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Identification Numbered Vessel Photo Archive

Mongolia (ID 1615)



Navy call sign:
George - Boy - King - Pup



Civilian call sign (1919):
King - Sail - Tare - George
Transport:

  • Laid down 7 June 1902 by the New York Shipbuilding Co., Camden, NJ for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company
  • Launched 25 July 1903
  • Sold to the Atlantic Transport Co. of New York
  • Acquired by the Navy 27 April 1918 from the International Mercantile Marine
  • Commissioned USS Mongolia (ID 1615), 8 May 1918
  • Decommissioned 11 September 1919 and returned to her owner
  • Chartered by the American Line 1920 - 1924
  • Sold in 1923 to the Panama Pacific Line
  • Acquired 7 December 1929 by the Dollar Steamship Lines of San Francisco, CA and renamed President Filmore
  • Laid up 1931 - 1938
  • Acquired in 1938 by the American President Lines
  • Sold in 1940 to Cia Transatlantica Centroamericano of Panama and renamed Panamanian
  • Scrapped 20 May 1946 at Shanghai, China.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 27,000 t.
    1931 - 15,575 t.
  • Length 615' 8"
    1931 - 600'
  • Beam 65'
    1931 - 65.3'
  • Draft 33' 6"
    1931 - 23.1'
  • Complement: 454
    1931 - 219
  • Speed 16.5 kts.
  • Armament: Two 6"/40 mounts, two 3-pounders and two machine guns
  • Propulsion: Four double ended, four single ended and one auxiliary boiler, two 4,465.5hp vertical quadruple expansion steam engines, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    SS Mongolia
    Mongolia 299k Undated post card Tommy Trampp
    Mongolia 110k Artwork, probably made prior to World War I
    U.S. Navy photo NH 91268    		 Naval Historical Center
    Mongolia 96k Halftone reproduction of an artwork, printed on a postal card issued by the Jewish Welfare Board to Soldiers and Sailors of the U.S. Army & Navy, during World War I
    U.S. Navy photo NH 45961
    Mongolia 87k At Manila, Philippine Islands, in 1913
    U.S. Navy photo NH 45962
    Mongolia 56k Painted with neutrality markings, circa 1915-1917
    U.S. Navy photo NH 89778
    Mongolia 70k Ship's after six-inch gun and its crew, April 1917. The two officers at right are identified, in the original photo caption, as Lieutenant Ware and Captain Emory Rice of the U.S. Naval Reserve Force. Note shells on deck, painted with letters: "T-E-X-A-S" and "T-E-D-D-Y." Mongolia was assigned a Navy armed guard on 17 March 1917. She engaged a German submarine on 19 April 1917, the first U.S. ship encounter with a U-Boat after the United States entered World War I
    U.S. Navy photo NH 781
    USS Mongolia (ID 1615)
    Mongolia 87k World War I Troop Transport Convoy at sea. The most distant ship, in left center, is Mongolia. The nearer ship is USS Madawaska (ID-3011)
    Photographed by "V.J.M"
    Donation of Charles R. Haberlein Jr., 2008
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 106288    		 Robert Hurst
    Mongolia 87k In port, while painted in "dazzle" camouflage, circa 1918.
    Donation of Dr. Mark Kulikowski, 2008
    Naval Historical Center photo NH 105722
    Mongolia 98k At the New York Navy Yard, 28 June 1918, after being painted in pattern camouflage.
    U.S. Navy photo NH 50252    		 Naval Historical Center
    Mongolia 108k Camouflaged U.S. Navy transport in harbor with barge and a passenger ferry alongside, circa 1918 or very early 1919. This ship is probably USS Mongolia (ID 1615)
    Donation of Charles R. Haberlein Jr., 2009
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 106646    		 Robert Hurst
    Mongolia 178k c. January 1919
    Photo by H. Lindsey from the April 1919 edition of Our Navy magazine    		 Joe Radigan
    Mongolia 160k Original photo: Entering Boston Harbor on April 10, 1919 with troops of the 26th (Yankee) Division onboard
    Library of Congress photo
    Replacement photo: Mongolia arriving at Boston, Massachusetts. Writing reads, “With the boys of the 26th “Yankee” Division, the first ship to sink a German submarine.” Published April 10, 1919. Though she fought off the German submarine on April 19, 1917, she did not sink it. The engagement was the first of U.S. naval personnel against the enemy after the declaration of war on 6 April
    Photo from National Museum of the U.S. Navy    		 Original photo: Mike Green
    Replacement photo: Michael Mohl
    SS Mongolia
    Mongolia 87k At the St. Pauli Landing Stage, Hamburg, Germany, while in commercial service after World War I
    Donation of Captain Stephen S. Roberts, USNR, (Retired), 2008
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 105919    		 Robert Hurst
    Mongolia 424k Undated postcard Tommy Trampp
    Mongolia 374k
    Mongolia 49k 10 October 1928
    Mongolia's Chief Steward Lewis Dougherty with a friend
    Mongolia
    Mongolia 180k 28 October 2018
    Mongolia‘s     Mk.4 6“/40 cal. gun No.155 is preserved in Gosport Park outside Norfolk Naval Shipyard
    U.S. Navy photo by Max Lonzanida    		 Delta Squad
    Photo added 20 June 2020
    Commanding Officers
    01CDR E. McDowell, USN8 May 1918
    02CAPT Charles P. Snyder, USN - USNA Class of 1900
    Awarded the Navy Cross (1918) - Retired as Admiral    		1918
    03LCDR Emery Rice, USNRF - Awarded the Navy Cross (1918)1918 - 1919
    04CDR William Tipton Conn, Jr., USN - USNA Class of 1902
    Awarded the Navy Distinguished Medal (1917) - Retired as Captain    		1919
    05LCDR Arthur R. Mills, USNRF1919
    Courtesy Joe Radigan
    View the Mongolia (ID 1615)
    DANFS history entry located on the Naval History and Heritage Command website
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