USS Quincy (AK-10)

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USS Quincy (AK-10) on 11 March 1921
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Class:        QUINCY (AK-10)
Design        Cargo, 1909
Displacement (tons):        6,500 normal
Dimensions (feet):        367.0' oa, 349.2' pp x 51.0' wl x 21.3' mn
Original Armament:        4-3"/50
Later armaments:        none (1920)
Complement        77 (1920)
Speed (kts.):        11
Propulsion (HP):        2,500
Machinery:        Vertical triple expansion, 1 screw

Construction:

AK	Name	Acq.	Builder	Keel	Launch	Commiss.
10	QUINCY	22 May 17	William Doxford & Sons	Mar 09	31 Aug 09	2 Feb 18

Disposition:

AK	Name	Decomm.	Strike	Disposal	Fate	MA Sale
10	QUINCY	5 Jun 22	--	25 Sep 22	Sold	--

Class Notes:
In early 1909 the German firm of H. Vogemann, which had primarily been engaged in chartering and managing freight steamers, ordered a new freighter of 6,250 t deadweight from Wm. Doxford & Sons, Sunderland for the extraordinarily cheap price of $5 per deadweight ton (about $32,000). The ship was ordered at the beginning of 1909 and was given the name VOGESEN; it was put onto stocks in March and delivered in early October of the same year. Cargo rates at the time were still extremely low, but the first voyage still managed to make a small profit, because the ship was built especially for timber shipping and was therefore able to take a considerably larger deck cargo than other chartered steamships of the same size. In 1911 cargo rates began to rise and the ship was more than paid for by the time the war began. The firm considered ordering a second ship from Doxford but negotiations dragged on and ultimately ended at the outbreak of war in August 1914. The firm's only ship, VOGESEN, had sailed from Hamburg for Pensacola, Fla., on 7 Jul 14 and, after a stop at San Juan, took refuge at Pensacola when the war broke out.

On 31 Jan 17 Germany notified the United States that it intended to resume unrestricted submarine warfare the next day and the crews of many of the German ships in the U.S. began to sabotage the machinery of their ships to prevent their use when the U.S. entered the war, which occurred on 6 Apr 17. VOGESEN was seized by port officials at Pensacola on 6 Apr 17. On 2 May 17 the Naval Station at New Orleans was directed to make arrangements with the Collector of Customs at Pensacola to take over the VOGESEN, arrange for towing to the Yard by contract if necessary, and make repairs to the ship. On 10 May 17 the U.S. Navy Aeronautic Station, Pensacola, contracted with the Gulf Machine Works, Pensacola, to repair this ship and RUDOLF BLUMBERG. On 22 May 17 Presidential Executive Order 2625 ordered that VOGESEN be transferred from the Treasury Department to the Navy Department for use as collier and cargo carrier. She was one of 14 seized steamers for which SecNav announced new names on 4 Jun 17. These, including QUINCY for VOGESEN, were promulgated in Navy General Order 301 of 9 Jun 17. On 8 Jun 17 the contractor reported that work on the ship was about 75% complete, but on 13 Jun 17 a second contract was signed for additional work that would require another 30 days. During August she was briefly considered for conversion into a destroyer tender. QUINCY was then taken to the Naval Station, New Orleans to be fitted out as a Supply Ship. She was finally commissioned there on 2 February 1918.

Between February 1918 and March 1919 QUINCY made three voyages between the United States and Europe, the first two to France and the third to Italy. She then carried coal and fuel oil along the East Coast and to the Caribbean until being placed in reduced commission at Norfolk on 28 Oct 19 with only ten percent of her crew on board. She was designated AK-10 when the Navy's standard hull classification scheme was implemented on 17 Jul 20. From August 1920 until May 1921 she was again inactive at Norfolk. QUINCY got underway on 13 May for Gibraltar and Brest. Upon her return to the U.S. she remained on the east coast a short time and then departed on a cargo run to the West Coast. She arrived at the Mare Island Navy Yard on 3 November 1921, and as of 7 Dec 21 was scheduled to depart Bremerton, Wash., on 8 Dec 21 and return to Hampton Roads on 26 Jan 22.

In the meantime, on 2 Nov 21 the new freighter REGULUS (AK-14) was designated to relieve QUINCY after being placed in commission at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. QUINCY was to transfer to REGULUS at Philadelphia after her arrival on the Atlantic Coast the personnel and material necessary to place REGULUS in commission as her relief. On 22 Dec 21 CNO noted that, owing to freight congestion on the Pacific Coast, it had become necessary for QUINCY to make a trip to Pearl Harbor and that this might delay QUINCY's arrival on the Atlantic Coast about 2 weeks. In fact QUINCY visited Hawaii in January–February 1922, and returned to Philadelphia on 11 April. On 4 Apr 22 CNO informed the Bureaus that QUINCY would be replaced by SIRIUS (AK-15) which had been directed to proceed to Philadelphia about 1 Apr 22. All stores and other useful equipment on QUINCY were to be transferred at Philadelphia to SIRIUS, following which QUINCY was to be placed out of commission. QUINCY was put on the sale list on 6 Apr 22, decommissioned at Philadelphia on 5 June 1922, and sold on 25 September 1922 to the Navigation Steamship Co. The ship returned to merchant service as S.S. QUINCY, spent much of her time in the New England coal trade, and changed owners several times while under this name. In 1936 she was sold again and was renamed BURGEO STAR, and in 1937 she was resold to Chinese interests and renamed HAIDA. She was declared missing after sailing from Seattle for Hong Kong in October 1937 with a cargo of sulphur that was believed to be headed for China for use in its munitions industry.

Ship Notes:

AK	Name	Notes
10	QUINCY	Ex merc. VOGESEN (completed Oct 09). Converted by Gulf Machine Works, Pensacola, Fla., and NYd New Orleans. Merc. QUINCY 1922, BURGEO STAR 1926, HAIDA 1937. Missing after departing Seattle on 24 Oct 37.