USS Wharton, a 21,000-ton (displacement) transport, was built in 1921 at Camden, New Jersey, as the 13,788 gross ton civilian passenger steamship Southern Cross. In November 1939, following commercial operation between the U.S. and South America and a period in lay-up, she was acquired by the Navy. Converted to a troopship at Brooklyn, New York, and renamed Wharton, she was placed in commission in December 1940. During the next year the ship was employed carrying personnel and dependents between the U.S. West Coast and Hawaii, with one trip further west to Midway Island. The transport continued this work after the Pacific War began in December 1941, but in mid-1942 she began voyages to the southwestern Pacific to support increasingly intense combat operations in that region.
During the winter of 1942-1943 Wharton shifted her activities to the Alaska route, then returned to her previous southwest Pacific service. She took time out from routine transport duties in January and February 1944 to serve as part of the amphibious force that assaulted Kwajalein and Eniwetok, in the Marshall Islands. In mid-February she was briefly employed as a hospital ship for casualties of the Eniwetok landings. Further point-to-point transport missions occupied Wharton in the spring, and in June and July 1944 she participated in the Marianas operation, landing troops and providing other support during the invasion of Guam in July. A West Coast shipyard overhaul in the late summer and early fall prepared her for another voyage to the southwest Pacific later in 1944, and for a trip to the Philippines during the first two months of 1945. Wharton's next assignment was to carry troops to Okinawa, where she witnessed fierce suicide plane attacks on American shipping.
Back in U.S. waters as the Second World War's fighting ended in mid-August 1945, Wharton soon joined the effort to bring home Pacific Theater veterans. In 1946 she carried observers for the July atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll. In the last four months of the year, and the first month of 1947, the transport made one trip each to the central Pacific and to the Far East. USS Wharton was placed out of commission in late March 1947 and transferred to the Maritime Commission. Reverting to her original name, Southern Cross, she was laid up at Olympia, Washington, until sold for scrapping in March 1952.
This page features all the views we have concerning USS Wharton (AP-7) in 1942 and earlier, and provides links to images of later date.
For more photographs related to this ship, 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.
Photo #: 19-N-26644 USS Wharton (AP-7) At the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, near the end of an overhaul, 27 December 1941. Note that she is flying her National Ensign from the mainmast gaff (the flag's underway position), while tied up alongside the wharf. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives. Online Image: 115KB; 740 x 605 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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Photo #: 19-N-26645 USS Wharton (AP-7) Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 6 January 1942. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives. Online Image: 57KB; 740 x 610 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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Photo #: NH 102883 USS Wharton (AP-7) Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 18 April 1942. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 67KB; 740 x 625 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 102884 USS Wharton (AP-7) Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 18 April 1942. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 70KB; 740 x 625 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 102885 USS Wharton (AP-7) Plan view, forward, taken at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 18 April 1942. Note details of Wharton's open bridge, 20mm gun position in lower right, motor whaleboat and lifeboat. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 161KB; 740 x 625 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 102886 USS Wharton (AP-7) Plan view, amidships, taken at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 18 April 1942. Note 20mm gun positions, lifeboats and liferafts, casks of liferaft provisions, and ventilator cowls just forward of the smokestack. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 159KB; 740 x 630 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 102887 USS Wharton (AP-7) Plan view, aft, taken at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 18 April 1942. Note stacks of liferafts and the newly-installed 1.1-inch antiaircraft machine gun mount, covered with canvas, in lower right center. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 168KB; 740 x 630 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 102888 USS Wharton (AP-7) At the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 18 April 1942. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 136KB; 610 x 765 pixels |
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Photo #: 80-G-451125 Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii Aerial view of the Submarine Base, with part of the supply depot beyond and the fuel farm at right, looking north on 13 October 1941. Note the fuel tank across the road from the submarine base, painted to resemble a building. The building beside the submarine ascent tower (in left center, shaped like an upsidedown "U") housed the U.S. Fleet Headquarters at the time of the Japanese attack on 7 December 1941. Office of Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, the Fleet's Commander in Chief, was in the upper left corner of the building's top floor. See Photo # 80-G-451125 (complete caption) for identification of some of the ships present. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Online Image: 144KB; 740 x 605 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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S.S. Southern Cross (later USS Wharton) is in the upper left in the following photograph of another subject:
The following photograph shows, distantly at right, a ship that is either S.S. Southern Cross (later USS Wharton), or her sister ship, S.S. American Legion (later USS American Legion (AP-35):
In addition to the images presented above, the National Archives appears to hold other views of USS Wharton (AP-7). The following list features some of these images:
The images listed below are NOT in
the Naval Historical Center's collections.
DO NOT try to obtain them using the procedures described in our
page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions".
USS Wharton (AP-7) off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 6 January 1942. Port bow surface view. USS Wharton (AP-7) refueling from HMAS Bishopdale, at Noumea, New Caledonia, 17 June 1942. Starboard bow surface view. Bishopdale is alongside Wharton's starboard side and is fully visible. Wharton is partially hidden by the Australian oiler.
Reproductions of these images should be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system for pictures not held by the Naval Historical Center. The images listed in this box are NOT in the Naval Historical Center's collections. DO NOT try to obtain them using the procedures described in our page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions". |
For more photographs related to this ship, see:
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 8 April 2005
New image added 6 December 2007