Eastern Queen (Id.No. 3406)
1918-1919
The Navy retained the name carried by this vessel at the time of her acquisition.
(Id.No. 3406: displacement 12,105; length 397'0"; beam 51'0"; draft 27'1"; speed 10.0 knots; complement 70)
The steel-hull, single-screw cargo vessel Tofuku Maru was completed in February 1918 at Kobe, Japan, by the Kawasaki Dockyard Co.; converted for naval use at Baltimore, Md., by the Baltimore Dry Dock & Shipbuilding Co.; transferred from the Shipping Board on 19 October 1918; and, having been renamed Eastern Queen and given the identification number (Id.No.) 3406, was commissioned on 26 October 1918, Lt. Cmdr. William M. Gifford, USNRF, in command.
Eastern Queen was refitted as an animal transport during her conversion and, when she sailed from Norfolk, Va., on 25 November 1918, carried 550 horses plus other cargo. She arrived at St. Nazaire, France, on 14 December for a 15-day stay. Ballasted with steel, she embarked 30 Army passengers for Baltimore and reached there on 15 January 1919.
Her second French voyage was to La Pallice and Bordeaux, to transfer food, motor oil, and other cargo for the Army between 2 February and 10 April 1919. She was decommissioned on 19 April 1919 and returned to the Shipping Board the same day.
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
8 March 2023
