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Identification Numbered Ships Photo Archive

USAT General W. C. Gorgas
ex-USS General W. C. Gorgas (ID 1365)



Navy call sign:
George - Jig - Dog - Sail



Call sign (1919):
Love - Have - Dog - Vice

Call sign (1933):
William - Quack - Cast - Zed


General W. C. Gorgas served both the U. S. Navy and Army

Transport:

  • Built in 1902 as Prinz Sigismund by Neptun Aktiengesellschaft, Schiffswerft & Maschinenfabrik, Rostock, Germany
  • Acquired by the Navy and commissioned USS General W. C. Gorgas (ID 1365), 8 March 1919
  • Decommissioned 28 July 1919 at New York, struck from the Navy Register and returned to the United States Shipping Board the same day
  • Registered in 1933 to Libby, McNeill and Libby of San Francisco, CA as the freighter General W. C. Gorgas
  • Acquired by the War Department in November 1941
  • Returned to the War Shipping Administration in January 1945
  • Transferred to the Soviet Union in 1945 and renamed Mikhail Lomonosov
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 8,000 t.
    1933 - 4,636 t.
  • Length 386'
    1933 - 370'
  • Beam 45' 3"
  • Draft 24' 4"
    1933 - 26.8'
  • Speed 10 kts.
  • Complement 154
    1933 - 48
  • Troop capacity 1,200
  • Propulsion: Steam.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    SS Prinz Sigismund
    Prince Sigismund/General W. C. Gorgas 59k
    Namesake:

    Prince Sigismund of Prussia (Wilhelm Viktor Karl August Heinrich Sigismund; 27 November 1896 at Kiel – 14 November 1978 at Puntarenas, Costa Rica), was the second son of Prince Henry of Prussia and his wife, Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine. He was a nephew of Kaiser Wilhelm II and Tsarina Alexandra of Russia. A great-grandson of Queen Victoria through both his parents, he was the only one of three brothers who did not have the hemophilia common among her descendants

    		 Tommy Trampp
    General W. C. Gorgas 124k Prinz Sigismund in port, probably in the New York City area on or about 5 September 1917, when the ship was inspected by the Third Naval District for possible acquisition by the U.S. Navy
    U.S. Navy photo NH 99273    		 Naval Historical Center
    USAT General W. C. Gorgas
    General W. C. Gorgas 35k
    Namesake:

    William Crawford Gorgas, KCMG, (October 3, 1854 – July 3, 1920) was a United States Army physician and 22nd Surgeon General of the U.S. Army (1914–1918). He is best known for his work in Florida, Havana and at the Panama Canal in abating the transmission of yellow fever and malaria by controlling the mosquitoes that carry these diseases. At the time, his strategy was greeted with considerable skepticism and opposition to such hygiene measures. However, the measures he put into practice as the head of the Panama Canal Zone Sanitation Commission saved thousands of lives and contributed to the success of the Canal's construction

    		 Tommy Trampp
    General W. C. Gorgas 116k USAT General W.C. Gorgas. Halftone reproduction of a photograph taken during World War II
    U.S. Navy photo NH 99292    		 Naval Historical Center
    View the General W. C. Gorgas (ID 1365)
    DANFS history entry located on the Naval History and Heritage Command website
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