Major Wheeler, a 3431 gross ton (7020 tons displacement) freighter, was built at Oakland, California. Completed in September 1918, she was commissioned in the Navy on 8 October 1918 as USS Major Wheeler (ID # 3637). The ship departed San Pedro, California, in November 1918 for Callao, Peru, with general cargo, which upon arrival she exchanged for a load of nitrates. Major Wheeler discharged the nitrates at Charleston, South Carolina, in December and in January 1919 moved to New York to load general cargo for ports in South America. After undergoing repairs, the ship sailed from New York in February 1919, delivered her cargo at various locations during March and April, and returned to New York in May with a shipment of maize from Argentina. USS Major Wheeler was decommissioned on 19 May 1919 and returned to the U.S. Shipping Board. Sold in 1922, she continued to operate as S.S. Major Wheeler until 6 February 1942, when she was torpedoed and sunk off the U.S. east coast by the German submarine U-107, with the loss of her entire thirty-five man crew.
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Page made 30 November 2007