SS Kentuckian - World War II

World War II

Shortly before the United States entered World War II, Kentuckian was requisitioned by the War Shipping Administration (WSA), but continued to be operated by American-Hawaiian. On 19 November 1941, Kentuckian sailed from New York for Durban, where she arrived on 21 December. Kentuckian spent the next two months sailing between ports in South Africa and Mozambique, calling at Port Elizabeth, Cape Town, and East London in the former, and Lourenco Marques, and Beira in the latter, before heading to Trinidad from Cape Town on 28 February 1942. Arriving at Trinidad three weeks later, she made her way up to Boston by early April, before putting in at New York for about six weeks. Sailing from New York in late May, Kentuckian joined a southbound Hampton Roads, Virginia – Key West, Florida convoy. She left the convoy before Key West and headed back across the Atlantic to Cape Town, where she arrived on 7 July. Kentuckian spent the next month sailing between Cape Town, East London, and Durban. Kentuckian concluded her second trip to Africa when she sailed for South America on 1 August.

After a three-week crossing of the South Atlantic, Kentuckian arrived at Paramaribo on 22 August, where she took on a load of bauxite and made her way to New York, where she docked on 20 September. The cargo ship slowly made her way south, calling at Charleston, Key West, and Guantánamo Bay along her way to Trinidad, where she arrived on 5 November. Sailing 11 November, Kentuckian began her third and final trip to Africa. She arrived at Freetown on 25 November and called at Bathurst and Takoradi over the next two months before returning to Trinidad on 31 January 1943. Sailing from Trinidad on 4 February, she called at Guantánamo Bay and Baltimore on her way to New York, where, arriving in late March, she prepared to begin transatlantic convoy sailings to the United Kingdom.

On 1 April, Kentuckian, loaded with grain and general cargo, departed as a part of Convoy HX-232, the 232nd New York – Halifax – Liverpool convoy. Developing some unreported problem, she returned to New York on 3 April. The problem must have been minor, because she sailed as part of Convoy HX-233 three days later. This convoy was attacked by no fewer than eight German submarines, which resulted in the loss of only one ship, the British cargo ship Fort Rampart, and the sinking of U-175 by convoy escorts. There is no evidence that Kentuckian played any direct part in the sinking of the German submarine, but, nevertheless, members of her Naval Armed Guard were awarded a battle star for actions in the convoy from 16–18 April. Kentuckian arrived at Liverpool on 21 April. Over the next ten months, Kentuckian made nine more convoy crossings between the UK—where she called at Liverpool, Swansea, Milford Haven, Methil, Loch Ewe, Immingham, and Belfast Lough—and New York. She ended her tenth North Atlantic crossing when she arrived at New York on 16 February 1944.

Sailing from New York on 26 February, Kentuckian made two circuits between that port and the Caribbean, calling at Nuevitas, Cuba, and Manatí, Puerto Rico, and making stops at Key West and Philadelphia along the way, before putting in at New York on 15 April. Kentuckian departed the United States for the final time on 19 May and headed for Milford Haven. After arriving there on 3 June, the cargo ship arrived at Barry via Plymouth, Belfast Lough, and Falmouth, on 27 June. Departing Barry on 8 July as a part of Convoy EBC-35, Kentuckian arrived at Arromanches on 10 July and was scuttled there as part of a breakwater protecting the mulberry harbor constructed there in support of the Normandy invasion.

In March 1945, the WSA offered a payment of $565,910 to American-Hawaiian for Kentuckian as part of a $7.2 million settlement for eleven requisitioned American-Hawaiian ships that had either been sunk, scuttled (like Kentuckian), or were to be retained by the government.