SS Dakotan

SS Dakotan prior to World War I
History
Name	SS Dakotan
Owner	American-Hawaiian Steamship Company
Port of registry	New York[1]
Ordered	September 1911[3]
Builder	Maryland Steel Sparrows Point, Maryland
Cost	$672,000[4]
Yard number	125[2]
Launched	10 August 1912
Completed	November 1912[2]
Identification	U.S. official number: 210753
Fate	expropriated by U.S. Army, 29 May 1917
United States
Name	USAT Dakotan
Acquired	29 May 1917[5]
Fate	transferred to U.S. Navy, 29 January 1919
United States
Name	USS Dakotan
Acquired	29 January 1919
Commissioned	29 January 1919
Decommissioned	31 July 1919
Identification	ID-3882
Fate	returned to owners, 31 July 1919[6]
Name	SS Dakotan
Owner	American-Hawaiian Steamship Company
Acquired	31 July 1919
Fate	requisitioned by War Shipping Administration; transferred to Soviet Union under Lend-Lease
Soviet Union
Name	SS Zyrianin (Зырянин in Cyrillic)[8]
Namesake	Komi peoples
Operator	1943–1957: Far East Shipping Company[8] 1957–1969: Black Sea Shipping Company[8]
Acquired	December 1942
Identification	IMO number: 5399664[7]
Fate	Scrapped 1969
General characteristics
Type	Cargo ship
Tonnage	6,537 GRT[4] 10,175 LT DWT[4]
Length	407 ft 10 in (124.31 m) (LPP)[7] 428 ft 9 in (130.68 m) (overall)[6]
Beam	53 ft 6 in (16.31 m)[6]
Draft	23 ft (7.0 m)[6]
Depth of hold	29 ft 6 in (8.99 m)[10]
Propulsion	oil-fired boilers[9] 1 × quadruple-expansion steam engine[7] 1 × screw propeller[9]
Speed	15 knots (28 km/h)[6]
Capacity	Cargo: 492,549 cubic feet (13,947.4 m3)[4] Passengers: 16[10]
Crew	18 officers, 40 crewmen
Notes	Sister ships: Minnesotan, Montanan, Pennsylvanian, Panaman, Washingtonian, Iowan, Ohioan[2]
General characteristics (as USS Dakotan)
Displacement	14,375 t[6]
Troops	1,685[11]
Complement	88[6]
Armament	2 × 5-inch (130 mm) guns (World War I)[6]

SS Dakotan was a cargo ship built in 1912 for the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company that served as a transport ship in the United States Army Transport Service in World War I, and then was transferred to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease in World War II before being finally scrapped in 1969. During World War I, she was taken over by the United States Army as USAT Dakotan. Near the end of that war she was transferred to the United States Navy and commissioned as USS Dakotan (ID-3882). During World War II, the ship was transferred to the Soviet Union and renamed SS Zyrianin (or Зырянин in Cyrillic).

Dakotan was built by the Maryland Steel Company as one of eight sister ships for the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company, and was employed in inter-coastal service via the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and the Panama Canal after it opened. During World War I, as USAT Dakotan, the ship carried cargo and animals to France. Dakotan was in the first American convoy to sail to France after the United States entered the war in April 1917. In Navy service, USS Dakotan carried cargo to France and returned over 8,800 American troops after the Armistice.

After her Navy service ended in 1919, she was returned to her original owners and resumed relatively uneventful cargo service over the next twenty years. Dakotan ran aground off the coast of Mexico in 1923 but was freed and towed to port for repairs. Early in World War II, the ship was requisitioned by the War Shipping Administration and transferred to the Soviet Union under the terms of Lend-Lease in December 1942. Sailing as SS Zyrianin, the ship remained a part of the Soviet merchant fleet into the late 1960s.