Internment in Brazil
After the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, Pretoria evaded the Royal Navy for two months and then took refuge in harbour at Santos, São Paulo, Brazil on 7th December 1939.
Windhuk was still in Santos in 22 August 1942 when Brazil broke ties with Germany and interned the ship. When her crew learned that she was to be interned, they sabotaged most of her machinery. They poured concrete into the main turbine engines. They drained the boilers of water and then lit the furnaces, which melted the boilers beyond repair. They cut her main shafts and bearings with high temperature metal cutting torches. They damaged all electric generators, refrigeration equipment, steering gear, small motors, etc. beyond repair. However, they made no attempt to scuttle the ship.
Windhuk remained in Santos until January 1943 when she was towed to Rio de Janeiro for repairs.
In 1942 the US Government bought Windhuk from Brazil and sent two hundred US Navy personnel to Brazil to fit her with a new diesel engine. The work was not completed until March 1943, when she made a thirty-day voyage to Norfolk, Virginia for further work and conversion to a troopship.
When she arrived in Norfolk, she had been stripped of most of her elegant furnishings such as mahogany and teak wood paneling. She was refitted as a troop transport, which took about a year to rectify all the sabotage by the German crew. While at Norfolk she was named USS Lejeune (AP-74), after USMC General John Archer Lejeune.
Read more about this topic: USS Lejeune (AP-74)