S.S. Nanshan, a 2200 gross ton (4950 tons displacement) freighter, was built in 1896 at Grangemouth, England. In April 1898, with war with Spain increasingly likely, she was purchased at Hong Kong and placed in service with a civilian crew as USS Nanshan. Employed as a collier by Commodore George Dewey's Asiatic Squadron, she accompanied the squadron to the Philippines and remained outside the harbor during the May 1898 Battle of Manila Bay. Nanshan coaled Dewey's ships until Manila was occupied in August, then continued to serve in the Philippines and on the China Coast as a unit of the Asiatic Fleet. Except for a brief period out of service for upkeep between March 1906 and February 1907, Nanshan remained active in the Far East until she was reassigned to duty in the eastern Pacific. Arriving at San Francisco in May 1913, she began work coaling ships along the coasts of California, Mexico, and South America. The collier, still civilian manned, was placed out of service for repairs at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, in March 1914.
In August 1914 Nanshan was placed in full commission with her first Navy crew. Before and during World War I she carried out supply missions throughout the eastern Pacific, including Alaska, Hawaii, and Mexico. In early 1918 she made a round-trip supply voyage to Norfolk, Virginia and in 1919 conducted an emergency mission to bring urgently needed food to Kodiak, Alaska and the Pribiloff Islands. Between December 1919 and December 1921 the ship served as a repair ship for gunnery practice targets, receiving the designation AG-3 in July 1920. Nanshan was decommissioned in January 1922 and sold for scrapping in July 1922.
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Page made 18 May 2008