USS President Lincoln (1907)
- Scotian (1903 )
The President Lincoln was a 1907 put into operation in trans-Atlantic passenger steamers of the German shipping company Hapag - which was used for passenger and mail traffic between Hamburg and New York. Interned in 1914 in the United States, he served as USS President Lincoln in July 1917 as a troop transport of the United States Navy. On 31 May 1918, President Lincoln was sunk in the North Atlantic by a German U - boat.
The 18,084 -ton steamer President Lincoln was launched on October 8, 1903 at Harland & Wolff in Belfast, Northern Ireland from the stack. It was originally to be baptized in the name Scotian and asked for the British shipping company Leyland Line, based in Liverpool in service. The existing since 1873 Leyland Line in 1901 was purchased by the Maritime Trust International Mercantile Marine Company ( IMMC ) of the influential American bankers JP Morgan and 1904 incorporated in these. The Leyland Line was awarded the European part of the International Navigation Company, but they had to finish their Mediterranean service.
Immediately after the merger with the IMMC two new sister ships for the North Atlantic service of Wilson & Furness Leyland Line were commissioned at Harland & Wolff, who were the then largest ships of the Leyland Line with over 18,000 GRT. These were the Scotian and the Servian, which was launched two months later. The two steamers were about 180 meters long and 20 meters wide. They each had a chimney, six poles, two propellers and were powered by two quadruple expansion steam engines, they could accelerate up to 14 knots. They were the only two passenger ships with six masts that were ever built. The Scotian could carry 202 passengers, the First, the Second 153, 788 and 2300 of the Third of the Fourth Class.
After her launch the Scotian and Servian were in an unfinished state for three years unused in the Musgrave Channel in Belfast, as the planned North Atlantic service of Wilson & Furness Leyland Line never materialized. 1906, the two steamers were finally purchased by the Hapag and President Lincoln (ex Scotian ) and President Grant ( ex Servian ) renamed. On May 14, 1907, President Lincoln was completed, and on June 1, 1907, she put in Hamburg on her maiden voyage on Boulogne -sur -Mer and Southampton to New York from.
As a U.S. troop transport
On 25 July 1914 she presented in Hamburg on her last trip for the Hapag. Upon her arrival in New York on August 5, the President Lincoln was in Hoboken (New Jersey) and was interned for almost three years unused in the dock. On April 6, 1917, she was seized immediately after the entry of the United States by the U.S. government. Since she had been severely damaged by their former German team, she was subjected to extensive maintenance at Robins Dry Dock & Repair Company on Lake Erie Basin in Brooklyn.
On July 25, 1917, she was placed as a troop transport in the service of the United States Navy without the usual ID number. New commander was Commander Yates Sterling, Jr. The President Lincoln completed until May 1918 four troops sailing from New York to France and transported while about 23,000 U.S. soldiers who were brought ashore in Brest and Saint- Nazaire.
On 10 May 1918, she laid in New York from their fifth trip as a troop ship. On May 23, she reached Brest, where the troops disembarked. On May 29, she ran with 715 crew and soldiers on board again from Brest, and was accompanied by the troop transports Rijndam, Susquehanna and Antigone. At sunset on May 30, 1918, when it was believed to have brought the danger zone behind it, the convoy broke up and the four ships made individually on the way back to the United States.
09.00 clock on 31 May, the President Lincoln on the North Atlantic, about 600 miles from Brest has been removed, hit by three torpedoes of the German submarine U 90, which was under the command of Lieutenant Walter Remy on patrol. The ship sank in 20 minutes. 26 people were killed. A man, Lieut. Edward Isaacs, was taken as a prisoner aboard U 90. The survivors were taken on the night of the U.S. destroyers Warrington and Smith, they landed in Brest on June 2. The President Lincoln was the largest ship that sank U 90 in his short-lived period of service.