lifejackets

presumably related to the Vera Cruz coverage so frequently seen in LOC stream. The stacks of lumber and life jackets are strong indication s this is her being converted for troop transport query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F40A1FF6355D13...

nudecowboy: Thanks for the New York Times article (May 10, 1914) which reports that the ship "City of Macon" was one of the fleet moving the Second Army Division from Texas City to Veracruz, Mexico.

When we last saw her, the "City of Macon" was being used in February, 1914, to transport the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team to its spring training quarters in Georgia:

USS Macona (ID # 3305) 1918-1919. Originally S.S. City of Macon (American Coastal Passenger Ship, later Freighter, 1903). Later renamed Macona S.S. City of Macon, a 5252 gross ton coastal passenger-cargo ship, was built in 1903 at Chester, Pennsylvania, for the Ocean Steamship Co. of Savannah, which operated a passenger and freight service between Savannah, Georgia, and New York. She was configured like many other coastal passenger ships of her era, among them her near-sister City of Savannah (ID # 4514), with a single smokestack, two raked pole masts, and a long, low superstructure extending from a bridge forward of amidships to the stern. In 1916 the ship was sold to the Barber Steamship Co., renamed Macona, and possibly reconfigured as a freighter by her new owner. Taken over by the Navy and commissioned at New York as USS Macona (ID # 3305) on 19 August 1918, she sailed in a convoy on 25 August with a cargo of 4,470 tons of general supplies, which she delivered to St. Nazaire, France, on 12 September. She was then assigned to service in European waters, carrying a cargo of potatoes from Ireland to France for the American Expeditionary Force. In late December Macona loaded a cargo of Navy stores, then moved to Cardiff, Wales, to bunker for the voyage back to the United States. She left Cardiff on 15 February 1919 but had to stop at the Azores for more fuel before arriving at Hampton Roads, Virginia, on 12 March. USS Macona was decommissioned and delivered to the Shipping Board on 25 March 1919 for simultaneous return to her owners. On 18 January 1920 S.S. Macona struck a rock and sank near Gotenborg, Sweden. In port, possibly when inspected by the Third Naval District on 19 August 1918. This relatively elderly former coastal passenger and cargo ship was in commission as a freighter from 19 August 1918 to 25 March 1919. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph from http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-m/id3305.htm

http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/i05000/i05223t.jpg>


picture location - not a good one.

5/24/13 is the date in the upper right corner. He's modeling a life saving device.

kkynslis: thank you for the date and other information. We will add it to the source data and reload the description.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Grosser_Kurf%c3%bcrst Spangenberg was her captain in 1913 when she rescued the SS Volturno

LOC -- Your title needs emending -- "Grosser," not "Grosse" -- see the inscription on the lifesaving flotation ring.

Also it's "Kurfürst," with an umlaut.

Wystan and Jim Rees: Thanks for pointing out the typos. We'll fix them next time we update the record.

The fellow in the center, wearing a business suit, looks like Lionel Carden, the British envoy to Mexico, who in October 1913 (about the time of the Volturno disaster) was expelled by Carranza and recalled to London, for his criticism of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson: