Maartensdijk (Id.No. 2497)
1918-1919
The Navy retained the name carried by this vessel at the time of her acquisition.
(Id. No. 2497: displacement 13,000; length 400'6"; beam 52'1"; draft 28'6"; speed 11.0 knots.; complement 113; armament 1-6 inch, 1 3-inch)
The sing;le-screw steel-hull cargo vessel Rapallo was completed at West Hartlepool, England, by Furness, Withy & Co., Ltd., in 1902. Prior to the Great War [World War I], she sailed the Atlantic sealanes and in 1918, having been renamed Maartensdijk was owned by Holland-American Line, Rotterdam, Netherlands. Maartensdijk was seized by U.S. Customs at New York on 20 March 1918; turned over to the Navy on 21 March 1918; and commissioned on 28 March 1918 for duty with the Naval Overseas Tranbsportation Service (NOTS) (Army Account).
After loading Army cargo, Maartensdijk departed in convoy for European waters on 10 April 1918. Steaming via Halifax, Nova Scotia, she reached St. Nazaire, France, on 14 May, discharged her cargo, and sailed for the United States on 15 June. During the closing months of the Great War she made two more cargo runs out of New York and Boston to French ports. She returned to New York two days after the signing of the Armistice.
Sailing from Boston on 12 December 1918, she carried additional cargo to French ports and returned Army supplies to the United States. In all, she transported more than 27,000 tons of supplies during her four cargo runs to France. Maartensdijk returned to New York on 9 February 1919. She was decommissioned there on 25 February 1919; transferred to the U.S. Shipping Board the same day; she subsequently was returned to her owner, the Holland‑American Line.
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
30 November 2020
