USS Santee (1905)
USS Santee in dazzle camouflage at Queenstown, Ireland
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| History | |
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 United Kingdom
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| Name: |
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| Owner: | Watkin and Owen Williams |
| Operator: | Golden Cross Line, Cardiff |
| Builder: | Richardson, Duck & Co., , England |
| Launched: | 1 August 1905, as Rosedale |
| Renamed: | Arvonian, 1 September 1905 |
| Identification: | Official number: 119973 |
| Fate: |
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 United States
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| Name: |
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| Acquired: | On loan, 27 November 1917 |
| Commissioned: | 27 November 1917, as Q-ship USS Arvonian |
| Decommissioned: | 8 April 1918 |
| Renamed: | USS Santee, 18 December 1917 |
| Fate: | Returned to Royal Navy, April 1918 |
 United Kingdom
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| Name: | HMS Bendish |
| Acquired: | August 1917 |
| Commissioned: | 1918 |
| Decommissioned: | 1919 |
| Fate: | Sold into commercial service, November 1919 |
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United Kingdom
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| Name: | SS Brookvale |
| Owner: | Rhondda Shipping & Coal Exporting Co. |
| In service: | 1919 |
| Out of service: | 1928 |
| Fate: | Sold, 1928 |
 Latvia
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| Name: | SS Spīdola |
| Namesake: | Spīdola |
| In service: | 1928 |
| Out of service: | 1941 |
| Fate: | Captured by Germany, July 1941 |
 Germany
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| Name: | SS Rudau |
| Acquired: | by capture |
| In service: | 1941 |
| Out of service: | 1945 |
| Fate: | Returned to commercial service |
| Name: | SS Spīdola |
| In service: | 1947 |
| Out of service: | 1958 |
| Fate: | Scrapped, 1958 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Freighter / Q-ship |
| Tonnage: | |
| Displacement: | 2,774 long tons (2,819 t) |
| Length: | 331 ft 3 in (100.97 m) |
| Beam: | 47 ft 6 in (14.48 m) |
| Draft: | 20 ft 1 in (6.12 m) |
| Propulsion: | 3-cylinder triple expansion steam engine |
| Complement: | 105 |
| Armament: |
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SS Arvonian was a 2,794 GRT British freighter built in 1905, with a long and complex history under several names. She served in the British merchant marine, and was commissioned in the United States and British navies during World War I, before returning to merchant service, and eventually being sold to Latvia. In World War II she was taken over by the Soviet Union, then captured by Germany. Post-war she sailed under the Latvian and Costa Rican flags, until finally scrapped in West Germany in 1958.
The ship was built by the Richardson, Duck & Co. shipyard in Stockton-on-Tees, England, and launched on 1 August 1905 as Rosedale. A month later, on 1 September 1905 she was sold to the Golden Cross Line of, and renamed Arvonian.
In August 1917 the Arvonian was requisitioned by the Royal Navy and converted into Q-ship, designed to decoy U-boats into attacking before revealing her concealed weaponry. She was armed with three 4-inch guns, three 12-pounder guns, two .30-calibre machine guns and four 18-inch torpedo tubes.
On 27 November 1917 she was handed over to the United States Navy by the Admiralty "for war purposes", and commissioned as USS Arvonian the same day, with Commander David C. Hanrahan in command. The ship was fitted out at HMNB Devonport and conducted ship's drills in Plymouth Sound with a crew composed of volunteers from American warships in European waters. On 18 December she was renamed USS Santee, and arrived at Queenstown in southern Ireland the next day.
At 16:00 on 27 December, Santee sailed from Queenstown bound for Bantry Bay to carry out exercises. At 20:45 she was south of Kinsale, when she was struck on the port side by a torpedo fired by SM U-61, under the command of Kapitänleutnant Victor Dieckmann. Hanrahan ordered his men to battle stations and sent away the "panic party," a group of sailors who played the role of a crew precipitously abandoning their sinking vessel. They left the ship, as Hanrahan later reported, in "fine panicy [sic] style", in an attempt to lure the enemy to the surface. After two and a half hours fruitlessly waiting for the U-boat to show herself, Hanrahan radioed for help. Destroyers and tugs were sent to her aid, and the ship was towed back to Queenstown, while the destroyers USS Cummings and Sterett rescued the boats of Santee's "panic party." After repairs at Queenstown Santee was towed back to Devonport by 8 February. She was decommissioned on 8 April 1918 and returned to the Admiralty. Commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS Bendish, she was sent to Gibraltar for further Q-ship operations.
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