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UNITED STATES NAVY
TEMPORARY AUXILIARY SHIPS
WORLD WAR I

Photo # NH 99625: USS Canandaigua tied to a mooring buoy, circa 1918

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Canandaigua (ID # 1694), 1918-1919

USS Canandaigua, a 7620-ton (displacement) minelayer, was built at Newport News, Virginia, in 1901 as the 4616 gross ton commercial passenger-cargo ship El Siglo. Transferred from the U.S. Shipping Board to the Navy in November 1917, she was converted to a minelayer at Brooklyn, New York, and placed in commission early in March 1918. In May Canandaigua steamed across the Atlantic to Scotland, from which she operated for the next five months helping to establish the North Sea mine barrage. Following the November 1918 Armistice, the ship returned to the U.S., where she was converted to a troop transport. Between March and August 1919 Canandaigua was employed bringing service personnel home from France. She was decommissioned in September 1919 and turned back to her owners by way of the Shipping Board. In about 1922, while again named El Siglo, the Navy assigned her the new identification number 4510 as a possible mobilization asset in case of a National emergency, but she had no additional Naval service.

This page features all available views concerning USS Canandaigua (ID # 1694).


Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 99625

USS Canandaigua (ID # 1694)

Halftone reproduction of a photograph showing the ship tied to a mooring buoy, circa 1918, probably in a British Isles harbor.
Note her pattern camouflage.

Collection of Clarence E. Grisso, donated by R.W.G. Vail, 1934.

U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.

Online Image: 48KB; 740 x 345 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 55558

USS Canandaigua (ID # 1694)

Ship's officers and crew posed on deck, at Invergordon, Scotland, October 1918.
Her Commanding Officer, Commander William H. Reynolds, is seated in the middle of the second row.

U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.

Online Image: 96KB; 740 x 535 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 53575

USS Canandaigua (ID# 1694);
USS Roanoke (ID # 1695);
USS Canonicus (ID # 1696); and
USS Housatonic (ID # 1697)

Sketch of "Rearrangement of Steering Gear" on ships' bridges, made at the Norfolk Navy Yard, Virginia, 23 April 1918.

U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.

Online Image: 81KB; 590 x 765 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 52819

Mine Squadron One, U.S. Atlantic Fleet

Senior officers of the squadron, photographed on board ship in the North Sea area, September 1918.
Those present are identified in Photo # NH 52819 (complete caption).

U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.

Online Image: 96KB; 740 x 430 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 52995

Mine Squadron One, U.S. Atlantic Fleet

Senior officers of the squadron, photographed on board ship in the North Sea area, September 1918.
Those present are identified in Photo # NH 52995 (complete caption).

U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.

Online Image: 88KB; 740 x 495 pixels

 


USS Canandaigua is seen distantly in the following Photographs:

Photo #: 111-SC-43563

Laying the North Sea Mine Barrage, 1918

U.S. Navy minelayers proceeding to sea in two columns, in Area Number 2 of the North Sea, September 1918.
Ships in the column at left are (from front to rear): Roanoke, Housatonic, Quinnebaug and Baltimore.
Ships in column at right are (from front to rear): Canonicus (out of picture, to right), Canandaigua, Aroostook and Saranac.
Note disruptive "dazzle" camouflage worn by these ships.

Photograph from the Army Signal Corps Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

Online Image: 59KB; 740 x 460 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: NH 61101

U.S. Navy Mine Layers

Steaming in line abreast during the laying of the North Sea mine barrage, September 1918.
Analysis of camouflage patterns indicates that these ships are (from front to rear):
USS Roanoke (ID # 1695);
USS Housatonic (ID # 1697);
USS Shawmut (ID # 1255);
USS Canandaigua (ID # 1694);
USS Canonicus (ID # 1696);
with USS Quinnebaug (ID # 1687) and USS Saranac (ID # 1702) in the left and right center distance.
A four-stack British cruiser is in the left distance.

U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.

Online Image: 86KB; 740 x 610 pixels

 


The ships seen in the following photograph MAY include USS Canonicus:

Photo #: NH 89508

U.S. Navy mine layers and British warships in a Scottish harbor, 1918

Photographed from on board either USS Shawmut (ID # 1255) or USS Aroostook (1256), with a British light cruiser at left.
Two U.S. mine layers are at right. That nearest the camera is either USS Quinnebaug (ID # 1687) or USS Saranac (ID # 1702). Immediately ahead of her is either USS Housatonic (ID # 1697), USS Canonicus (ID # 1696), USS Roanoke (ID # 1695) or USS Canandaigua (ID # 1694).

Collection of Lieutenant (Junior Grade) A. Alvin Booth, USNRF.

U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.

Online Image: 89KB; 740 x 455 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 99468

U.S. Navy Transport

Crowded with troops, probably in a French port just before departure for the United States in 1919.
This ship is not USS Ohioan. She is rather one of the four former Morgan Line steamers converted to minelayers during World War I and employed as transports in 1919. These were USS Canandaigua (ID # 1694), USS Roanoke (ID # 1695), USS Canonicus (ID # 1696) and USS Housatonic (ID # 1697).
Photographed from USS Scranton (ID # 3511).

Photograph from the USS Scranton photo album kept by J.D. Bartar, one of her crew members.

U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.

Online Image: 64KB; 740 x 440 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 107072

Two U.S. Navy Transports at St. Nazaire, France circa April-June 1919

The left-hand ship is USS Huron (ID # 1408). That on the right is one of four former minelayers: USS Canandaigua (ID # 1694), USS Canonicus (ID # 1696), USS Housatonic (ID # 1697) or USS Roanoke (ID # 1695).
Note the rifle-armed sentry in the lower center.
Copied from the Donald R. Cochran album (Lot S-591), page 11.

Donation of Dr. Mark Kulikowski, 2010.

U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.

Online Image: 124KB; 900 x 640 pixels

 


NOTES:

  • To the best of our knowledge, the pictures referenced here are all in the Public Domain, and can therefore be freely downloaded and used for any purpose.

  • Some images linked from this page may bear obsolete credit lines citing the organization name: "Naval Historical Center". Effective 1 December 2008 the name should be cited as: "Naval History and Heritage Command".



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    Page made 18 October 2004
    New image added 18 October 2010