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UNITED STATES NAVY
TEMPORARY AUXILIARY SHIPS
WORLD WAR I

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- CIVILIAN SHIPS --

S.S. Kerwood (American cargo ship, 1911).
Originally the Austro-Hungarian S.S. Budapest.
Served as USS Kerwood (ID # 1489) in 1918-19

The 3693 gross ton cargo ship Budapest was completed in March 1911 by Richardson, Duck & Co., Stockton-on-Tees, England for the Atlantica Sea Navigation Co. Ltd. of Fiume, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. She was purchased in 1917 with other Austro-Hungarian ships by the Kerr Navigation Co. of New York and was renamed Kerwood. Later acquired by the Navy, she was commissioned on 5 November 1918.

USS Kerwood was assigned to the Naval Overseas Transportation Service and made coaling runs from Cardiff, Wales, to French ports. She continued these operations until 28 December 1918 when she arrived at Bordeaux with 1,000 tons of Army stores. From Bordeaux she sailed to Cardiff before sailing for the United States on 29 January 1919. Kerwood arrived Norfolk on 27 February and was decommissioned on 19 March 1919 and returned to the U.S. Shipping Board for simultaneous return to her owner.

S.S. Kerwood was mined and sunk on 1 December 1919 off the Frisian Islands on the Dutch coast.

This page features all available views of the cargo ship Kerwood, which served as USS Kerwood in 1918-19.

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

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Page made 16 August 2015