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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORY AND HERITAGE
COMMAND
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060
Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --
USS Mercury (ID # 3012), 1917-1919.
Originally the German Passenger Liner Barbarossa and was
briefly USS Barbarossa in 1917
USS Mercury, a 10,984 gross ton troop
transport, was built at Hamburg, Germany, in 1896 as the passenger
liner Barbarossa. For nearly two decades she served in
commercial trade under the flag of the North German Lloyd firm.
Laid up at Hoboken, New Jersey, after the outbreak of World War
I in August 1914, she was seized there when the United States
entered the conflict in April 1917. The ship was turned over to
the Navy for repair and conversion and commissioned as USS Barbarossa
in early August 1917. Soon renamed Mercury, and later assigned
the registry ID # 3012, she began carrying military personnel
to France a few days after the beginning of 1918. The ship made
seven trips to France, with over 18,000 passengers, until the
11 November 1918 Armistice halted the fighting. Mercury
then began the process of bringing American troops home. She made
eight more trips for this purpose, carrying over 20,000 men.
In September 1919, after her final trip, USS Mercury
was decommissioned and transferred to the War Department for use
as an Army transport. The Army turned her over to the U.S. Shipping
Board in August 1920. Though subsequently sold to a private shipping
firm, her new owners defaulted and the ship came back to the Shipping
Board in January 1921. She was sold for scrapping in February
1924.
This page features all the views we have of S.S. Barbarossa,
and of USS Mercury (ID # 3012) in 1917-1918. It also provides
links to all the other images we have concerning that ship.
For more pictures related to USS Mercury, see:
USS Mercury (ID # 3012)
-- Views taken in 1919; USS
Mercury (ID # 3012) -- On Board (Exterior) & Close Up Views;
and
USS Mercury (ID # 3012)
-- On Board (Interior) & Miscellaneous Views.
Click on the small photograph to prompt
a larger view of the same image.
Photo #: NH 46619
USS Mercury (ID # 3012)
Sailing in convoy during 1918.
Photographed from USS Little (Destroyer # 79).
Note the ship's pattern camouflage.
U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.
Online Image: 65KB; 740 x 510 pixels |
 |
Photo #: NH 51343
World War I Atlantic Convoy
Photographed from on board USS Little (DD-79) as it approached
the harbor of Brest, France, on 26 October 1918.
A French blimp is patrolling overhead. The transport Mercury
(ID # 3012), in "dazzle" camouflage, is at right and
another U.S. Navy destroyer is in the left distance.
The original print bears U.S. Army Signal Corps markings.
U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.
Online Image: 83KB; 740 x 585 pixels |
 |
Photo #: NH 63553
USS Mercury (ID # 3012)
Alongside a pier at the New York Navy Yard, 1918.
Note the ship's pattern camouflage.
U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.
Online Image: 96KB; 620 x 765 pixels |
 |
Photo #: NH 98565
USS Mercury (ID # 3012), in center
In a French port, probably St. Nazaire, in 1918.
The transport at right is unidentified.
Note trucks in the foreground, with a two-masted schooner beyond.
Courtesy of James Russell, 1980.
U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.
Online Image: 120KB; 740 x 545 pixels |
 |
Photo #: NH 98564
USS Mercury (ID # 3012)
In a floating drydock, possibly in France, 1918.
She is painted in pattern camouflage.
Courtesy of James Russell, 1980.
U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.
Online Image: 64KB; 740 x 485 pixels |
 |
S.S. Barbarossa (later USS Mercury) is faintly
visible in the following photograph:
Photo #: NH 105619
S.S. Barbarossa (Ex-German Passenger Liner, 1896)
Probably photographed during the summer of 1917 while the ship
was under repair at the Robins Dry Dock and Repair Company, Brooklyn,
New York.
The ship served as USS Mercury (ID # 3012) in 1917-1919.
Note the dry dock in the lower right corner of the photo.
U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.
Online Image: 59KB; 740 x 480 pixels |
 |
Related image: Photo
# NH 106288, a view of a World War I troop transport convoy,
bears an erroneous inscription identifying one of the ships seen
as USS Mercury (ID # 3012). The ship is actually USS
Madawaska (ID # 3011), which had one smokestack instead
of Mercury's two stacks.
For more pictures related to USS Mercury, see:
USS Mercury (ID # 3012)
-- Views taken in 1919; USS
Mercury (ID # 3012) -- On Board (Exterior) & Close Up Views;
and
USS Mercury (ID # 3012)
-- On Board (Interior) & Miscellaneous Views.
NOTES:
To the best of our knowledge, the pictures referenced here
are all in the Public Domain, and can therefore be freely downloaded
and used for any purpose.
Some images linked from this page bear obsolete credit lines
citing the organization name: "Naval Historical Center".
Effective 1 December 2008 the name should be cited as: "Naval
History and Heritage Command".
Return to Naval
History and Heritage Command home page.
Page made 27 June 2003
New image added and page divided 5 January 2009