In March 1941 the U.S. Army purchased the 5211 gross-ton passenger liner Irwin, which had been built at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1918 and served in 1919 as USS Santa Ana. Renamed John L. Clem, she was converted to a troopship at New York City, and operated between the United States East and Gulf Coasts and ports in the Caribbean and Central America from June 1941 and September 1943. She was then sent to Mobile, Alabama, where she was converted to a hospital ship. Upon completion of this work in June 1944, John L. Clem steamed across the Atlantic to begin duty in the western Mediterranean. She returned to the U.S. in June 1945 to begin preparations for service in the Pacific. However, when Japan surrendered in September she was reconverted to a transport and used to carry workers between Jamaica and Florida. John L. Clem was turned over to the War Shiping Administration early in 1946 and later assigned to the U.S. Public Health Service. In December of that year she was laid up in the Maritime Commission's reserve fleet at Brunswick, Georgia, under the name Irwin. The ship was sold for scrapping in January 1948.
This page features all the views we have concerning the U.S. Army Transport and Hospital Ship John L. Clem, and provides links to photos of her as USS Santa Ana (ID # 2869).
For views of this ship while she was in U.S. Navy service,
see:
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.
For views of this ship while she was in U.S. Navy service,
see:
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 31 December 2004