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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
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WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Photo # NH 102164:  USS Rogday in port, probably at Boston, Mass., 1918-1919

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Rogday (ID # 3583), 1918-1919.
Originally, and later, the civilian steamship Nevada.

USS Rogday, a 2122 gross ton icebreaker, was built at Manitowoc, Wisconsin, in 1915 as the civilian freighter Nevada. Though sold to the Imperial Russian Government in March 1917 for icebreaking service and renamed Rogday, the Russian Revolution kept her from leaving the Western Hemisphere. In mid-November 1918, while she was at Sydney, Nova Scotia, the ship was transferred to the U.S. Navy and placed in commission. Rogday steamed to Boston, Massachusetts, in early December and remained at that port until June 1919 when she was sent to sea to assist USS West Grama (ID # 3794). After a brief voyage to Bermuda and back to Boston, she was decommissioned in mid-month. Rogday was turned over to the U.S. Shipping Board in September 1919 and promptly returned to Russian representatives.

In 1921, Rogday was sold to commercial operators and sent back to the Great Lakes. Resuming the name Nevada, she spent more than two decades on the inland seas. In 1935 her appearance was greatly altered when she was converted to a roll-on/roll-off vehicle and cargo carrier. Nevada was sold for use on the high seas in 1942. She was abandoned during a North Atlantic storm on 15 December 1943 and, in a dramatic and difficult feat of seamanship, about half of her crew was rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Comanche. After the continuing storm had thwarted salvage efforts, Nevada sank on 18 December.

This page features our only views of USS Rogday (ID # 3583) and of the steamship Nevada.


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 102164

USS Rogday
(ID # 3583)

Probably photographed at Boston, Massachusetts, in 1918-1919.
Built in 1915 by the Manitowoc Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company at Manitowoc, Wisconsin as the commercial freighter Nevada, this icebreaking ship was purchased by Russia in 1917 and renamed Rogday. She was taken over by the U.S. Navy at Sydney, Nova Scotia and placed in commission as USS Rogday on 22 November 1918. Decommissioned on 18 June 1919, she was transferred to the U.S. Shipping Board on 24 September 1919 and turned over to a representative of the Czarist Russian government the same day.

The original print is in National Archives' Record Group 19-LCM.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 74KB; 740 x 440 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 66258

Steamship Nevada
(American Freighter, 1915)

Photographed from the deck of the USCGC Comanche (WPG-76) as Nevada was foundering in the North Atlantic, circa 15-18 December 1943.
Comanche was able to rescue twenty-nine of those on board Nevada, but thirty-four lost their lives during the abandonment of the storm-crippled ship.
In 1918-1919 Nevada had briefly served as USS Rogday (ID # 3583).

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 79KB; 740 x 610 pixels

 


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


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Page made 22 January 2003
New image added 21 February 2003