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Identification Numbered Vessel Photo Archive

Chinampa (ID 1952)



Civilian call sign (1919):
Love - Dog - Vice - Tare
Tanker:

  • Laid down 28 May 1903 as Prometheus by the Palmer Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., Newcastle-on-Tyne, England for the Deutsch-Amerikanische Petroleum-Gesellshaft, Hamburg, Germany
  • Launched 28 May 1903
  • Sold to the Standard Oil Co. of Bayonne, NJ and renamed Cushing
  • Acquired by the Navy 2 October 1918
  • Renamed Chinampa on or before 24 September 1918
  • Commissioned USS Chinampa (ID 1952), 4 October 1918
  • Decommissioned 27 May 1919 and returned to the United States Shipping Board for return to her owner
  • Sold in 1925 to Cia. Navi Cisterna SA of Genoa, Italy and renamed Americano
  • Sold in 1937 to Ditta G. M. Barbelegata of Genoa
  • Taken over by the Mexican government 10 June 1940 at Tampico, Mexico
  • Confiscated 8 April 1941 by order of the Mexican President
  • Renamed Tuxpam and operated by Petroleos Mexicanos SA of Tampico
  • Torpedoed, shelled and sunk 27 June 1942 by the German submarine U-129 while en route from Veracruz to Tampico in ballast, at position 20° 14' N., 96° 30' W approximately 40 miles north east of
    Zamora, Mexico.

    Specifications:

    Displacement 13,675 t.
    Length 442'
    Beam 54' 8"
    Draft 26' 2"
    Speed 10.5 kts.
    Complement 66
    Armament: One 5"/40 and one 3"/50 mount
    Propulsion: Four single ended and one auxiliary boiler, one 3,000ihp vertical triple expansion steam engine, one shaft.

    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    SS Cushing
    Chinampa 95k In port, possibly when inspected by the Third Naval District on 10 November 1917
    Naval Historical Center photo NH 102814    		 Robert Hurst
    USS Chinampa (ID 1952)
    Chinampa 80k Tommy Trampp
    Chinampa 68k
    Chinampa 88k c. 1918
    Ready to carry food to the Allies according to this post card issued by the American Recreation Association, a charitable organization sanctioned by the military during World War I. The card does not identify the ship but she is quite clearly Chinampa, which carried only petroleum products to Europe
    Courtesy of Jack Howland, 1983
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 94960 from Shipscribe.com    		 Robert Hurst
    Chinampa 88k In port, probably in 1919. The name board above her pilothouse indicates that this photograph was taken during, or shortly after, the ship's service with the Naval Overseas
    Transportation Service
    Naval Historical Center photo NH 101395
    Commanding Officers
    01LCDR Eugene Miller, USNRF3 October 1918 - 1919
    Courtesy Joe Radigan
    Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships: Chinampa (No. 1952) was built in 1903 by Palmer Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., Newcastle-on-Tyne, England as Cushing. She was acquired from the Shipping Board 23 September 1918, and commissioned 3 October 1918, Lieutenant Commander E. Miller, USNRF, in command.

    Assigned to the Naval Overseas Transportation Service, she made two transatlantic voyages for the Navy between 16 October 1918 and 11 February 1919, and an additional voyage for the Army from 23 February to 28 March 1919, carrying gasoline and fuel oil to various ports in France, England, and Belgium.

    Chinampa was decommissioned 27 May 1919 and delivered to the Shipping Board for return to her owner.

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