Please report any broken links or trouble you might come across to the Webmaster. Please take a moment to let us know so that we can correct any problems and make your visit as enjoyable and as informative as possible.

NavSource Online:
Section Patrol Craft Photo Archive

Mobile (ID 4043)



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

Call sign (1919):
Nan - Item - Vice - Boy

ex-Cleveland (ID 4043)

Transport:

  • The second Mobile was built in 1908 as Cleveland by Blohm and Voss, Hamburg, Germany
  • Acquired by the Navy 26 March 1919 and commissioned USS Cleveland (ID 4043)
  • Renamed Mobile 29 March 1919 to avoid confusion with Cleveland (Cruiser No. 19)
  • Decommissioned 25 November 1919 and transferred to the United States Shipping Board
  • Transferred to the United Kingdom in 1922
  • Sold to the Byron Steamship Co., Ltd. and renamed King Alexander
  • Returned to U.S. registry in 1923, sold to the United States Line and renamed Cleveland
  • Sold back to the Hamburg America Line in 1926
  • Laid up in 1931
  • Scrapped in 1933 at Hamburg.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 27,000 t.
  • Length 608'
  • Beam 65' 3"
  • Complement 573, troop capacity 4,620
  • Armament: None
  • Propulsion: Two quadruple-expansion steam engines (replaced by Bauer Wach LP turbines in 1929), two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    SS Cleveland
    Mobile 218k Undated post cards Tommy Trampp
    Mobile 84k
    Mobile 97k
    Covington 77k Advertisement from the June 1914 edition of Cosmopolitan magazine
    Photo added 18 January 2021
    USS Cleveland (ID 4043)
    Mobile 90k In New York Harbor, with her decks crowded with U.S. troops returning from Europe, 1919
    Photographed by E. Muller, Jr.
    Courtesy of Boatswain's Mate First Class Robert G. Tippins, USN (Retired), 2005
    U.S. Navy photo NH 102878    		 Naval Historical Center
    Mobile 88k In a harbor, 1919. A hand-written inscription on the reverse of the original reads: "The Transport on which I sailed back to the states ... from France. Kenneth R. Wright."
    Donation of Dr. Mark Kulikowski, 2007
    U.S. Navy photo NH 104953
    Mobile 141k In New York Harbor, while returning U.S. troops from Europe, 1919
    Photographed by E. Muller, Jr.
    Donation of N. Ballard, 1963
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 46381    		 Robert Hurst
    Mobile 118k Retouched reproduction of a photograph taken circa mid-1919, after the ship had been fitted with life rafts
    Published on a post card by A.M. Simon, 32 Union Square, New York City.
    Donation of Charles R. Haberlein Jr., 2007
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 105388
    Mobile 58k Photographed circa 1919
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 105609
    View the Mobile (ID 4043)
    DANFS history entry located on the Naval History and Heritage Command website
    Back To The Main Photo Index Back to the Identification Numbered Civilian Ships (ID) Photo Index
    Comments, Suggestions, E-mail Webmaster
    This page created by Joseph M. Radigan and maintained by David Wright
    All pages copyright NavSource Naval History