Edgecombe I (Id.No. 3894)
1918-1919
The first Edgecombe retained the name she carried at the time of her acquisition; the second was named for the county in the state of North Carolina.
I
(Id.No. 3894: displacement 6,807 (light); length 423'9"; beam 54'3"; draft 20'7" (mean); speed 11.5 knots)
The first Edgecombe, a steel-hull, single-screw cargo vessel, was laid down on 16 September 1918 at Seattle, wash., by Skinner & Eddy; transferred to the Navy from the U.S. Shipping Board (USSB) on 24 December 1918; assigned the identification number (Id.No.) 3894, converted by Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Wash., and was commissioned on 24 December 1918, Lt. Cmdr. James W. Baldwin, USNRF, in command.
Assigned to the Naval Overseas Transportation Service, Edgecombe sailed from Tacoma, Wash., on 16 January 1919 with a cargo of flour for use by the Food Administration in European famine relief. She called at Norfolk, Virginia, then sailed on 22 February for Falmouth, England, and Rotterdam, Holland, where she discharged her cargo. Edgecombe visited Plymouth, England, before sailing for New Orleans, La., which she reached on 21 April 1919. Four days later, she was decommissioned, stricken from Navy Lists, and returned to the USSB.
Transferred back to the U.S. Navy under Executive Order on 29 October 1921, Edgecombe was delivered on 16 November. The cargo ship then underwent conversion to a destroyer tender, and was renamed Rigel (q.v.).
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
18 March 2022
