Meet the S.S. Mongolia

Builder: New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Camden, New Jersey, hull number 5
Laid down June 7, 1902; launched July 25, 1903; delivered February 5, 1904; maiden voyage May 7, 1904; scrapped in Hong Kong, 1947/8
Hull: length 615' 5"; beam 65' 4"; 13,639 tons; schooner-rigged; 4 decks and shelter deck sheathed in wood; 9 cemented bulkheads; cellular double bottom, aft 160',
under engine and boilers 113', forward 229', 2,270 tons; deep tank aft 25', 584 tons and 25', 588 tons; forward 35', 978 tons; forward peak tank 123 tons; aft peak tank 89 tons; holds 31' deep
Power: twin screws; quadruple expansion engines by her builders with cylinders of 30", 43", 63" and 89" diameter, stroke 60"; 1,923 n.h.p.
4 double-ended and 4 single-ended boilers; 36 corrugated furnaces; grate surface 636 sq. ft.; heating surface 28,276 square feet; 215 p.s.i.; originally coal fired but converted to oil in 1919
Code letters KSTH

Pictured above is the S.S.Mongolia, a steamer, was laid down 7 June 1902 by New York Ship Co., Camden, N.J.; launched 25 July 1903; delivered to the Pacific Mail Service 5 February 1904; and transferred to the Atlantic Transport Co. 19 October 1915.
 

Before the United States entered World War I, President Wilson saw the necessity of arming merchant ships. Therefore, Mongolia took on an armed guard in March 1917. On 19 April, she was attacked by a German submarine, Mongolia engaged the submarine, damaging her periscope and conning tower, then gave pursuit, forcing the submarine to submerge. This is the first encounter of an American ship with a U‑boat. The Mongolia was assigned two additional 6‑inch guns  on 20 May.

On 27 April 1918, Mongolia was requisitioned by the Navy. She was commissioned on 8 May 1918, with Commander E. McDowell in command, to serve as a transport during the war. She made 13 voyages from the United States to France, before she was decommissioned on 11 September 1919.She was then returned to her owner, and returned to merchant service.

After the war, the Mongolia was used on the New York‑Hamburg steamship line, before joining the Panama Pacific Lines in 1925. She was transferred to the Dollar Steam Ship Lines and renamed President Fillmore on 7 December 1929.  She was sold to Wallam & Co.On 2 February 1940;  she was renamed Panamanian and thereafter sailed under the Panamanian registry. The ship was scrapped at Shanghai 20 May 1946.