USS Black Arrow (ID-1534) was a troop transport commissioned in 1919 to assist in the post-World War I repatriation of U.S. troops from France. Black Arrow was originally SS Rhaetia, a passenger-cargo ship built in Germany in 1904–05 for the Hamburg-America Line. From 1905 to 1914, Rhaetia operated primarily between Hamburg, Germany and South America, though she was also intermittently employed as an immigrant ship to the United States. With the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, Rhaetia was interned in Philadelphia.
With the entry of the United States into the war in April 1917, Rhaetia and other German ships interned in U.S. ports were seized by the U.S. government for possible use in the war effort. After repairs, the former Rhaetia went into service with the U.S. Army as a general transport under the names USAT Black Hawk and later USAT Black Arrow, making five round trips between the United States and France from June 1917 to the end of the war in November. The ship was then converted into a troop transport in order to assist with the repatriation of U.S. troops from France. Commissioned into the U.S. Navy as USS Black Arrow (ID-1534), the ship subsequently made three round trips to France from April to July 1919, returning a total of 4,759 troops to the United States, before decommissioning in August.
Reverting to the name SS Black Arrow following her naval decommission, the vessel was given a refit before being chartered by the United States Shipping Board to the American Line. She then recommenced merchant service as a passenger-cargo ship, inaugurating a new service from New York to Black Sea and Near East ports, and in December 1919 became the first ship to return to the United States from Constantinople since the outbreak of the war. After only one more voyage to the Near East however, the ship was given another refit and chartered to the Ward Line for service between New York and Spain.
In August 1921, on her fourth voyage to Spain, Black Arrow ran aground off the Spanish coast at Cape Vilan. Refloated, she was returned to New York in November but saw no further service. After being laid up for an extended period, she was scrapped at New Jersey in late 1924.
Construction and design
Rhaetia—a steel-hulled, screw-propelled passenger-cargo ship and the sister ship of Rugia—was built in 1904–05 by Bremer Vulcan of Vegesack, Germany, for the South American service of the Hamburg-America Line.American Bureau of Shipping 1905. p. 938. Her yard number was 476. She was launched 5 November 1904Bonsor 1975. 1. p. 411. and completed 5 May 1905.
Rhaetia had a length of , beam of , hold depth of and draft of about . She had a gross register tonnage of 6,600, net register tonnage of 4,141, deadweight tonnage of 7,050 long tons and (as measured in later U.S. Navy service) displacement of 11,900 long tons. She was fitted with accommodation for 100 first-class and 800 third-class (steerage) passengers, which included "all modern appliances for lighting, heating and refrigeration." Her original cargo capacity is not known, but in later American service it was listed as 330,330 cubic feet bale or 356,229 cu grain. The vessel had two masts, a single smokestack; one deck not including the shelter deck; nine waterproof bulkheads,American Bureau of Shipping 1919. p. 111. and water ballast tanks with a total capacity of 1,144 tons.
Rhaetia was powered by a 3200 ihp four-cylinder quadruple expansion steam engine with cylinders of by stroke, driving a single screw propeller. Steam was supplied by four single-ended, coal-fired Scotch boilers with a working pressure of . With a coal bunker capacity of 1,590 tons and average coal consumption of 46 tons per day, the ship had a steaming radius of .United States Shipping Board 1920. pp. 241–42. Rhaetia had a service speed of .
Service history Hamburg–America Line, 1905–17
Though built for service between Hamburg, Germany and South America, Rhaetia made her maiden voyage to New York due to a then-prevailing heavy demand for immigrant ships, clearing Hamburg 27 May 1905 and arriving 10 June. She departed on the return journey to Hamburg, via Plymouth, England, and Cherbourg, France, on 17 June, her berths filled with American vacationers to the continent. A second immigrant voyage was then made, clearing Hamburg 8 July and returning 10 August. After this, the ship apparently transferred to her planned Hamburg to South American service. In late 1905, Rhaetia, her sister ship Rugia and two other ships of the Hamburg-America Line, Arcadia and Andalusia, were chartered by the Imperial Russian government to embark Russian troops—probably ex-prisoners of war captured during the recently concluded Russo-Japanese War—at Nagasaki, Japan, the four ships clearing that port 19 December for Vladivostok. Rhaetia then resumed her South American service, where she would remain for several years.
In 1909, Rhaetia briefly returned to United States service, making two round trips between Hamburg and Philadelphia from 24 March to 22 June; the first of these trips, on the outbound leg from Hamburg, was made via New York. The vessel then returned to South American service, and is known to have made voyages to Brazil in 1910 and 1911.
In 1914, Rhaetia was returned to service between Hamburg and the United States for a third and final time, this time with an initial destination port of Boston. The return leg of these voyages was originally to be made via Queenstown, Ireland and Boulogne, France, but at the last moment the British port of call was changed to Plymouth, England, disappointing Queenstowns city fathers who had planned a civic reception for the ship. A total of three round trips between Hamburg and Boston were eventually made by Rhaetia, the first departing Hamburg 17 January and the last clearing Boston 9 May. On the first of these round trips, Rhaetia arrived at Boston with 11 cabin and 119 steerage passengers —a typically small passenger list for a winter voyage. She departed 5 February with five cabin and 34 steerage passengers—of whom half the latter were rejected immigrants—and cargoes which included "3000 boxes of scythe stones for the Russian farming district, flour, asbestos, 20 carloads agricultural machinery, and general merchandise."
Rhaetia was then switched to the Philadelphia route, departing Hamburg 7 July and arriving at Philadelphia on the 22nd. The vessel was due to leave on the return journey to Hamburg 1 August with 50 cabin and 150 steerage passengers and a "large general cargo", but on the same day, Germany entered World War I by declaring war on Russia, and the Hamburg–America Line suspended its services indefinitely. Rhaetias stranded cabin-class passengers were given the choice of either receiving a full refund or transferring to the neutral American steamer Merion, leaving the same day, with many taking the latter option.
Rhaetia was subsequently interned at Philadelphia, guarded by a round-the-clock police watch. In late August, negotiations between the U.S. government and the German consulate raised the possibility of the sale or transfer to U.S. registry of the ship, but neither eventuated. In March 1915, W. R. Grace & Co. made an offer of $2,000,000 for the purchase of both Rhaetia and her stablemate Prinz Oskar, also in internment at Philadelphia, but this proposal too was unsuccessful and the two ships were to remain in internment until Americas entry into the war in April 1917. During the internment period, many members of the two ships' crews applied for United States citizenship, with about 60 having their applications accepted.
Seizure and U.S. Army service, 1917–1919
On 1 February 1917, Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare, in response to which, the United States broke diplomatic relations on the 3rd. On the latter date, acting on instructions from Washington, Philadelphias port authorities confined the crews of German ships interned in the port, including the crew of Rhaetia, to their vessels, while strengthening the guard over the ships.
On 6 April, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a joint resolution declaring the United States to be in a state of war with Germany. A little over hours later, at 5:30 am, customs and immigration officials, accompanied by a contingent of 41 US Marines, gathered at the Christian Street dock where Rhaetia and Prinz Oskar were berthed, to seize the ships on behalf of the United States Shipping Board and take their crews into custody. The operation began about 5:40 am, waking the crews in the process, with each crew member permitted to gather his belongings under the watchful eye of an armed marine. While no resistance was encountered, it was discovered during the operation that five of the 41 crewmen were missing, having apparently deserted their ships. The remaining 36 crew were taken to the Gloucester immigration station to be detained pending determination of their status; three of the missing sailors were located a few days later and similarly detained. Rhaetias crew and those of several other interned German ships were eventually relocated from Gloucester to a prison camp facility in Hot Springs, North Carolina.
After the seizure of Rhaetia and Prinz Oskar, customs officials quickly discovered that their crews had sabotaged the ships' engines to prevent or delay their possible utilization in the U.S. war effort. In Prinz Oskars case, the order to sabotage had reportedly been relayed from the chief engineer of the Hamburg America Line when the U.S. had broken diplomatic relations with Germany on 3 February; in Rhaetias case however, her commander testified that he had ordered the sabotage on his own cognizance prior to that date. After temporary repairs at the Christian Street dock, both ships were towed to the shipyard of William Cramp & Sons for more comprehensive repairs.
While repairs were initially estimated to take about six months, work on the two vessels was completed much more quickly than anticipated, and by June Rhaetia was back in service as a U.S. Army transport under the name USAT Black Hawk. During the war, the ship embarked on five round trips between New York and various French and other European ports on the Armys behalf. In August 1917, on a voyage to Italy, the ship was reportedly attacked by submarine, albeit unsuccessfully, in the Mediterranean. On an unknown date during her Army service, Black Hawk was renamed USAT Black Arrow. On her fifth and final voyage for the Army, Black Arrow returned to New York from Gibraltar on 19 December 1918 with eight officers and 115 enlisted men; on arrival, the ships officers described how they had witnessed the sinking of , torpedoed 9 November in the Mediterranean—one of the last ships sunk by enemy action in the war.
U.S. Navy troop transport, 1919
With the war over, the British contingent of the American Cruiser and Transport Force withdrew, leaving the United States with insufficient tonnage needed to quickly repatriate U.S. troops from Europe. To rectify the problem, a total of 56 ships under the control of the U.S. government, including Black Arrow, were selected for conversion into troop transports.United States War Dept. 1919. pp. 4974–76.
Black Arrow was converted by the Morse Dry Dock and Repair Company of Brooklyn between 17 January and 15 March 1919, at a cost of $170,938—in the process becoming the first ship raised by the Morse Companys new floating dock, the largest of its type in the world. While still undergoing conversion, the ship was commissioned into the U.S. Navy on 27 January as USS Black Arrow (ID-1534). After conversion, the ship had a passenger capacity of 85 officers and 1,510 enlisted men, and a crew complement of 21 officers and 96 enlisted men,United States Dept. of Commerce 1920, p. 490.