USS Santa Paula, a 13,000-ton (displacement) cargo ship and troop transport, was built at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1917 as the 6415 gross ton freighter of the same name. She was acquired by the U.S. Navy, via charter, in August 1918, placed in commission, and assigned to the Naval Overseas Transportation Service. Between then and mid-January 1919, Santa Paula completed two round-trip voyages between the East Coast and France.
Santa Paula was then transferred to the Cruiser and Transport Force and converted to a troop transport. Beginning in March 1919, she made four trips from France to the U.S. to bring home American service personnel from the former World War I battle zone. A few weeks after this duty ended in early August 1919, USS Santa Paula was decommissioned and returned to her owners, W.R. Grace & Company of New York City.
S.S. Santa Paula had nearly two and a half decades of subsequent commercial employment. She became the American Hawaiian Steamship Company's Montanan in 1925 and on 3 June 1943 was sunk in the Indian Ocean by the Japanese submarine I-27.
This page features, and provides links to, all available views concerning USS Santa Paula (ID # 1590) and the civilian freighter Santa Paula of 1917.
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Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.
Related image: The official data card for Santa Paula (ID # 1590) features a photograph of S.S. Santa Barbara, which is described on the image as "sister ship to Santa Paula". This view is Photo # NH 65065.
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Page made 19 March 2005
Link added 4 May 2007