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Identification Numbered Ships Photo Archive

Graf Waldersee (ID 4040)



Navy call sign (Early 1919):
George - Jig - Boy - Sail

Call sign (1919):
Nan - Item - Vice - Fox
Transport:

  • Built in 1899 as Pavia by Blohm and Voss, Hamburg, Germany for the Hamburg Amerikanische Paketvaart AG
  • Renamed Graf Waldersee
  • Acquired by the Navy and commissioned USS Graf Waldersee (ID 4040), 28 December 1918 at Spithead, England
  • Decommissioned 25 November 1919 at Stapleton, NY and returned to the United States Shipping Board
  • Ceded to Great Britain in 1920 and managed by the P & O Line
  • Sold for scrap in May 1922 to Kohlbrand Werft, Hamburg.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 25,000 t.
  • Length 585'
  • Beam 62'
  • Draft 32' 3"
  • Speed 13 kts.
  • Complement 553
  • Propulsion: Two 714nhp Blohn and Voss quadruple expansion steam engines, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    SS Graf Waldersee
    Graf Waldersee 69k
    Namesake:

    Alfred Ludwig Heinrich Karl Graf von Waldersee (8 April 1832 in Potsdam – 5 March 1904 in Hanover) was a German field marshal (Generalfeldmarschall) who became Chief of the Imperial German General Staff
    Photo added 26 September 2020

    		 Tommy Trampp
    Graf Waldersee 99k Undated interior view post cards
    Graf Waldersee 100k
    Graf Waldersee 96k
    Graf Waldersee 124k Post card postmarked 6 May 1905
    USS Graf Waldersee (ID 4040)
    Graf Waldersee 106k In port, probably at New York City, in 1919. "Armistice" markings are on her hull side, amidships.
    U.S. Navy photo NH 99274.    		 Naval Historical Center
    Graf Waldersee 143k Port side near the after superstructure break, photographed from USS Scranton (ID-3511) while in port, 1919.
    Photograph from the USS Scranton photo album kept by J.D. Bartar, one of her crew
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 99453    		 Robert Hurst
    Graf Waldersee 87k Photographed in 1919, possibly from USS Corsair (SP-159)
    Donation of Dr. Mark Kulikowski, 2009
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 106632
    Graf Waldersee 118k Entering in New York Harbor bringing U.S. service personnel home from France, circa April-August 1919. The Statue of Liberty is in the right background. Armistice markings in German and English are on the ship's side, amidships.
    Photographed by E. Muller, Jr., New York.
    Donation of Dr. Mark Kulikowski, 2006.
    Naval Historical Center photo NH 104234.
    Graf Waldersee 107k Under tow by USS Patricia off Long Island on 12 June 1919, after she had been disabled in collision with S.S. Redondo. She was towed to shallow water, where collision damage was sufficiently patched to allow her return to New York for permanent repairs.
    Photographed from on board Patricia.
    Photograph from the album of Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Edward D. Porges. Donated by his daughter, Gail Porges Guggenheim, 2007
    Naval Historical Center photos NH 105016 and NH 105017
    Graf Waldersee 110k
    View the Graf Waldersee (ID 4040)
    DANFS history entry located on the Naval History and Heritage Command website
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