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

Photo # NH 66288:  USS Great Northern underway at sea, circa late 1918 or during 1919

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

USS Great Northern (ID # 4569, later AG-9), 1917-1919 and 1921-1922.
Renamed Columbia (AG-9), 1921

USS Great Northern, a 9708 ton (displacement) transport, was built in 1915 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as the commercial passenger steamer Great Northern. She was acquired by the Navy from the Great Northern Steamship Company in September 1917 and placed in commission at the beginning of the following November. The registry ID # 4569 was assigned later, probably during the early 1920s. In January 1918 the ship carried passengers from the Pacific to the Atlantic Coasts and in March began her first wartime trans-Atlantic voyage. From then until November 1918, when the Armistice brought the fighting to an end, Great Northern took more than 28,000 passengers to the European war zone. This work was interrupted on 3 October, when a collision with the British ship Brinkburn left seven of her Army passengers dead and about fifteen injured.

After the Armistice, Great Northern returned World War I veterans from France. In eight round-trip voyages for this purpose, she brought home nearly 23,000 passengers. In mid-August 1919, USS Great Northern was decommissioned and transferred to the U.S. Army Transportation Service. Subsequently operating as the Army transport Great Northern, Navy fleet flagship Columbia, commercial passenger ship H.F. Alexander and Army Transport George S. Simonds, she was sold for scrapping in Februay 1948.

This page features, and provides links to, all the views we have concerning USS Great Northern (ID # 4569).

For other images related to this ship, see:

  • USS Great Northern (ID # 4569) -- Part II;
  • USS Great Northern (ID # 4569) -- On Board and Close Up Views;
  • USS Columbia (AG-9), 1921-1922. Ex-Great Northern;
  • USAT Great Northern (1919-1921) and USAT George S. Simonds (1942-1946); and
  • S.S. Great Northern and S.S. H.F. Alexander.


    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 44754-A

    USS Great Northern
    (1917-1919)

    Underway in the Atlantic in 1918, as seen from the masthead of another ship. An escorting destroyer is in the distance.
    Photographed by Zimmer.
    This view is cropped from Photo # NH 44754.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 66KB; 740 x 530 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 67752

    USS Great Northern
    (ID # 4569)

    Coming into Brest Harbor, France, in November 1918.

    Received from the U.S. Naval Library, Treasure Island Naval Station, California, 1969.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 61KB; 555 x 765 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 66498-A

    USS Great Northern
    (ID # 4569)

    In a harbor, circa the last half of 1918.
    The original image was printed backwards. The camouflage scheme seen here was painted on Great Northern's starboard side, and that on her port side was of a different pattern. See Photo # 66498 for the original orientation of this view.

    Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 68KB; 740 x 530 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 66288

    USS Great Northern
    (ID # 4569)

    Underway at sea, circa early 1918 or during 1919.

    Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 46KB; 740 x 555 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 100635

    USS Great Northern
    (1917-1919)

    Photographed circa early 1919, probably at Brest, France.

    Courtesy of Jack Howland, 1986.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 46KB; 740 x 425 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 105157

    USS Great Northern
    (ID # 4569)

    Underway in 1919, probably in New York Harbor.
    Photographed by E. Muller, Jr., New York.

    Donation of Dr. Mark Kulikowski, 2007.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image size: 82KB; 900 x 545 pixels

     


    For other images related to this ship, see:

  • USS Great Northern (ID # 4569) -- Part II;
  • USS Great Northern (ID # 4569) -- On Board and Close Up Views;
  • USS Columbia (AG-9), 1921-1922. Ex-Great Northern;
  • USAT Great Northern (1919-1921) and USAT George S. Simonds (1942-1946); and
  • S.S. Great Northern and S.S. H.F. Alexander.


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


    Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

    Page made 30 January 2006
    Links added 7 November 2008