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SS ''American'' was a steel-hulled, single propeller cargo ship built at Chester, Pennsylvania, by the Delaware River Iron Shipbuilding and Engine Works for the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company and the Hawaiian sugar trade. During World War I service for the United States Navy, the ship was known as USS ''American'' (ID-2292). Late in her career for American-Hawaiian, she was renamed SS ''Honolulan''. ''American'' was a little more than long and abeam. Coal-fired boilers powered a single triple-expansion steam engine which turned a single screw propeller. This power plant—supplemented with auxiliary sails—was capable of moving the ship at up to . As one of the first four ships ordered by the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company after its 1899 formation, ''American'' was used on the Hawaii – New York sugar trade via the Straits of Magellan. In 1901 she set a record for the fastest New York – San Francisco ocean passage, making the voyage in 59 days. After 1905, she was employed in inter-coastal service via the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and, after it opened in 1914, the Panama Canal. Taken up for wartime service after the United States entered World War I in April 1917, she completed two round-trip voyages to France without incident. Shortly after the start of her third such voyage, however, she collided with another U.S. Navy vessel, , sinking that vessel with the loss of seven of her crew in October 1918. She completed one more round trip in U.S. Navy service, sailing to Gibraltar after the Armistice in November. She returned to New York in February 1919, was decommissioned, and returned to American-Hawaiian. SS ''American'' resumed cargo service with American-Hawaiian after her return from naval service, being renamed ''Honolulan'' in 1925. She was sold in 1926 and taken to Osaka where she was broken up sometime after her arrival there in November that same year. == Design and construction == The American-Hawaiian Steamship Company, shortly after its March 1899 formation,〔Cochran and Ginger, p. 345.〕 placed orders for its first four ships for the company's planned sugar service between Hawaii and the East Coast of the United States. Three ships—''American'', , and —were ordered from Delaware River Shipbuilding in Chester, Pennsylvania, while the fourth——was ordered from Union Iron Works of San Francisco.〔 The contract cost of the three Pennsylvania-built ships was set at $425,000 each,〔 but financing costs drove the final cost of each ship higher; the final cost of ''American'' was $61.00 per deadweight ton, which totaled just under $540,000.〔 ''American'' (Delaware River yard no. 308)〔 was launched on 14 July 1900,〔 and delivered to American-Hawaiian in October, joining ''Californian'' in the American-Hawaiian Fleet.〔 had been completed in June 1900.〕 ''American'', the first of the trio of Pennsylvania ships to be completed,〔 was ,〔 and was in length and abeam.〔 She had a deadweight tonnage of , and her cargo holds had a storage capacity of .〔 ''American'' had a speed of , and was powered by a single triple-expansion steam engine with coal-fired boilers, that drove a single screw propeller.〔〔Cochran and Ginger, p. 349.〕 ''American'' and her sister ships, equipped with two upright masts, carried and used two large trysails, a fore staysail and jib, and a main staysail, to help conserve coal for their journeys.〔Cochran and Ginger, p. 348, note 2.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「SS American (1900)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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