U.S.S. Culgoa
AF-3
1904
(Saratoga SMY-64)
- Class: Culgoa - 1 provisions store ship of 1898
- Displacement: 6,096 tons
- Dimensions: 346'4" x 43' x 21'9"
- Machinery: two compound steam engines, two shafts = 13 knots
- Armament: 2-6pdr
- Complement: 122
- Builder: J. L. Thompson & Sons, Sunderland, Great Britain
- Built: 1889
- Acquired: 4 Jun 1898
- Commissioned: 3 Dec 1898 / 1 Oct 1902 / 12 Sep 1907
- Decommissioned: 16 Oct 1901 / 11 Aug 1905 / 31 Dec 1921
- Notes: Purchased at Cavite, Philippines Jun 1898. During the naval blockade of Manila, the vessel supplied the American squadron with ice and meat. Since she was not a commissioned naval vessel, Culgoa could purchase supplies while avoiding the neutrality laws that banned sales to the Navy. Commissioned late in 1898 and officially assigned to the Asiatic Fleet, serving there until Jul 1901, when she sailed via Suez for New York. Joined the North Atlantic Squadron in 1902, but after several years service was almost discarded in 1906, only to be reinstated as one of four auxiliaries to accompany the 16 battleships of the Great White Fleet on their 1907-1909 round-the-world cruise. Afterward she returned to duty in the Atlantic and Caribbean, including seven convoys to France and Britain during World War I. Given hull classification AF-3 on 17 Jul 1920, she sailed to the Pacific, but later returned to New York where she was decommissioned in 1921 and sold in 1922.
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