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NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive

USS Newport News (AK-3)

1917-International Radio Call Sign:
Nan - Have - Zed
NHZ

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

World War I Victory Medal (with Transport clasp)

Newport News Class Cargo Ship:

Built in 1904 by Flensburg Shipbuilding Co., Flensburg, Germany

Taken over as SS Odenwald by the US Navy, 14 May 1917

Commissioned USS Newport News, 14 July 1917, LCDR. John Allison USNRF in command

Designated (AK-3), 17 July 1920

Decommissioned, 1 August 1924, at Navy Yard, Puget Sound, WA.

Struck from the Naval Register, 1 August 1924

Sold, 4 April 1925, to John F. Blaine, Berkeley, CA.

Resold,10 November 1925, to the Sold to Alaska Packers Co., renamed SS Arctic

Final Disposition, scrapped in Japan in January 1937

Specifications:
Displacement 10,000 t.
Length 371' 5"
Beam 45' 5"
Draft 23' 6"
Speed 13 kts.
Complement 150

Armament

four single 3"/50 gun mounts

two machine guns

Propulsion

four single ended boilers

one 2,400hp vertical triple expansion steam engine

single propeller shaft

Click On Image For Full Size Image	Size	Image Description	Source
SS Odenwald
0913000307	91k	SS Odenwald at San Juan, Puerto Rico, in March 1915. She is being watched by the US Lighthouse Service tender USLHT Myrtle US Library of Congress, Bain News Service, Photo No. LC-B2-3456-12 and Library of Congress Digitial ID ggbain 18973 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ggbain.18973.	Mike Green Robert Hurst
0913000309	69k		Mike Green Robert Hurst
USS Newport News (AK-3)
	66k	USS Newport News at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in June 1918. US National Archives photo # 19-N-10398 a US Navy Bureau of Ships photo now in the collections of the US National Archives.	Robert Hurst
	80k	USS Newport News moored pierside, circa 1917-1918, location unknown. US National Archives, RG-19-E. Photo No. Unknown a US Navy Bureau of Ships photo now in the collections of the US National Archives, courtesy Shipscribe.com.	Mike Green
	45k	USS Newport News in San Francisco Bay, California, circa 1919. The ship served in the Pacific from August 1919 until she was decommissioned in August 1924. US Navy photo # NH 84673 from the collections of the US Naval History and Heritage Command, donation Donald M. McPherson, 1976, courtesy Shipscribe.com.	Mike Green and Robert Hurst
	36k	*USS Newport News* (AK-3) with USS Undaunted (AT-58)** alongside. Probably in San Francisco Bay, circa the early 1920s. Photograph was received from the Office of Naval Intelligence, 1936. US Navy photo # NH 45128, from the collections of the US Navy History and Heritage Command.	US Navy History and Heritage Command
	55k	*USS Newport News* (AK-3)** waiting off Wake Island, 24 September 1922, prior to putting ashore a large cache of fresh water and provisions for use in the event of a ship wreck there. This mission occurred during a period in which few ships passed Wake Island. US Navy photo # NH 67755, received from the US Naval Library, Treasure Island Naval Station, CA., 1969, from the collections of the US Navy History and Heritage Command.	US Navy History and Heritage Command
	1154k	Photos of *USS Newport News* (AK-3)'s ice machine installation at Mare Island Navy Yard, circa 1919-20. Newport News** was at Mare Island at least twice each year between 1919 and 1924.	Darryl Baker
	983k		Darryl Baker

USS Newport News (AK-3)
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS)

Commanding Officers
01	LCDR. Allison, John, USNRF	14 July 1917 - early 1918
02	LCDR. Smith, Jesse, USNRF	early 1918 - ?
03	LT. Bartholi, John Joseph, USN (1917) (OIC)	15 October 1922 - 2 October 1923
04	LCDR. Tod, Elmer Wayne, USN (1907)	2 October 1923 - 1 August 1924


Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler and Ron Reeves

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Last Updated 16 May 2025