Munwood (Id.No. 4660)
1918-1919
The Navy retained the name carried by this ship at the time of her acquisition.
(Id.No. 4660: tonnage 5,400 (deadweight), 2,035 (net); length between perpendiculars 345'0"; beam 48'0"; draft 22'3.5"; speed 11.5 knots; complement 87; armament 1 5-inch, 1 3-inch)
Munwood, a single-screw steel-hulled cargo ship, was built in 1914 at Greenock, Scotland, by Scotts Shipbuilding & Engineering Co., Ltd. for Clark & Service, Ardan Steamship Co., Ltd. of Glasgow, Scotland. The New York-based Munson Steamship Lines acquired her in 1917.
Munwood served the war effort after the U.S. entry into the Great War [World War I], being given armament and a naval armed guard as she carried cargoes to France [29 September 1917-16 October 1918]. Acquired by the Navy from the Munson Lines on 16 October 1918; Munwood, assigned the identification number (Id.No.) 4660, was commissioned at Baltimore, Md., on 26 October 1918, Lt. Cmdr. William D. L. Gilboy, USNRF, in command.
Munwood, assigned to the Naval Overseas Transportation Service (NOTS), Army Account, cleared Baltimore for France on 29 November 1918 with approximately 4,000 tons of U.S. Army cargo, including 1,500 tons of gasoline. En route, she responded to a distress signal (SOS) from the Portuguese steamer Queda on 10 December. Taking the disabled vessel in tow, Munwood took her to Bermuda, arriving there on 15 December.
Upon arrival at Bermuda, however, Munwood's sailors found gasoline leaking from the drums in which it was being shipped. The fumes spreading throughout the vessel necessitated discharging the cargo. She thus remained at Bermuda over Christmas of 1918, loading 6,483 tons of coal. Underway once more on 27 December, she proceeded on her way, reaching Quiberon on 10 January 1919 where crowded conditions there compelled waiting for an open berth. Ordered thence to the port of Nantes, she discharged her cargo there on 20 January.
After a delay caused by a collision with the British steamer Baylula and the ensuing repairs, Munwood took on board a cargo of 2,500 tons of shrapnel and ballast. She cleared for Bermuda on 30 January 1919 with a mixed cargo, arriving there on 18 February, where she discharged the shrapnel. Placed in line for demobilization, she was decommissioned at Baltimore on 3 March 1919 and turned over to the U.S. Shipping Board for simultaneous return to her owner the same day.
Brodarsko Akcionarsko Drustvo Oceania [Shipping Joint Stock Company Oceania], Susak, Yugoslavia, acquired the former NOTS cargo ship in 1928, and renamed her Vila. She operated under Yugoslavian colors until 20 February 1935, when, carrying phosphates and wheat loaded at Trieste and earmarked for Venice and Las Palmas, the well-traveled product of Scots shipwrights collided with the Italian steamer Rodi off the mouth of the Piave River and sank, taking four men down with her. Rodi rescued Vila's survivors.
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
5 May 2022
