USS Kittery, a 1839 gross ton (3300 tons displacement) combination passenger and cargo ship, was built at Bremerhaven, Germany, in 1905 as S.S. Präsident. Her owner, the Hamburg-America line, used the small ship for Caribbean feeder service between ports in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, the Danish West Indies, and Puerto Rico. During the first months of World War I she operated as a tender to the German steamer Odenwald (later USS Newport News) and also provided radio communications for the German Navy. Hunted by British and French cruisers, Präsident took refuge at San Juan, Puerto Rico, in December 1914. The ship was seized when the United States entered the conflict in April 1917 and was turned over to the Navy a month later. Renamed Kittery in June and refitted at Philadelphia, she was placed in commission in July 1917.
While fitting out Kittery was assigned to duty as a cargo and passenger ship in the West Indies (service very similar to that for which the Germans had designed her) and was ordered fitted with passenger accommodations for 24 officers and 200 enlisted men. Kittery spent nearly her entire U.S. Navy career carrying cargo and passengers between the Caribbean and the U.S. East Coast (primarily Charleston, S.C., and Norfolk, Virginia). The ship was assigned to the Naval Overseas Transportation Service between January 1918 and late 1919 and, until late 1921, sometimes alternated schedules with USS Gulfport. She was classified as a cargo ship (AK-2) when hull numbers were first assigned to Navy ships in July 1920. Kittery completed the last of her Caribbean voyages in December 1932 and was decommissioned and stricken from the Navy List in April 1933. Transferred to the U.S. Shipping Board in June 1933, she was scrapped in 1937.
This page features all the views we have concerning USS Kittery and S.S. Präsident.
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 52074 USS Kittery (1917-1933, later AK-2) At Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, in August 1917. Photographed by John G. Krieger. Donation of John G. Krieger, 1966-67. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Online Image: 61KB; 740 x 535 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 64597-A USS Kittery (1917-1933, later AK-2) Probably photographed between mid-1917 and mid-1918. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Online Image: 43KB; 740 x 485 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 106031 USS Kittery (1917-1933, later AK-2) In harbor, probably in the West Indies, 1918. Note her pattern camouflage. Donation of Dr. Mark Kulikowski, 2008. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Online Image: 51KB; 740 x 445 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 106029 USS Kittery (1917-1933, later AK-2) In harbor, probably in the West Indies, 1918. Note her pattern camouflage. Donation of Dr. Mark Kulikowski, 2008. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Online Image: 57KB; 740 x 440 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 106030 USS Kittery (1917-1933, later AK-2) In port, probably in the West Indies, 1918. Donation of Dr. Mark Kulikowski, 2008. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Online Image: 63KB; 740 x 440 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 105356 USS Kittery (1917-1933) At Guantanamo Bay in 1919. This small ex-German passenger-cargo ship was seized by the U.S. Navy in 1917 and designated a cargo ship, AK-2, in 1920. She is still wearing her World War I camouflage paint. Collection of George K. Beach. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Online Image: 55KB; 740 x 440 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 106701 USS Kittery (1917-1933, later AK-2) Photographed circa 1918 or early 1919, while painted in pattern camouflage. The original image is printed on post card ("AZO") stock. Donation of Charles R. Haberlein Jr., 2009. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Online Image: 88KB; 900 x 580 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 52072 USS Kittery (AK-2) Departing Hampton Roads, Virginia, on 7 May 1925. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Online Image: 116KB; 740 x 570 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 105296 USS Kittery (AK-2) Departing Hampton Roads, Virginia, on 7 May 1925. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command. Online Image: 128KB; 740 x 615 pixels Note: This photo is also in the U.S. National Archives under the Photo numbers 80-G-452994 and 80-G-1017170. |
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Photo #: NH 52073 USS Kittery (AK-2) Probably photographed in the late 1920s or early 1930s, possibly in a Caribbean port. Kittery spent her entire Navy career carrying cargo and personnel between the U.S. East Coast and ports in the West Indies. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Online Image: 79KB; 740 x 570 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 52071 USS Kittery (AK-2) Photographed circa the 1920s. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Online Image: 75KB; 740 x 615 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 77039 USS Kittery (AK-2) Lieutenant Roger A. Nolan, USN (M.C.), on the left, and Ensign Charlie R. Steen, USN (MSC) on board USS Kittery in the Virgin Islands, circa 1920. Note the monkey on Lieutenant Nolan's shoulder. Ensign Steen was the father of this photograph's donor. Donation of Mrs. Floyd Hullinger, 1972. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Online Image: 67KB; 435 x 765 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 77040 USS Kittery (AK-2) Ensign Charlie R. Steen, USN (MSC), second from left, with his children and another officer on board USS Kittery in the Virgin Islands, circa 1920. The donor of this photograph was the child on the left. Donated by Mrs. Floyd Hullinger, 1972. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Online Image: 74KB; 740 x 525 pixels |
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NOTES:
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 12 October 2008
New image added 20 December 2009