SS Czar — BrandWiki

SS Czar

type	Ocean liner
tonnage	* tonnage under deck 4,801
length	425 ft
beam	53.2 ft
draught	32 ft
depth	29.4 ft
power	889 NHP
propulsion	2 × quadruple expansion steam engines; twin screws
speed	15 knots
capacity	Passengers (as built): 30 first class * 260 second class * 1,086 third class and steerage
troops	2,050 troops (World War II)
sensors	gyrocompass (from 1934)
notes	two funnels; two masts

SS Czar was an ocean liner for the then Russian American Line before World War I. In 1920–1930, the ship was named Estonia for the Baltic American Line, then named Pułaski for the PTTO (later Gdynia America Line) and as a UK Ministry of War Transport troopship, and as Empire Penryn after World War II. The liner was built in Glasgow for the Russian American Line in 1912 and sailed on North Atlantic routes from Liepāja (Libau) to New York. On one eastbound voyage in October 1913, Czar was one of ten ships that came to the aid of the burning Uranium Line steamer SS Volturno (1906).

After the Russian Revolution in 1917, the ship came under the control of the UK Shipping Controller and was managed by the Wilson Line and later, the Cunard Line. Under Cunard management in 1918 as HMT[1] Czar, she was employed as a troopship carrying United States troops to France as part of the United States Navy's Cruiser and Transport Force. After the end of World War I, the ship was returned to the

Launching and early career

Barclay Curle & Company of Glasgow, Scotland, built Czar for the Russian American Line, a subsidiary of the Danish East Asiatic Company. Her yard number was 494. She was launched on 23 March 1912[2] and completed that May.[3] Czar measured 425 ft long by 53.2 ft abeam and 34 ft draught. Her tonnages were, and 4,801 under deck.[3]

Czar had a pair of four-cylinder Barclay, Curle quadruple expansion steam engines, each of 48 in stroke and with cylinders of 21+1/2 in, 30+3/4 in, 44 in and 63 in bore driving twin screws. Between them they developed 889 NHP, giving her a speed of 15 knots. The engines were fed by six 215 lbf/in2 single-ended boilers with a total heating surface of 13302 sqft. Her boilers were heated by 18 corrugated furnaces with a grate surface of 322 sqft.[3] She had two funnels and two masts.

Czar had accommodation for 30 passengers in first class, 260 in second class, and 1,086 in third class and steerage.[4]

Czar sailed on her maiden voyage on 30 May 1912 from Libau (present-day Liepāja, Latvia) to Copenhagen and New York,[4] arriving in the latter city on 13 June. She replaced SS Lituania (1889) on the Libau – New York route, and sailed with various combinations of Kursk, SS Russia (1867), SS Birma, and SS Dwinsk until July 1914.[5]

On her 5 August 1913 sailing from Libau, Czar carried a young Mark Rothko and his family on their way to join his father in the United States; Rothko went on to become a well-known American abstract expressionist painter and printmaker.[6] On her October 1913 eastbound crossing, Czar responded to the distress calls of the Uranium Line steamship SS Volturno (1906) on fire in the middle of the Atlantic The liner joined nine other ships that came to the aid of the stricken ship. Amidst stormy seas, Czars crew rescued 102 passengers from Volturno, more than any other of the rescue ships, apart from the SS Grosser Kurfürst which rescued 105.[7] In March 1914, King George V of the UK, on recommendation of the Board of Trade, awarded 19 of Czars crew the Silver Sea Gallantry Medal, along with a £3 award each.[8]

World War I

After the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, Czar switched to service from Archangel to New York,[4] but ran only sporadically through 1916.[9] After the Russian Revolution, the East Asiatic Company suspended service on the Russian American Line, and transferred several ships, including Czar, to UK registry.[4] The UK Shipping Controller initially placed the liner under the management of John Ellerman's Wilson Line, but Czar was transferred to the Cunard Line management by the end of 1917.[10]

Now called HMT Czar, the ship, along with former Russian American Line ships HMT Czaritza, Kursk, and Dwinsk, was attached to the Cruiser and Transport Force of the United States Navy, and made three trips carrying American troops to France.[11] Czar sailed on her first voyage with American troops on 16 April 1918, when she departed from the Hoboken Port of Embarkation, with U.S. Navy transports SS Maui (1916), USS Calamares (ID-3662), USS Pocahontas (ID-3044), USS El Oriente (ID-4504), and UK troopship HMT Czaritza. The convoy was joined by transport USS Mount Vernon (ID-4508)[12] and was escorted by American cruiser USS Seattle (ACR-11). The convoy arrived safely in France on 28 April.[13] Sources do not report when Czar returned to the United States, but she had done so by early June.

Czar loaded troops at Newport News, Virginia, and set out on her second US convoy crossing on 14 June, sailing with American transports USS Princess Matoika (ID-2290), USS Wilhelmina (ID-2168), USS Pastores (ID-4540), and USS Lenape (ID-2700). On the morning of 16 June, lookouts on Princess Matoika spotted a submarine and, soon after, a torpedo missed that ship by a few yards.[14] Later that morning, the Newport News ships met up with the New York portion of the convoy—which included USS DeKalb (ID-3010), USS Finland (ID-4543), USS Kroonland (ID-1541), USS George Washington (ID-3018), USS Covington (ID-1409), USS Rijndam (ID-2505), Italian steamship SS Dante Alighieri, and UK troopship SS Vauban — and set out for France.[15][16] The convoy was escorted by American cruisers USS North Carolina (ACR-12) and USS Frederick (CA-8), and destroyers USS Stevens (DD-86) and USS Fairfax (DD-93);[16]

When she departed Newport News on 7 October, Czar began her last voyage ferrying American troops to France. Sailing in company with U.S. Navy transports USS Tenadores (1913), USS Susquehanna (ID-3016), and USS America (ID-3006), she rendezvoused with American transport USS Kroonland (ID-1541), Italian steamship SS Caserta, and UK steamship Euripides out of New York. The convoy ships were escorted by cruisers Seattle and USS Rochester (ACR-2), and destroyers USS Murray (DD-97) and USS Fairfax (DD-93). The ships arrived safely in France on 20 October.[18]

Throughout 1919 and into 1920, HMT Czar continued carrying Commonwealth troops under Cunard management. The troopship primarily sailed between UK ports and Mediterranean ports such as Trieste, Malta, Alexandria, and Constantinople.[19] One typical voyage from Alexandria returned 1,600 officers and men—who had been serving in Palestine, Syria, and Egypt—to Plymouth in January 1920.[20] Czar also played a role in the North Russia Campaign of the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War when the liner departed Hull for North Russia on 28 August 1919.[21] HMT Czar arrived in the Tyne, from Murmansk last Friday (15 August 1919), with about 1,800 UK and Italian troops from the Syren Force North Russia. Amongst them were about 100 officers, N.C.O's and men of the 6th and 13th Battalions Yorkshire Regiment.[22]

World War II

With the signing of the Anglo-Polish military alliance impending, Pułaski sailed from Gdynia to Falmouth on 24 August 1939.[4] On 26 September, the ship left Dartmouth for Gibraltar (calling there on 2 September) and Piraeus, where she arrived on 13 October.[26] Picking up Polish soldiers there, she sailed five days later for Marseille, where she eventually arrived on 2 December.[26] Until March 1940, Pułaski underwent a refit in Marseille after which she sailed under charter to the French Fabre Line.[27] At the end of the 1930s, the Fabre Line sailed ships on a Marseille–Dakar route with intermediate stops in other African ports.[28]

On 10 March, Pułaski departed Marseille on the first of three voyages from that port. She sailed to Algiers and from there to Dakar on 13 March. Pułaski left Dakar for Freetown, Sierra Leone, and Conakry, French Guinea, returning to Dakar in early April. Sailing for Marseille on 5 April, the ship returned on 13 April as a part of convoy DF 29. Leaving again about two weeks later, she repeated the trip and returned to Marseille on 29 May as a part of convoy DF 41.[26] By the time of her return, the German invasion of France had been underway for nearly three weeks.

Pułaski sailed on her third and final French voyage on 6 June. The liner arrived at Dakar on 15 June, and sailed the next day for Freetown, where she arrived on 18 June.[26] Likely because of the confusion surrounding the French surrender on 22 June, Pułaski's movements over the next days are unrecorded, but she was detained at Conakry on 8 July by Vichy authorities. That evening, Pułaski's crew raised steam and sailed the ship out of the harbor in defiance of the detainment. After taking fire from shore batteries at Conakry,[27] the ship arrived back at Freetown on 9 July.[26]

UK troopship

On 14 August Pułaski, SS Kościuszko (the latest name of the former Czaritza), and MS Batory were chartered by the Ministry of War Transport for trooping duties and placed under the management of Lamport and Holt of Liverpool. All three ships retained their Polish crews but also carried a Lamport and Holt liaison officer aboard.[29] Four days later, Pułaski joined convoy SL 44, the 44th wartime convoy from Sierra Leone to Liverpool, with nearly 30 other ships and 10 escorts. Pułaski and about half of the ships departed the convoy at Liverpool on 7 September, while the other half continued on for Methil.[30]

Pułaski next made her way to the Clyde in late October. Between 10 May and 12 June 1941, she sailed on three roundtrip trooping runs between Clyde and Iceland.[26] In late June, Pułaski, loaded with 2,047 troops, sailed from Clyde to join convoy WS 9B headed for Freetown.

References

In this case, HMT stands for His Majesty's Transport. For other uses as a ship prefix, see here, under the heading of "United Kingdom".^
Czar Scottish Built Ships, Caledonian Maritime Research Trust, retrieved 1 July 2020^
Lloyd's Register, Steamers & Motorships Lloyd's Register, 1933–1934, retrieved 28 June 2020^
Ship Descriptions – C TheShipsList.com, retrieved 29 July 2008^
Immigration Information Bureau, pp. 163, 172, 181.^
Weiss et al., p. 333.^
Need more money for Volturno aid The New York Times, 22 October 1913, retrieved 30 July 2008^
Gallantry at sea The Times, 11 March 1914, retrieved 30 July 2008^
Immigration Information Bureau, pp. 186, 190.^
EMPIRE – P The 'Empire' Ships, Mariners, retrieved 29 July 2008^
Gleaves, p. 240. (Page 240 shows the date as "July 1, 1916", but is wrong. See p. 102 for a description of the appendices with the correct date of 1 July 1918, listed.)^
USS Mount Vernon (ID-4508) had sailed from Hoboken on 19 April 1918, three days after Czar and her group.^
Crowell and Wilson, pp. 607–08.^
Cutchins and Stewart, p. 66.^
Cutchins and Stewart, p. 67.^
Crowell and Wilson, pp. 610–11.^
Cutchins and Stewart, p. 68.^
Crowell and Wilson, p. 618.^
Czar's ports of call were listed in the "Movements of liners" or "Latest shipping news" features in The Times newspaper. For visits to the ports of Trieste, Malta, Alexandria, and Constantinople, see the editions of 30 December 1920 (p. 19), 27 February 1920 (p. 19), 30 January 1919 (p. 14), and 14 June 1920 (p. 23), respectively.^
Seasick soldiers The Times, 14 January 1920^
Movements of liners The Times, 30 August 1919^
The Seham Weekly News for weekending 22 August 1991^
Immigration Information Bureau, p. 203.^
Lituania and SS Polonia (1910) were the former Czaritza and Kursk, respectively. See: Baltic American Line The Ships List, 5 February 2005, retrieved 29 July 2008^
Lloyd's Register, Steamers & Motorships Lloyd's Register, 1934–1935, retrieved 28 June 2020^
Port Arrivals/Departures: Pulaski Arnold Hague's Ports Database, Convoy Web, retrieved 29 July 2008^
SS Pulaski WarSailors.com, 27 March 2003, retrieved 29 July 2008^
Brochure: (Summary of port information online here.) Services Combinés, Fabre – Farissinet: Dakar et coté occidentale d'Afrique Compagnie Générale de Navigation à Vapeur Cyprien Fabre, 1939^
PM Heaton. The Lamport and Holt fleet, an history: part V: 1941–1945 Sea Breezes, Sea Breezes, 1977, retrieved 29 July 2008^
Convoy SL.44 Arnold Hague Convoy Database, ConvoyWeb, retrieved 29 July 2008^
Convoy WS.9B Arnold Hague Convoy Database, ConvoyWeb, retrieved 29 July 2008^
The ship's movements after December 1945 are not found in source materials.^