Radnor (Id.No. 3023)
1918-1919
This vessel retained the name she carried at the time of her acquisition.
(Id.No. 3023: displacement 10,000; length 450'; beam 57'6"; draft 28'2"; speed 10.5 knots; complement 75; armament 1 5-inch, 1 6-pounder)
Radnor--formerly War Indian--was built in 1918 at Chester, Pa., by the Sun Shipbuilding Co., for the Cunard Steamship Co.; requisitioned by the U.S. Navy on 11 April 1918; assigned the identification number (Id.No.) 3023, and commissioned at Philadelphia on 13 May 1918, Lt. Cmdr. Marcus S. Harloe, USNRF, in command.
Radnor was assigned to the Naval Overseas Transportation Service (NOTS) and was used as a cargo ship carrying Army munitions and supplies overseas during the Great War. She departed Philadelphia on 31 May 1918 for Cristobal, C.Z., with a full Army cargo and then proceeded via Callao, Peru, to Antofagasta, Chile, arriving there on 28 June. Radnor later joined two convoys to France, the first arrived at Marseilles on 19 September 1918 and the second reached Quiberon on 4 January 1919.
Radnor was transferred from the NOTS to the Cruiser and Transport Force on 7 March 1919 and was subsequently converted into a troop transport. During this assignment, she made four round trips to France, returning home with 5,876 veterans. Radnor was detached on 25 September 1919 from the Cruiser and Transport Force and turned over to the USSB on 24 October 1919.
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
20 October 2020
