EFC Design 1046: Notes & Illustrations

Notes: EFC Designs 1045 through 1047 were designs already in use by three Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp. facilities, 1045 (a tanker) at the former Fore River Shipbuilding Co. at Quincy, Mass., 1046 (a freighter) at the Sparrows Point, Md., yard, and 1047 (a tanker) at the former Union Iron Works yards at San Francisco and Alameda, Calif. During 1916-1917 British interests placed orders for four cargo ships with Bethlehem's Sparrows Point plant at Baltimore, Md., to the design that later became EFC Design 1046. The yard added another ship (no. 176) on its own account. The EFC subsequently placed three orders, each for three ships, with Bethlehem for contract cargo ships of this design: EFC Hulls 1142-44 at Sparrows Point on 31 December 1917, 1548-50 at its Wilmington plant (formerly the Harlan & Hollingsworth Corp.) on 18 March 1918, and 1972-74 at Sparrows Point on 15 May 1918. This third order was suspended on 11 February 1919 and cancelled on 19 August 1919. The Design 1046 ships were built on the Isherwood system of longitudinal framing which was favored for tankers instead of the transverse system that was widely used for cargo ships.

Requisitioned Sisters: Sparrows Point Yard nos. 167, 169-70, 173, and 176 were requisitioned by the Shipping Board on 3 August 1917 and are covered in the Requisitioned Ships portion of the McKellar list. Berwyn, was transferred on 31 December 1917 to the contract program as EFC hull 1243.

Specifications: Design 1046 (S.S. Gold Star, EFC Hull 1142): Steel Cargo. Deadweight tons: 7400. Dimensions: 391.8' length oa, 377' pp x 52' beam mld. x 29.5' depth mld., 23.9' draft loaded. Propulsion: 1 screw, 1 triple expansion engine, 3 Scotch boilers, 2500 IHP, 11 kts. Configuration: 3-island, 2 decks, 4 holds, 5 hatches.

S.S. Hatteras (As Design 1046, Yard No. 167) This ship, the initial British order from this yard, was laid down on 24 May 1917, launched on 20 November 1917, and delivered to the EFC on 21 December 1917 and to the Navy a day later. She had the rig apparently favored by the British of pairs of low derrick posts in place of the usual taller cargo masts fore and aft and a single topmast on a pole near the funnel amidships. Photo No. NH 101780 Source: NHHC from original in NARA RG-19-LCM
S.S. Cape Henry (As Design 1046, Yard No. 173) Port side view taken by her builder on 21 May 1918 with the bow of Cape Romain behind her stern. Cape Henry was laid down on 20 August 1917, launched on 30 March 1918, and delivered to the EFC and to the USSB Division of Operations on 22 May 1918. Note that Yard No. 173 was built before Yard Nos. 169-170, below. Photo No. 165-WW-498A-004 Source: U.S. National Archives, RG-165-WW
S.S. Cape Romain (As Design 1046, Yard No. 169) Starboard side view taken her builder on 26 June 1918. She was laid down on 6 October 1917, launched on 4 May 1918, and delivered to the EFC on 24 June 1918 and to the Navy a day later. Photo No. 165-WW-273A-057 Source: U.S. National Archives, RG-165-WW
S.S. Cape Lookout (As Design 1046, Yard No. 170) Photographed by her builder on the ways on 28 May 1918. She was laid down on 18 December 1917, launched on 22 June 1918, and delivered to the EFC on 25 July 1918 and to the Navy a day later. Photo No. 165-WW-493F-003 Source: U.S. National Archives, RG-165-WW
S.S. Berwyn (Design 1046, EFC Hull 1243) Photographed by her builder on 26 Sep 1918. This ship was ordered for the yard's account as Yard No. 176 (later 4176), then requisitioned, and then transferred to the contract program as EFC Hull 1243. She was laid down on 19 April 1918 and delivered to the EFC on 27 September 1918 and to the Navy a day later. She was built after the four ex-British ships and before the EFC contract ships and with the two cargo masts of the latter instead of the two derrick post pairs of the former. Photo No. 165-WW-273A-053 Source: U.S. National Archives, RG-165-WW
S.S. Cape Henry (As Design 1046, Yard No. 173) A spliced view of the ship in camouflage on the back of her Navy inspection data (SP/ID) card. Designated ID-3056, she was taken over and commissioned by the Navy at New York on 26 October 1918 and inspected there on 6 November 1918. At that time her armament consisted of one 6-pdr gun. She was decommissioned and returned to the Shipping Board on 3 March 1919. Photo No. NH 99879 Source: U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command
S.S. Hatteras (As Design 1046, Yard No. 167) Probably photographed near the end of her World War I Navy service in April 1919. Note the worn paintwork and the empty gun platform forward. Photo No. NH 101779 Source: NHHC from original in NARA RG-19-LCM
S.S. Huachuca (Design 1046, EFC Hull 1549) Photographed by her builder on the ways on 2 April 1919. She was laid down on 12 December 1918, launched on 3 May 1919, and delivered on 30 June 1919. Photo No. NH 43029 (ex NR&L(M) 6634) Source: U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command
S.S. Hoxie (Design 1046, EFC Hull 1548) In a commercial port in a photograph filed with her postwar Navy inspection report. She was laid down on 28 June 1918, launched on 7 December 1918, and delivered for operation on 10 March 1919. Photo No. None Source: NARA RG-19 (1925-40, Unclas. correspondence), file symbol QS1-(4827)
*USS Gold Star* (AG-12)** (Design 1046, EFC Hull 1142) Completed at Wilmington in July 1920 and transferred to the Navy on 7 November 1921. She was one of three ships of Design 1046 built by the Bethlehem S.B. Co., Wilmington, Delaware. The Navy routinely changed the name of Gold Star to Arcturus, but this caused an uproar because she had previously been renamed by the EFC to honor mothers who had lost sons in the war and the Navy quickly reversed the renaming. She is shown here at anchor at Sitka, Alaska, in September 1922. Photo No. Detail from NH 631 Source: U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command
*USS Regulus* (AK-14)** (Design 1046, EFC Hull 1143) Completed at Wilmington in September 1920 as S.S. Glenora and transferred to the Navy on 7 November 1921. Not commissioned until 12 December 1940, she is shown near the Mare Island Navy Yard on 20 March 1942 after a Navy overhaul. Photo No. 19-N-28624 Source: U.S. National Archives, RG-19-LCM.