USS William Ward Burrows was a transport ship that saw service with the United States Navy in World War II. The ship was the former Grace Steamship Company liner MV Santa Rita by Burmeister & Wain and launched in 1929 at Copenhagen, Denmark.
As a Grace liner Santa Rita served the New York—South American West Coast trade from 1929 until 1939. After Navy acquisition the ship served in the Pacific. From October 1940 she assisted in the buildup of Central Pacific bases, being caught in transit from Hawaii to Wake Island when news of the attack on Pearl Harbor came. In April 1943 the ship became flagship for Service Squadron (ServRon) 12 which was engaged in salvage, harbor clearance, restoration and building in forward areas of the Pacific, often as combat continued ashore. The ship was associated with transport and serving as a base for elements of the attached 301st U.S. Naval Construction Battalion ("Seabees") (NCB 301) which was equipped for major harbor work. On 29 June 1946 the ship went into reserve at Olympia, Washington until removed for scrapping 18 May 1957.
Construction Santa Rita was a twin-screw, steel-hulled, passenger and cargo motorship launched in May 1929 at Copenhagen, Denmark, by Burmeister & Wain built for the Grace Steamship Company, Inc., and operated between New York and ports in South America and on the west coast of the United States, carrying passengers and freight. The ship was the second Grace Line ship of the name and two more would follow.
The design was for four passenger decks with accommodations for 80 first and 48 intermediate class passengers in beds rather than berths in all outside rooms. The recreational facilities included a swimming tank, golf practice area along with social hall, smoking room, lounge and verandah cafe. Cargo capacity was 5,100 tons handled by four extra large hatches and nine electric winches. Insulated chambers were provided for carrying of fruit and other perishables. The diesel engines driving the twin screws developed 4,500 horsepower for a service speed of .
Santa Rita registry information (1939) shows the ship with U.S. Official Number 228577 with signal WIDG, , , registered length of , beam and depth of and registered crew of 80.
Commercial service Santa Rita followed Santa Inez in inaugurating Grace Line's service between New York through the Panama Canal to Buenaventura, Colombia and Guayaquil, Ecuador, the first direct passenger service to those ports, with Santa Inez departing on 20 April and Santa Rita due to depart 8 June. The planned run between New York and Buenaventura was eight days and Guayaquil twelve days. After those initial ports the ships were to call at South American West Coast ports as far south as Valparaíso.
By September, 1932, declining trading conditions along the run from New York to Peru led to the announcement that the ships operating on the run, Santa Inez, Santa Olivia and Santa Rita, were to be withdrawn and laid up; however, they were put back in service the next year. In 1935 the growth in the fruit trade to the West Coast of South America resulted in fitting five of the line's vessels, including in four compartments for Santa Rita, with York Ice Machinery Corporation refrigeration plants that included a patented system of air circulation developed by United Fruit Company.
In mid 1939 Grace Line announced it was trading in Santa Rita and Santa Inez as part payment to the Maritime Commission for two of its new C-2 type cargo ships. The ships were then to be bought by Navy for use as a tender for the Alaska air bases and the other as a survey ship.Santa Inez did become a survey ship. By the time of actual Navy acquisition of Santa Rita the threat of war in the Pacific had resulted in a major effort to develop bases on the mid-Pacific islands linking Hawaii and the Philippines and, as the threat in the Japanese Mandated Islands increased, developed into a South Pacific air ferry route. Santa Rita became quickly involved in those efforts until war actually came, cutting off the central Pacific routes to the Philippines. The replacement was completed 17 September 1941 and delivered to WSA by Grace 23 March 1942 for operation by Grace under an Army Transportation Corps agreement according to the MARAD Vessel Status Card. The ship was torpedoed and sunk 9 July 1942 in the Caribbean. The ship went into the yard for drydock and general repairs at General Engineering & Drydock Company, Oakland, California for refit and was reported there in January and February, 1940 issues of a monthly trade journal.The January issue of the same reference shows the ship in the yard on page 90. A check of the same journal's December, 1939 issue for the same yard does not show the ship. Considering publication dates the January data was probably effective in December. The Navy acquired the ship 9 February at Norfolk, Virginia. Thus the probable West Coast yard period was December, 1939—January, 1940.
Navy acquisition Santa Rita was purchased by the War Shipping Administration from Grace Lines for $511,513.11 on 6 February 1940 and simultaneously transferred to the Navy. The ship was placed "in ordinary," a non-commissioned status, as transport William Ward Burrows (AP-6) on 9 February at Pier 5 of the Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Virginia. Converted to a troop transport at the Norfolk Navy Yard the ship was placed in full commission on 15 May 1940.
Operational service
Pre war After fitting-out, William Ward Burrows sailed from Norfolk on her maiden voyage on 6 July and proceeded to Weehawken, New Jersey, to take on a cargo of structural steel. Departing that port on the 15th, the transport embarked a company of marines as well as a group of women and children - naval dependents - for transportation to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. After delivering her passengers, she touched at San Juan, Puerto Rico; Cristóbal, Canal Zone; transited the Panama Canal; visited Balboa, Canal Zone and the California ports of San Diego, San Pedro, Vallejo (the Mare Island Navy Yard); and the Naval Air Station at Alameda, before she proceeded on to her ultimate destination of Midway Island, where she dropped anchor on 2 October.
The ship began a series of voyages that formed part of the belated American attempt to fortify her outposts in the Pacific - islands such as Wake, Midway, and Johnston. William Ward Burrows carried the pioneer construction unit - 80 men and 2,000 tons of equipment - to Wake Island in January 1941, departing Honolulu the day before Christmas of 1940 and arriving at destination late in the afternoon of 9 January 1941.
William Ward Burrows would conduct eight more voyages prior to the outbreak of war in the Pacific, carrying construction employees, sailors, and marines, and the miscellaneous cargo necessary to sustain the outposts of the American defense system in the Pacific. On what proved to be her last pre-war voyage to Wake, the transport took westward a cargo of dynamite, as well as employees of civilian contractors and a sprinkling of Navy and Marine Corps personnel. In addition she towed Pan American Airways Barge No. 4 (PAB-4), laden with general cargo. She arrived at Wake on 11 November, disembarked her passengers, discharged her cargo, and delivered her tow before she headed back to Hawaii on the 13th.
Soon after arriving, she shifted to Honolulu and embarked 33 marines, 60 sailors, and 55 civilian contractor's employees for transport to Wake on the 28th. She got underway at 0825 on 29 November, towing PAB-7. The ship, herself, carried 1,819 tons of cargo - general supplies, lumber, "reefer boxes" (refrigerators), a boat, 10 trailers, and 20 tons of gasoline in tins.
Heavy seas and stormy winds prevailed for the entire passage but the ship maintained a speed of with PAB-7 in tow. On 5 December she rendezvoused with taking on board an appendicitis patient from the Hawaii bound tug for medical attention. As the transport continued on toward Wake Island, the weather was "uniformly abominable".
The ship crossed the International Date Line on 6 December and accordingly set her calendars ahead to compensate. Unbeknownst to the solitary transport, a Japanese carrier task force was proceeding toward Pearl Harbor. On the morning of 7 December 1941 (8 December on the transport's side of the date line), that task force struck Pearl Harbor a devastating blow and plunged the United States into a war in both oceans.
War At 0705 on 8 December the ship received word of the attack. The crew was called to general quarters, the captain set air and submarine watches with lookouts and gun crews alerted. Civilian workmen embarked on board immediately volunteered their services "in any capacity."
On 9 December the ship received orders to return to Honolulu with her loaded cargo and PAB-7. The war news she received was grim. Pearl Harbor had been attacked and Midway shelled (by the Japanese destroyers Ushio and Akebono). False sightings of Japanese task forces here and there proliferated. Comdr. Dierdorff later recalled: "As reports came in, the general impression we gained was that most of the Nipponese fleet was between us and Hawaii." He was not far from the truth.
Continued support of island bases On 13 December, the transport received word to take PAB-7 to Johnston Island. Accordingly, the ship altered course and on 15 December delivered the barge with its general cargo and lumber embarking passengers for transportation to Hawaii. At 1340, William Ward Burrows rudder touched a coral head in an area believed to have been dredged to a safe depth of . The transport cleared the navigational hazard with only minor damage to the tip of the rudder.
William Ward Burrows remained at anchor to the south of Johnston Island that evening in an anchorage deemed safe from submarine attack. Comdr. Dierdorff posted full submarine lookouts, fully manned the bridge, and put the engine room on five minutes' notice to get underway. Squally weather prevented his using a 40-foot motor launch as picket.
At 1810, officer of the deck Ens. J. A. Peterson, USNR sounded the general alarm. A Japanese submarine, the I-22, had surfaced offshore and opened fire with its deck gun. (Other accounts attribute the shellfire to two surface vessels.) The shelling set fire to the island's powerhouse but caused no personnel casualties. One large shell struck 30 yards astern of William Ward Burrows with another passing over the forecastle and other splashes eruptingd from the waters between the ship and the island.
The enemy did not see William Ward Burrows which was carrying 227 passengers including 132 civilians. Knowing that his 3-inch guns were inadequate for a surface gunfire duel with ships of unknown size, Comdr. Dierdorff wisely decided not to open fire. Favored by darkness and rain squalls the ship got underway at 1830 and escaped toward Honolulu. By that time, the bombardment had ceased. At about 2330, Johnston Island reported no casualties and advised the ship not to return.
William Ward Burrows entered drydock on New Year's Day 1942 for repairs to her rudder and nine days later emerged to began loading cargo destined for Midway. The transport got underway on 18 January after embarking a draft of marines for transportation to the atoll. She arrived five days later and began working her cargo. Two days later, a Japanese submarine surfaced a mere mile away and began shelling the island. However, about three minutes later, fire from Marine Corps guns ashore drove the submarine away.