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NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive

USS President Warfield (IX-169)

International Radio Call Sign:
November - Alpha - Delta - Foxtrot
 NADF
Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Precedence of awards is from left to right
American Campaign Medal - Europe-Africa-Middle East Campaign Medal - World War II Victory Medal
Steel-hulled Passenger Steamer:
  • Built in 1928 as President Warfield for Baltimore Steam Packet Co. by Pusey and Jones Corp., Wilmington, DL.
  • Acquired by the War Shipping Administration at Baltimore, 12 July 1942
  • Converted to a transport craft for the British Ministry of War Transport
  • Delivered to the United Kingdom at St. John’s, Newfoundland, 21 September 1942
  • Acquired by the US Navy and commissioned USS President Warfield (IX-169), 21 May 1944, LTjg. Gregor W. Boyer, USN in command
  • Decommissioned, 13 September 1945
  • Struck from the Naval Register, 11 October 1945
  • Returned to the War Shipping Administration, 14 November 1945
  • Sold by the War Shipping Administration, 9 November 1946, to the Potomac Shipwrecking Co. of Washington, D.C., an agent of the Jewish political group Haganah
  • Renamed Exodus 1947 she carried refugees to Palestine
  • Final Disposition, while moored to the breakwater at Haifa she burned to the waterline, 25 August 1952, scrapped in Italy in 1963
    Specifications:
    Displacement 1,814 t.(lt) 4,273 t.(lim)
    Length 328'
    Beam 44' 1"
    Draft 16' (lim)
    Speed 15 kts.
    Complement 70
    Armament none
    Troop Capacity 400
    Ship's Service Generators
    one 20Kw diesel 120V D.C.
    two 40Kw recip. 120V D.C.
    Propulsion
    one triple expansion vertical steam engine
    four Scotch boilers
    single propeller, 2,600shp
    Click On Image
    For Full Size Image    		Size Image Description Contributed
    By
    Pre World War II Merchant Service
    President Warfield
    094616911    		 17
    Namesake
    President Warfield - Solomon Davies Warfield (September 4, 1859 – October 24, 1927) was an American railroad executive and banker. He is primarily remembered for extending the Seaboard Air Line Railway into South Florida in the 1920s and for connecting the east and west coasts of Florida by rail. To this day, Amtrak trains travel from Central Florida to South Florida on the route built by Warfield.
    Photo - S. Davies Warfield in Arcadia, Florida, 7 January 1927, celebrating the inaugural run of the Orange Blossom Special into southwest and southeast Florida.
    State Library and Archives of Florida>/font>    		 Tommy Trampp
    President Warfield 64k SS President Warfield probably shown here early in her career. This ship was operated by the Baltimore Steam Packet Co. on the Chesapeake Bay between Baltimore and Norfolk. Mike Green
    USS President Warfield (IX-169)
    President Warfield 157k USS President Warfield (IX-169) moored at Omaha Beach, Normandy serving as Station and Accommodations Ship, circa 1944. Photo was taken from LCT-647 John N. Wolslegel
    President Warfield 104k USS President Warfield (IX-169) moored on the Seine River, France, circa 1944-1945. President Warfield was serving as a Base and Accommodations Ship for LCIs. Alongside, from left to right; USS LCI(L)-412, USS LCI(L)-408, USS LCI(L)-539, USS LCI(L)-401 and USS LCI(L)-556. In the right foreground is an LCT and HMS ML-248.
    US Army Signal Corps Photo # SC-222893, from the collections of the US Naval History and Heritage Command.    		 Robert G. Morrissey
    President Warfield 131k USS President Warfield (IX-169) moored pierside at Norfolk, VA., July 1945.
    US National Archives, RG-80-G, Photo # 80-G-354623, a US Navy Bureau of Ships photo now in the collections of the US National Archives, courtesy Shipscribe.com.    		 Mike Green
    President Warfield 76k Ex-USS President Warfield (IX-169) moored in the National Defense Reserve Fleet, James River Group, Lee Hall, Va., in 1946. She is alongside the Liberty ship SS John B. Hood, which entered the reserve fleet in March 1946. Note that the cover over her forecastle has been removed.
    US Naval History and Heritage Command, photo # NH 85399, courtesy Shipscribe.com.    		 Mike Green
    Post World War II Merchant Service
    President Warfield 123k The former Baltimore Steam Packet Company's SS President Warfield steaming off Cape Hatteras in February 1947, enroute to Europe where she would be renamed SS Exodus.
    US Coast Guard photo by the Coast Guard Air Station, Elizabeth City, N.C., reprinted in "Steam Packets on the Chesapeake", 1961. J.G. Howes.    		 Robert Hurst
    President Warfield 260k Jewish immigrants boarding SS Exodus (ex-SS President Warfield) at the French port of Sete, 9 July 1947.
    Photos from "The Jews' Secret Fleet" by Murray S. Greenfield and Joseph M. Hochstein, Gefen Publishing House, Jerusalem and New York.    		 Robert Hurst
    President Warfield 215k
    President Warfield 244k SS Exodus following the British takeover (note damage to makeshift barriers). Banner says: "HAGANAH Ship EXODUS 1947". Robert Hurst
    USS President Warfield (IX-169)
    Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS)
    Commanding Officers
    01LTjg. Boyer, Gregor William, USN21 May 1944 - 13 September 1945
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler
    Crew Contact And Reunion Information
    U.S. Navy Memorial Foundation - Navy Log
    Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
    The Past Then and Now - Old Bay Line – President Warfield Became the Famous SS Exodus
    The Exodus, July '47: When the British Navy attacked Holocaust victims -Israel National Newspaper
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    This page is created and maintained by Gary P. Priolo
    All pages copyright NavSource Naval History
    Last Updated 21 May 2021