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Identification Numbered Civilian Ships Photo Archive

Ice King (ID 3160)



Civilian call sign (1919):
Love - King - Jig - Have
Refrigerator Ship:

  • Built in 1917 as War Unit by Standard Shipbuilding Co., Shooter's Island, NY
  • Renamed Passaic
  • Launched 22 December 1917
  • Renamed Ice King
  • Completed in May 1918
  • Acquired by the Navy 2 July 1918
  • Commissioned USS Ice King (ID 3160), 3 July 1918
  • Decommissioned, 26 May 1919 and returned to the United States Shipping Board (USSB)
  • Sold in 1920 to the French-American Line
  • Repossessed by the USSB in 1920
  • Sold to Strachan's Southern Steamship Co. of Savannah, GA and renamed Georgian
  • Sold in 1935 to the South Atlantic Steamship Co. of Delaware
  • Sold in 1936 to the A. H. Bull Steamship Co. of New York and renamed Hilton
  • Scrapped in 1951 at Fieldsboro, NJ.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 10,562 t.
  • Length 392' 6"
  • Beam 52'
  • Draft 23' 8¼"
  • Speed 10 kts.
  • Complement 86
  • Armament: One 5"/51 and one 3"/50 mount
  • Propulsion: Three single ended boilers, one 2,500ihp vertical triple expansion steam engine, one shaft.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    SS Ice King
    Ice King 58k Ice King wearing patterned camouflage probably photographed around 19 June 1918 when she was delivered to the U.S. Shipping Board as S.S. Passaic or around 3 July 1918 when she was commisisoned by the U.S. Navy as USS Ice King
    Naval Historical Center photo NH 105229    		 Robert Hurst
    Ice King 75k Ice King in commercial service at Hoek van Holland (Hook of Holland), The Netherlands, in August 1919
    Donation of Captain Stephen S. Roberts, USNR (Retired), 2007
    Naval Historical Center photo NH 105246
    Ice King 100k Ice King in commercial service at Goteberg, Sweden in September 1919.
    Donation of Captain Stephen S. Roberts, USNR (Retired), 2007
    Naval Historical Center photo NH 105245
    SS Hilton
    Ice King 100k Photo from Shipscribe.com Robert Hurst
    Commanding Officers
    01LCDR Nicholas Fogarty, USNRF3 July 1918
    02LCDR Carl Herman Hermance, USNRF1919
    Courtesy Joe Radigan
    View the Ice King (SP 3160)
    DANFS     history entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway website
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