Ohioan (Id. No. 3280)
1918-1919
The Navy retained the name that this vessel carried at the time of her acquisition.
(Id. No. 3280: tonnage 6,646; length 428'8"; beam 53'8"; draft 29'6" (mean); speed 12 knots; complement 70; armament 1 5-inch, 1 3-inch)
Ohioan -- a steel-hull, single screw passenger and cargo steamship built in 1914 at Sparrows Point, Md., by the Maryland Steel Co. -- was inspected by the Navy in the Third Naval District with an eye toward her being employed as a supply ship, and was acquired by the Navy on 5 August 1918 on loan charter from her owners, the American-Hawaiian S.S. Co. of New York City, and commissioned on 7 August 1918.
Assigned to Naval Overseas Transportation Service (NOTS) on the Army account, Ohioan -- given the identification number (Id. No.) 3280 -- was refitted, loaded with general cargo and dispatched to St. Nazaire, France, arriving on 29 August 1918 She spent the next month there and at Brest, and on 1 October sailed for New York where workers installed horse stalls; and on 1 November she sailed for La Pallice, France, with equestrian and general cargo.
Returning to the United States on 5 December 1918, less than one month after the Armistice [11 November 1918], Ohioan was transferred from the NOTS to the Cruiser and Transport Force and in six round trips returned over 8,000 troops to New York.
Detached on 16 September 1919 and transferred to the Fifth Naval District, Ohioan was decommissioned and returned to the American-Hawaiian S.S. Co., on 6 October 1919.
