SS Pennsylvanian

SS Pennsylvanian, seen here as USS Scranton (ID-3511) in 1919
History
Name	SS Pennsylvanian
Owner	American-Hawaiian Steamship Company
Port of registry	New York
Ordered	September 1911[4]
Builder	Maryland Steel Sparrows Point, Maryland
Cost	$715,000[5]
Yard number	127[2]
Launched	29 March 1913[3]
Completed	June 1913[2]
Identification	US Official number: 211297[1] Code Letters LDBH[1]
Fate	Expropriated by U.S. Navy
History
United States
Name	USS Pennsylvanian (ID-3511)[6]
Acquired	13 September 1918
Commissioned	13 September 1918
Renamed	USS Scranton (ID-3511), November 1918[6]
Namesake	Scranton, Pennsylvania[7]
Decommissioned	16 July 1919
Fate	Returned to American-Hawaiian Steamship Co., 16 July 1919
History
Name	SS Pennsylvanian
Owner	American-Hawaiian Steamship Company
Port of registry	New York
Identification	US Official number: 211297[1] Code Letters LDBH (1919–34)[1] Code Letters WACT (1934–44)[8]
Fate	Expropriated by U.S. Navy; sunk as part of Mulberry Harbor off Normandy, 16 July 1944
General characteristics
Type	Cargo ship
Tonnage	6,547 GRT[5] 10,175 LT DWT[5] 4,068 NRT[1]
Length	407 ft 10 in (124.31 m) (LPP)[3] 429 ft 2 in (130.81 m) (overall)[7]
Beam	53 ft 6 in (16.31 m)[7]
Draft	29 ft 6 in (8.99 m)[7]
Propulsion	oil-fired boilers[9] single quadruple-expansion steam engine[3] single screw propeller[9]
Speed	15 knots (28 km/h)[7]
Capacity	491,084 cubic feet (13,906.0 m3)[5]
Notes	Sister ships: Minnesotan, Dakotan, Montanan, Panaman, Washingtonian, Iowan, Ohioan[2]
General characteristics (as USS Scranton)
Displacement	6,655 long tons (6,762 t)[7]
Troops	1,840[10]
Complement	94[7]
Armament	7 × .50 cal (12.7 mm) machine guns[7]

SS Pennsylvanian was a cargo ship built in 1913 for the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company. During World War I she was requisitioned by the United States Navy and commissioned as USS Pennsylvanian (ID-3511) in September 1918, and renamed two months later to USS Scranton. After her naval service, her original name of Pennsylvanian was restored.

Pennsylvanian 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. Pennsylvanian was one of the first two steamships to travel eastbound through the canal when it opened in August 1914. During World War I, as both SS Pennsylvanian and USS Scranton, the ship carried cargo and animals to France, and returned American troops after the Armistice in 1918.

After her naval service ended in 1919, she was returned to her original owners and resumed relatively uneventful cargo service over the next twenty years. Early in World War II, the ship was requisitioned by the War Shipping Administration, and shipped cargo on New York – Caribbean routes and transatlantic routes. In mid-July 1944, Pennsylvanian was scuttled as part of the breakwater for one of the Mulberry artificial harbors built to support the Normandy Invasion.