Ulysses (Panama Collier No.1)
1915-1929
A character in Greek mythology and the protagonist of Homer's epic poem, the Odyssey.
(Panama Collier No. 1: displacement 19,585; length 536'; beam 65'; draft 28'1"; depth of hold 39'6"; class Ulysses)
Ulysses (Panama Collier No. 1), a steel-hulled collier designed by the Navy and constructed at Sparrows Point, Md., by the Maryland Steel Co. under naval supervision, was launched on 12 December 1914 and, on 17 April 1915 was delivered at the Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Va., to the Panama Canal Company.
Ulysses shuttled between Hampton Roads and the Canal Zone, carrying coal to Cristobal, into 1917. During World War I, the ship received a main battery of one 5-inch gun and a 3-incher and a Navy armed guard crew to man them while the ship continued to discharge her longstanding duties (26 June—11 November 1918). The guns were removed shortly after the Armistice ended hostilities.
Throughout the war, Ulysses belonged to the Panama Canal Co. and operated under the control of the Panama Canal Railroad Co. She continued in this status after peace returned, until 1929, the last year in which her name appeared on shipping registers.
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
10 February 2021
