Moosehead I (Id. No. 2047)
1918-1920
The first Moosehead (Id. No. 2047) retained the name she carried when acquired; the second (IX-98) was named for the Moosehead Lake region of the state of Maine.
(Id. No. 2047: displacement 710; length 194'11"; beam 35.8'; draft 10'9" (mean))
The passenger and freight steamship Moosehead, built at Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine, in 1911, was inspected in the First Naval District on 13 November 1917 and earmarked, initially, for use as a "mine planter." The Commandant of the First Naval District was authorized to accept the ship "with full title from [the U.S.] Shipping Board when offered for delivery..." He was also told that "instructions for conversion of this vessel to a transport, for special service" would be furnished at some future time.
Acquired from her owner, the Maine Central Railroad Co., of Portland, Maine, on 28 March 1918, Moosehead was slated (on 11 June 1918) for operation by the Naval Overseas Transportation Service (NOTS), Navy Account, to be engaged in the coastwise trade, with the Commandant, First Naval District, authorized to fit the vessel out for that service. Her deck logs commence on 1 July 1918. Detached from NOTS and assigned to the Train, Atlantic Fleet, however, on 13 July 1918, she received orders three days later [16 July 1918] to proceed to Washington, D.C., to report to the Commandant, Washington Navy Yard, for "temporary duty" on the "Washington to Indian Head run." Subsequently, the Commandant of the Fifth Naval District received word on 15 January 1919 that Moosehead was assigned "to duty at the Washington Navy Yard temporarily."
Renamed Porpoise (q.v.) and classified as a ferryboat (YFB-2047) on 8 November 1920, the vessel remained assigned to the Washington Navy Yard until stricken from the Navy Register on 30 December 1930 and sold on 24 February 1931.
History Rewritten and Name Source Corrected, Robert J. Cressman, 9 July 2007
