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Identification Numbered Vessels Photo Archive

Moccasin (ID 1322)



Porto Rico call sign (1931):
Love - Jig - George - William
Freighter:

  • The third Moccasin was built in 1903 as Prinz Joachim by Flensburger Schiffsbau, Gesellschaft, Flensburg, Germany
  • Seized by the United States Shipping Board (USSB) after war broke out and renamed Moccasin
  • Chartered by the Army in 1917
  • Acquired by the Navy 19 February 1918
  • Commissioned USS Moccasin (ID 1322), 26 February 1918
  • Decommissioned 2 June 1919 and returned to the USSB the same day
  • Renamed Porto Rico between 1920/1922
  • Registered in 1931 to the New York and Porto Rico Steamship Co. of New York, NY as the passenger vessel Porto Rico
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 9,060 t.
    1931 - 4,301 t.
  • Length 370' 9"
    1931 - 370.7'
  • Beam 45' 2"
  • Draft 24' 3½"
    1931 - 25.2'
  • Speed 13.5 kts.
  • Complement 70
    1931 - 97
  • Armament: One 6"/50 and one 3"/50 mount
  • Propulsion: Three single ended boilers, one 3,000hp verticle quadruple expansion steam engine, one shaft.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Prinz Joachim
    Moccasin 139k Le Havre, France
    Prior to World War I. Called the bateau à musique (music boat), she sailed between Hamburg and New York with a call at Le Havre
    Photo from Shipscribe.com    		 Robert Hurst
    Moccasin
    Moccasin 98k Probably photographed soon after she was taken over by the U.S. Shipping Board in 1917. Formerly the German merchant ship Prinz Joachim, she still wears that name on her bow
    U.S. Navy photo NH 101818    		 Naval Historical Center
    USS Moccasin (ID 1322)
    Moccasin 115k Listing and flooding alongside a pier at the Erie Basin in Brooklyn, New York, between the time she was returned to the U.S. Shipping Board by the Navy in June 1919 and sold by the Shipping Board as S.S. Porto Rico between 1920 and 1922. The nature of the accident is unknown, although other ships had similar mishaps in the New York area during the World War I period, including the refrigerated cargo ship Sixaola and the transports America and St. Paul
    Donation of Captain Stephen S. Roberts, USNR (Retired), 2008
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 105953    		 Robert Hurst
    Commanding Officers
    01LCDR George P. Woodward, USNRF1918
    02LCDR David H. Blellock, USNRF1919
    Courtesy Joe Radigan
    View the Moccasin (ID 1322)
    DANFS history entry located on the Naval History and Heritage Command website
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