Early Career
Martha Washington was launched in 1908 by Russell & Co. of Port Glasgow, Scotland for the Austro-American Line (formal name: Unione Austriaca di Navigazione). The liner sailed between Trieste and New York City.
On the evening of 20 November 1911, while steaming in the Ionian Sea from Patras and headed for New York, Martha Washington came under fire from an Italian battleship for a period of ten minutes, with shells falling within one ship length (approximately 500 ft or 150 m) of the liner. According to the captain of the liner, the Italians, fighting against Turkey in the Italo-Turkish War, mistook Martha Washington for a Turkish ship. The ship was allowed to pass unharmed after the crew used a signal lamp to communicate her identity to the Italians.
At the outbreak of World War I, Martha Washington was interned at Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1914.
Read more about this topic: USS Martha Washington (ID-3019)
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The worldling’s eyes shall gather dew,
Dreaming in throngful city ways
Of winter joys his boyhood knew;
And dear and early friends—the few”
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—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)