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NavSource Online: Identification Numbered Vessel Photo Archive

Huron (ID 1408)
ex-Friedrich Der Grosse (ID 1408)

Transport:

  • Built in 1896 as Friedrich Der Grosse by the Vulcan Shipbuilding Corp. Stettin, Germany
  • Launched 1 August 1896
  • Acquired by the Navy 6 April 1917
  • Commissioned USS Friedrich Der Grosse (ID 1408), 25 July 1917
  • Renamed Huron 1 September 1917
  • Decommissioned 2 September 1919 at New York and returned to the United States Shipping Board
  • Struck from the Naval Register, (date unknown)
  • Renamed City of Honolulu in May 1922
  • Caught fire and sank 12 October 1922.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 11,080 t.
  • Length 545' 6"
  • Beam 60'
  • Draft 28'
  • Speed 15.5 kts.
  • Complement 580
  • Armament: Four 5"/51 mounts, two 1-pounders and two machine guns
  • Propulsion: Five double ended and two single ended boilers, two vertical quadruple expansion steam engines, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		Size Image Description Source
    Huron 144k c. 1918
    Somewhere in France    		 David Wright
    Photo added 16 January 2022
    Huron 112k In harbor, 1918, while painted in pattern camouflage
    U.S. Navy photo NH 155    		 Naval History and Heritage Command
    Huron 219k At Pauillac, France, 21 April 1919. The original image was printed on postal card (AZO) stock. The card is marked on its back: Embarked at this port at this time on U.S.S. Huron for home. H.A. Smith
    Donation of Dr. Mark Kulikowski, 2006
    U.S. Navy photo NH 104117
    Huron 251k In port, probably at Newport News, Virginia, 1919
    Donation of Charles R. Haberlein Jr., 2008
    U.S. Navy photo NH 105962
    Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships History: The third Huron was built as Friedrich Der Grosse in 1896 by Vulcan Shipbuilding Corp. Stettin, Germany, and sailed the Atlantic for North German Lloyd Lines until being interned in New York Harbor in 1914. She was seized as a prize of war 6 April 1917. Her crew had sabotaged her boilers so the ship was taken to Robbins Drydock Co., Brooklyn for repairs. The United States Shipping Board (USSB) then turned the ship over to the Navy, and she commissioned at New York Navy Yard 25 July 1917 as Fredrich Der Grosse. The ship, Comdr. S. H. R. Doyle in command, was renamed Huron 1 September l9l7.

    Huron acted as a troop transport during the remaining years of the war. She made eight round trips to France before the Armistice, and then seven more, bringing American soldiers back from Europe.

    She arrived New York after her last voyage 23 August 1919 and decommissioned 2 September for return to the USSB.

    Huron operated in the Atlantic for the U.S. Mail Lines (later U.S. Lines) from 1920 to 1922. Renamed City of Honolulu in May 1922, she was turned over to the Los Angeles Steamship Co.; and on her maiden voyage caught fire 12 October and sank with no loss of passengers or crew.

    Commanding Officers
    01CDR Stafford Henry R. Doyle, USN - USNA Class of 1900
    Awarded the Navy Cross (1918) - Retired as Captain    		25 July 1917 - 1918
    02CDR Harold Earle Cook, USN - USNA Class of 1901
    Awarded the Navy Cross (1918) - Retired as Captain    		1918 - 2 September 1919
    Courtesy Joe Radigan
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