Donation of Dr. Mark Kulikowski, 2005.
    Naval Historical Center photo NH 103281    		 Robert Hurst
    Matsonia 103k Arriving in New York Harbor at the end of a voyage from Europe, 1919 with troops crowding her deck. The Statue of Liberty is in the left distance.
    Photographed by E. Muller Jr., New York.
    Donation of Dr. Mark Kulikowski, 2007.
    Naval Historical Center photo NH 104800    		 Robert Hurst
    SS Matsonia
    Matsonia 104k Photographed on 14 April 1926. Burns (DM 11) is in the left background still wearing her destroyer hull number.
    Courtesy of the San Francisco Maritime Museum, San Francisco, California, 1972.
    Naval Historical Center photo NH 76070    		 Robert Hurst
    USAT Etolin
    Matsonia 117k Halftone reproduction of a photograph taken while the ship was in port during World War II.
    Copied from the book "Troopships of World War II", by Roland W. Charles.
    U.S. Navy photo NH 99615    		 Naval Historical Center
    Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships: Matsonia (ID 1589), built by the Newport News Ship Building Co., Newport News, Va., in 1913, served the Matson Navigation Co. until taken over by the U.S. Shipping Board and turned over to the Navy at New York, 22 January 1918, for use as a troop transport. She was commissioned 1 March 1918, Capt. John M. Luby in command.

    Beginning 14 March, when she sailed for France with troops and Army cargo, Matsonia completed six round trips to Europe prior to the Armistice. During that time she transferred to Europe 13,329 passengers, and carried back only 10. After the Armistice she continued her transatlantic crossings to return over 23,000 troops in 8 voyages, ending such crossings at New York, 20 August 1919. She decommissioned 12 September 1919 and was returned to her former owner on the 11th.
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