USS Tenadores (1913)

USS Tenadores was a transport ship for the United States Navy during World War I. Before the war she was known as SS Tenadores in the service of the United Fruit Company. Before her Navy service, she served as a United States Army transport under the name USAT Tenadores.

Tenadores
History
Name: SS Tenadores
Owner: United Fruit Company
Builder:
Launched: 1913
Fate: turned over to the U.S. Navy, 12 April 1918
History
United States
Name: USS Tenadores
Acquired: 12 April 1918
Commissioned: 17 April 1918
Stricken: 18 February 1919
Fate: Grounded on Île d'Yeu, 28 December 1918
General characteristics as USS Tenadores
Type: Transport
Displacement: 7,782 long tons (7,907 t)
Length: 485 ft (148 m)
Beam: 55 ft 3 in (16.84 m)
Draft: 27 ft 4 in (8.33 m)
Propulsion: Steam engine(s)
Speed: 17 kn (20 mph; 31 km/h)
Armament: 4 × 5 in (130 mm) guns, 2 × 1-pounder guns, 2 × machine guns

World War I

Tenadores was built in 1913 by Workman, Clark and Co. of Belfast, Northern Ireland for the United Fruit Company. After being turned over to the U.S. Army on 24 May 1917, the steamer served as Army transport USAT Tenadores. She was hurriedly outfitted for trooping duties, and at daybreak on 14 June, Tenadores — with fellow Army transport ships Saratoga, Havana, and Pastores, accompanied by cruisers Seattle, DeKalb, destroyers Wilkes, Terry, Roe, and converted yacht Corsair — set out from Ambrose Light for Brest, France, in the first group of the first American troop convoy to France during World War I.[1][2] Corsair was unable to maintain the 15 kn (17 mph; 28 km/h) pace and fell back, being replaced by destroyer Fanning from the second group.[3] At 22:15 on 22 June, some 850 nmi (980 mi; 1,570 km) from its intended destination of Brest, Saratoga's group of the convoy was attacked by submarines. Two torpedoes passed near Havana and two torpedoes straddled DeKalb. No submarines were definitively sighted, and the convoy — scattered by the alarm — reformed the next morning.[4] The group, alerted by reports of submarine activity near Brest diverted to Saint-Nazaire and arrived on 25 June.[5]

Tenadores was taken over by the U.S. Navy on 12 April 1918 and commissioned on 17 April 1918, with Commander James B. Gilmer in command. Tenadores served as a troop transport during the remainder of World War I. Shortly after midnight on 28 December, the ship grounded in a heavy fog off the north coast of the Île d'Yeu.

During unsuccessful efforts to refloat the ship, some 80 long tons (81 t) of supplies were removed from the stricken vessel and taken to Saint-Nazaire. On 30 December, minesweeper B. H. B. Hubbard rescued the last members of the transport's crew. On 2 January 1919, Hubbard returned to Tenadores for one last attempt to salvage the ship but was thwarted by high seas and the hopeless state of the transport, which was lying on her starboard side and breaking up. The name Tenadores was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 18 February.

Notes
  1. Crowell and Wilson, p. 316.
  2. Gleaves, pp. 38, 41.
  3. Gleaves, pp. 41–42.
  4. Gleaves, pp. 42–43.
  5. Gleaves, p. 45.

References
  • Crowell, Benedict; Robert Forrest Wilson (1921). The Road to France: The Transportation of Troops and Military Supplies, 1917–1918. How America Went to War: An Account From Official Sources of the Nation's War Activities, 1917–1920. New Haven: Yale University Press. OCLC 18696066.
  • Gleaves, Albert (1921). A History of the Transport Service: Adventures and Experiences of United States Transports and Cruisers in the World War. New York: George H. Doran Company. OCLC 976757.
  • This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

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