Long Beach I (AK-9)
Cities in California and New York.
I
The first Long Beach (No. 2136) was built as Yarrowdale by William Pickersgill & Sons, Sunderland, England, in 1892; renamed Nicolas Castriotis in 1902 and, while in German service, Hohenfelde in 1912; seized by USSB 6 April 1917 at Savannah, Ga.; acquired by the Navy the same day; and commissioned at Charleston 20 December 1917, Lt. Comdr. E. Nelson, USNRF, in command.
Assigned to Train, special service, Long Beach delivered lumber from Jacksonville, Fla., to Philadelphia, Pa., from 26 December 1917 to 9 January 1918, then sailed from Norfolk 4 February for Dublin, Ireland, arriving 3 March to join the Army's Cross Channel Service. She carried coal from England and Ireland to French ports for use by American troops until 23 April 1919, when she cleared Dublin with a cargo of aviation materiel for Norfolk, arriving 13 May.
After overhaul at Philadelphia, Long Beach joined NOTS, home ported at Norfolk. She carried coal to Portsmouth, N.H.; Boston, Mass.; and Key West, Fla., with a voyage to the West Indies to supply marine detachments early in 1920, and again the next fall. She cleared Norfolk 19 December for Melville, R.I., with coal, then entered Boston Navy Yard where she decommissoned 26 April 1921. On 24 May 1922 she was sold to Mr. B. L. Stafford of New York.
