Upshur II (AP-198)
1952-1973
The second Upshur (AP-198) was named for William Peterkin Upshur, born on 28 October 1881 in Richmond, Va., graduated from the Virginia Military Institute and received a commission as second lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps on 1 February 1904. Over the ensuing three and one-half decades, Upshur rose in rank and eventually became a major general on 1 October 1939, one month after World War II began in Europe with the German invasion of Poland.
After tours of sea duty in the marine detachments on board Maine (Battleship No. 10) and Kearsarge (Battleship No. 5), Upshur successively served ashore at Panama; the Marine Barracks at Norfolk, Va.; Port Royal, S.C.; and Mare Island, Vallejo, Calif., before being ordered to the transport Buffalo. Assignments with Marine detachments in the Philippine Islands and in China preceded his return home for duty at the Marine Barracks in Philadelphia, Pa.
For his heroism displayed during his next tour of duty, in Haiti, Upshur would receive the Medal of Honor. While his detachment of mounted marines forded a river in a deep ravine, they came under the fire of some 400 Haitian Caco bandits from an ambush. Leading his men forward through the heavy fusillade, Upshur succeeded in establishing a defensive position which protected his command for the night. At daybreak on the folowing day, 24 October 1915, Upshur led a fierce counterattack which caught the Cacos unawares and routed them. This action materially aided the marines in their eventual capture of the Haitian stronghold, Fort Dipitie.
Following his return to the continential United States, Upshur performed shore duty at Philadelphia; Annapolis, Md.; and Quantico, Va., before sailing for France in the Great War [World War I]. Following that conflict, he served in shore billets in repeat tours at Philadelphia, Quantico, and Haiti, before attending the U.S. Army Staff School at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1924 and 1925.
Serving in the battleship California (BB-44) on the staff of the Commander Battle Force, U.S. Fleet, in 1929. Upshur attended the Naval War College in 1931; and served briefly at Headquarters, Marine Corps, in Washington, D.C., before attending the U.S. Army War College. In the late 1930s Upshur again served ashore at Headquarters, Marine Corps; and later commanded the Marine Corps Base at San Diego, California.
Upshur was named Commander, Headquarters of the Department of the Pacific, at San Diego, a billet hich he filled on 9 December 1941. Maj. Gen. Upshur died as a result of injuries suffered in a plane crash near Sitka, Alaska, on 21 July 1943.
The first Upshur (Destroyer No. 144) was named for Rear Adm. John Henry Upshur (see Upshur I for biography); and the second Upshur (T-AP-198) was named for Maj. Gen. Upshur, USMC.
II
(T-AP-198: displacement 11,203 (full load) ; length 533'9"; beam 73'3"; draft 27'1"; speed 19 knots; complement 216; troops 2,500; class Barrett; type P2-S1-DN3)
Passenger cargo liner President Hayes was laid down in 1949 under a Maritime Commission contract (M.C. Hull 2916) at Camden, N.J., by the New York Shipbuilding Corp., for the American President Lines. However, late in June 1950, before the ship could be completed in her civilian configuration, war broke out in Korea.
The Navy acquired President Hayes on 15 September 1950, renamed her Upshur, and designated her as a transport, AP-198, on 2 January 1951. Launched on 9 January 1951 and sponsored by Mrs. Charles Sawyer, the wife of President Truman's Secretary of Commerce, Upshur was converted by her builder to a troop and dependent transport and, on 20 December 1952 at Camden, was placed in service with the Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS), during which time her identification number was T-AP-198.
For the next two decades, Upshur operated out of New York providing service for troops and dependents on numerous transatlantic cruises to Bremerhayen, Germany; Mediterranean ports in North Africa, Turkey, Greece, and Italy; and Caribbean ports. She operated under the aegis of MSTS Atlantic, until transferred to the Maritime Administration on 2 April 1973. Simultaneously retransferred on that day to the Maine Maritime Academy, the ship was renamed State of Maine and based at Castine, Maine.
Soon after beginning this service, the erstwhile troop transport got underway for a two-month training cruise to the Caribbean and to South America with cadets from the Maritime Academy embarked. In 1974, State of Maine cruised to northern Europe and visited Leningrad, Helsinki, Antwerp, and Glasgow. The cruise marked the first time in many years that a U.S. training vessel had called at a Soviet port.
Robert J. Cressman
Updated, 15 April 2022
