SS Ancon (1901)
Ancon at the opening of the Panama Canal, 1914
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| History | |
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 United States
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| Name: | Shawmut |
| Owner: | Boston Steamship Company |
| Builder: | Maryland Steel Company, Sparrows Point, Maryland |
| Launched: | December 1901 |
| Out of service: | 1909 |
| Homeport: | Boston |
| Identification: |
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| Notes: | Official No. 117125 |
| United States | |
| Name: |
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| Owner: | United States Government under Panama Railroad Company |
| Acquired: | 1909 |
| Out of service: | 28 March—25 July 1919 for service with Navy |
| Homeport: | New York |
| Fate: | Sold private, Permanente Steamship Company, renamed Permanente |
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USS Ancon (ID # 1467) In port in 1919, while engaged in transporting U.S. troops home from Europe. The original image was printed on postal card ("AZO") stock .
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| United States | |
| Name: | USS Ancon (ID-1467) |
| Acquired: | 16 November 1918 |
| Commissioned: | 28 March 1919 |
| Decommissioned: | 25 July 1919 |
| Out of service: | Returned to The Panama Canal 25 July 1919 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Cargo liner, later Troop transport |
| Tonnage: | 9606 Gross Tons |
| Displacement: | 9,332 long tons (9,482 t) |
| Length: | 489.5 ft (149.2 m) |
| Beam: | 58 ft (18 m) |
| Draft: | 28.9 ft (8.8 m) |
| Propulsion: | Steam, Triple Expansion 533 NHP |
| Speed: | 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph) |
| Complement: | In naval service, 126 |
| Armament: | In naval service, 3 × 6 pdrs |
| Notes: | Dimensions from Lloyd's Register, 1906 & 1914 |
SS Ancon was an American cargo and passenger ship that became the first ship to officially transit the Panama Canal in 1914. The ship was built as Shawmut for the Boston Steamship Company by the Maryland Steel Company, Sparrows Point, Maryland and put into Pacific service operating out of Puget Sound ports for Japan, China and the Philippine Islands. Shawmut and sister ship Tremont were two of the largest United States commercial ships in service at the time and the company eventually found them too expensive to operate.
Shawmut and Tremont were acquired by the United States Government through the agency of the The Panama Railroad Company's Panama Railroad Steamship Line, whose assets were entirely owned by the government and critical to construction of the canal, to serve between New York and the Atlantic terminus during canal construction. Both ships were renamed for features of the canal; Shawmut for the Pacific side terminus Ancon and Tremont as Cristobal for the Canal's Atlantic port. Though not the first vessel to make a complete transit, Ancon made the first official and ceremonial transit with a delegation of some two hundred dignitaries aboard. After the end of World War I the ship saw very brief service from 28 March to 25 July 1919 as a commissioned United States Ship, USS Ancon (ID-1467), making two round trip voyages from the New York Port of Embarkation to France returning troops home. Ancon was returned to Panama Canal service and was in service with the canal until 1939 when the ship was sold to private parties known as the Permanente Steamship Company and renamed Permanente.
The steamer was constructed by Maryland Steel, Sparrows Point, Maryland for the Boston Steamship Line as the SS Shawmut launched December 1901 and completed in 1902. The launch date is given as "today" in a piece in the New York Times datelined December 21, 1901 and published on 22 December while the journal Marine Engineering gives the date as 23 December.
Shawmut was put into service by the Boston Steamship Company in association with the Northern Pacific and Great Northern Railways acting as booking agents with monthly passenger and freight sailings from Puget Sound ports of Tacoma and Seattle, Washington and Victoria, British Columbia to Yokohama, Kobe and Moji, Japan; Shanghai and Hong Kong, China and Manila, Philippines.
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