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NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive

USS Newport News (AK-3)


1917-International Radio Call Sign:
Nan - Have - Zed
NHZ
Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

World War I Victory Medal (with Transport clasp)

Newport News Class Cargo Ship:
  • Built in 1904 by Flensburg Shipbuilding Co., Flensburg, Germany
  • Taken over as SS Odenwald by the US Navy, 14 May 1917
  • Commissioned USS Newport News, 14 July 1917, LCDR. John Allison USNRF in command
  • Designated (AK-3), 17 July 1920
  • Decommissioned, 1 August 1924, at Navy Yard, Puget Sound, WA.
  • Struck from the Naval Register, 1 August 1924
  • Sold, 4 April 1925, to John F. Blaine, Berkeley, CA.
  • Resold,10 November 1925, to the Sold to Alaska Packers Co., renamed SS Arctic
  • Final Disposition, scrapped in Japan in January 1937
    Specifications:
    Displacement 10,000 t.
    Length 371' 5"
    Beam 45' 5"
    Draft 23' 6"
    Speed 13 kts.
    Complement 150
    Armament
    four single 3"/50 gun mounts
    two machine guns
    Propulsion
    four single ended boilers
    one 2,400hp vertical triple expansion steam engine
    single propeller shaft

    Click On Image
    For Full Size Image
    Size Image Description Source
    SS Odenwald
    Newport News 91k SS Odenwald at San Juan, Puerto Rico, in March 1915. She is being watched by the USLHT Myrtle, whose bow is to the right.
    US Library of Congress. Photo No. LC-B2-3456-12.
    Mike Green
    USS Newport News (AK-3)
    Newport News 66k USS Newport News at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in June 1918.
    US National Archives photo # 19-N-10398 a US Navy Bureau of Ships photo now in the collections of the US National Archives.
    Robert Hurst
    Newport News 80k USS Newport News moored pierside, circa 1917-1918, location unknown.
    US National Archives, RG-19-E. Photo No. Unknown a US Navy Bureau of Ships photo now in the collections of the US National Archives, courtesy Shipscribe.com.
    Mike Green
    Newport News 45k USS Newport News in San Francisco Bay, California, circa 1919. The ship served in the Pacific from August 1919 until she was decommissioned in August 1924.
    US Navy photo # NH 84673 from the collections of the US Naval History and Heritage Command, donation Donald M. McPherson, 1976, courtesy Shipscribe.com.
    Mike Green and Robert Hurst
    Undaunted 36k USS Newport News (AK-3) with USS Undaunted (AT-58) alongside. Probably in San Francisco Bay, circa the early 1920s. Photograph was received from the Office of Naval Intelligence, 1936.
    US Navy photo # NH 45128, from the collections of the US Navy History and Heritage Command.
    US Navy History and Heritage Command
    Newport News 55k USS Newport News (AK-3) waiting off Wake Island, 24 September 1922, prior to putting ashore a large cache of fresh water and provisions for use in the event of a ship wreck there. This mission occurred during a period in which few ships passed Wake Island.
    US Navy photo # NH 67755, received from the US Naval Library, Treasure Island Naval Station, CA., 1969, from the collections of the US Navy History and Heritage Command.
    US Navy History and Heritage Command
    Newport News 1154k Photos of USS Newport News (AK-3)'s ice machine installation at Mare Island Navy Yard, circa 1919-20. Newport News was at Mare Island at least twice each year between 1919 and 1924. Darryl Baker
    Newport News 983k

    USS Newport News (AK-3)
    Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS)
    Commanding Officers
    01LCDR. Allison, John, USNRF 14 July 1917 - early 1918
    02LCDR. Smith, Jesse, USNRFearly 1918 - ?
    03LT. Bartholi, John Joseph, USN (1917) (OIC)15 October 1922 - 2 October 1923
    04LCDR. Tod, Elmer Wayne, USN (1907)2 October 1923 - 1 August 1924
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler and Ron Reeves

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    This page is created and maintained by Gary P. Priolo
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    Last Updated 2 October 2020