USS Howick Hall (ID-1303) - Commercial Service, 1919-1942

Commercial Service, 1919-1942

Once again SS Howick Hall, she returned to commercial service. She was renamed SS Doverden in 1929, then sold in 1930 to the Exeter Shipping Company of London, England. In 1931 she was sold to the McAllum Steamship Company of London, then in 1932 to the Lambert Brothers of London, then again in 1935 to H. Constant of London.

Doverden was sold for scrap in 1935, but was saved from scrapping when Ditta Luigi Pittaluga Vapori of Genoa, Italy, purchased her and placed her in service as the Italian commercial cargo ship SS Ircania. In 1937 she was sold to the S.A. Cooperativa di Nav Garibaldi of Genoa, and served as an Italian supply ship in the Second Italo-Abyssinian War of 1935-1936.

The U.S. Maritime Commission acquired Ircania on 24 June 1941 at Jacksonville, Florida, and renamed her SS Raceland. The Maritime Commission transferred Raceland to the South Atlantic Line on 31 December 1941. In South Atlantic Line service early in World War II, Raceland joined Convoy PQ-13, which departed Boston, Massachusetts, for Reykjavík, Iceland, and then continued to Murmansk in the northern Soviet Union.