EFC Design 1063: Notes & Illustrations

Click here for a similar plan from International Marine Engineering, April 1918: Sheet 1

Notes: In 1898 the Townsend & Downey Shipbuilding & Repair Co. bought Shooters Island, just off Staten Island in New York Harbor, and commenced building high quality cruising and racing yachts there, including in 1902 the schooner Meteor for the German Kaiser. The island was sold in 1904 to a ship repair company, and in 1915 the Standard Shipbuilding Corp. took it over for a period of seven years. This company, founded by Wallace Downey, the former yacht builder, was capitalized in 1916 and began the erection of ways for the construction of standardized ships to a single design that would suit the great majority of users while permitting assembly of the ships in the fastest and most economical manner possible. The original hull and engine designs were purchased and then developed by Standard's chief engineer for standardized production. On 11 November 1916 the yard laid down the first three of what became a series of thirteen 7300 ton dwt cargo ships (Yard nos. 1-13) for interests in five belligerant countries, who either ordered them or purchased vessels begun on the yard's account. In January 1917 Downey sold his one third ownership share in the firm and bought a steel fabricating plant on Staten Island where he established his own shipyard (see Design 1017). On 1 June 1918 the Standard Shipbuilding Corp. received an EFC order for an additional ten ships (EFC Hulls 1288-1297), and the firm's design was probably designated EFC Design 1063 at this time. Design 1063 had specifications very close to those of Bethlehem's Design 1046, except that it had transverse rather than longitudinal framing. (Special sources: New York Times, 30 January 1917; The New Yorker, 9 July 1938.)

Requisitioned Sisters: Yard nos. 1-13 were for Swedish (the first ship), Norwegian (the second ship), British (4 ships), French (1), Russian (2), and Italian (4) interests. All were requisitioned by the Shipping Board on 3 August 1917 and are covered in the Requisitioned Ships portion of the McKellar list.

Specifications: Design 1063 (S.S. Balsam, EFC Hull 1288): Steel Cargo. Deadweight tons: 7500 designed, 7433 actual. Dimensions: 392.5' length oa, 377' pp x 52.1' beam mld. x 29' depth mld., 23.75' draft loaded. Propulsion: 1 screw, 1 triple expansion engine, 3 Scotch boilers, 2400 IHP, 10.5 kts. Configuration: 3-island, 2 decks, 5 holds, 5 hatches.

S.S. East Side (Design 1063, EFC Hull 1289). The third of the ten contract-built Design 1063 ships that followed a series of 13 ships that were requisitioned in August 1917. The contract ships were all completed after the war with a standard peacetime rig of two cargo masts with topmasts. (Shipscribe) (Click photo to enlarge)

S.S. Scandinavic (As Design 1063, Yard No. 1) This ship was ordered in mid-1916 by Rederi AB Transatlantic of Sweden according to press reports, a firm that later lost an earlier Scandinavic on 1 February 1917 by grounding. She was launched on 20 October 1917 and completed in March 1918. Scandinavic became the Shipping Board's Jupiter and was used by General Pershing in the Army coal trade from Cardiff and English Channel ports to France. In August 1918 Naval authorities in England were authorized to take her over for Army account, and she was renamed Democracy on 5 August 1918 because the Navy already had a Jupiter. She was commissioned at Cardiff on 23 October 1918. Photo by Edwin Levick of New York. Photo No. None Source: U.S. National Archives, RG-32-M Box 13
S.S. Scandinavic and Stian (As Design 1063, Yard Nos. 1 and 2) This view proves that Scandinavic and Stian were not the same ship as often reported (including by McKellar). It was taken by Edwin Levick of New York just after the launch of Stian on 20 October 1917 and just before the delivery of Scandinavic on 5 November 1917. A note on her Navy inspection card suggests that Stian was ordered by Salvesen of Norway. Photo No. 165-WW-499A-110 Source: U.S. National Archives, RG-165-WW
U.S.S. Democracy (As Design 1063, Yard No. 1) Democracy (ex Jupiter, ex Scandinavic) was transferred from the Army coal trade to the Shipping Board's Food Administration on 13 March 1919 and is shown here delivering food to Danzig from Rotterdam and from French ports. Photo No. NH 104447 Source: U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command
S.S. Muscatine (As Design 1063, Yard No. 2) The former S.S. Stian lying alongside a pier at her builder's yard on 2 February 1918. This refrigerated cargo ship was taken over by the Navy on 28 April 1918 and commissioned in the Naval Overseas Transportation Service (N.O.T.S.) on 2 May 1918. Unlike Scandinavic she and the later requisitioned ships of this type had pairs of derrick posts fore and aft in place of the usual masts, with a single topmast stepped on a small lower mast near the stack. Photo No. 165-WW-496J-005 Source: U.S. National Archives, RG-165-WW
Derrick post on Design 1063 ship This requisitioned ship is receiving a boiler during fitting out at the Standard Shipbuilding Corp. on Shooters Island. Note the apparent hinging mechanism at the base of the derrick post. Photo No. None Source: International Marine Engineering, November 1918, page 623
S.S. Passaic (As Design 1063, Yard No. 3) On trials on 8 May 1918. She was delivered to the EFC on 19 June 1918, taken over by the Navy on 2 July 1918, and commissioned on 5 July 1918. The Navy had just renamed the harbor tug Pontiac to Passaic (later YT-20) on 11 April 1918, and the new refrigerated ship entered naval service under the name Ice King. Photo No. 165-WW-496J-007 Source: U.S. National Archives, RG-165-WW
S.S. Hickman (As Design 1063, Yard No. 8) Shown as completed in a view on the back of the ship's Navy inspection data (SP/ID) card. Photo No. NH 105207 Source: U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command
S.S. Morristown (As Design 1063, Yard No. 7) Originally ordered for Russian account and later requisitioned, this ship is shown discharging cargo in the Port of Rotterdam on 7 February 1919. Photo No. NH 103138 Source: U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command
S.S. Ice King (As Design 1063, Yard No. 3) At anchor at Goteborg, Sweden, in September 1919 on a postwar commercial voyage. Photo No. NH 105245 Source: U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command
S.S. Aledo (As Design 1063, Yard No. 12) Originally ordered for Italian account and later requisitioned, this ship is shown running trials after the war. She was delivered on 3 April 1919. Photo No. None Source: U.S. National Archives, RG-19-A-27
S.S. Aledo (As Design 1063, Yard No. 12) This detailed view of her rig from the ship's Navy inspection data card shows how after the war the paired derrick posts fore and aft were connected at the top by lattice crossbars to form goalpoast masts which were fitted with topmasts. Hinging mechanisms were not fitted. Photo No. None Source: U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command, Ship Histories Branch, SP/ID card.
S.S. Aledo (As Design 1063, Yard No. 12) In commercial service while owned by the Shipping Board between 1919 and 1929. Photo No. None Source: Shipscribe
S.S. Dnieprostroy, ex Dallas (As Design 1063, Yard No. 10) On loan to the Soviet Union during World War II. She had originally been ordered for Italian interests and then requisitioned. Photo No. None Source: U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command
S.S. Balsam (Design 1063, EFC Hull 1288) The contract-built Design 1063 ships had the standard peacetime rig of two masts with topmasts. This, the first of them, is shown pierside in a shipyard (possibly her builder's) or in a port in a photo on the back of the ship's Navy inspection data card. Photo No. None Source: U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command, Ship Histories Branch, SP/ID card.
S.S. Bannack (Design 1063, EFC Hull 1291) A contract-built ship entering a canal or a harbor lock while in postwar merchant service under Shipping Board ownership. Sold in 1937, she was converted into the collier Kopperston and lasted until 1948. Photo No. None Source: Shipscribe
S.S. Hilton, ex Ice King (As Design 1063, Yard No. 3) Departing a U.S. port on 9 October 1941. Photo No. Hilton_8501_013 Source: vesselhistory.marad.dot.gov/ShipHistory/Detail/8501

EFC Design 1063 (Standard S.B. type): Notes & Illustrations