SS Adonis

[disneydave]

I have visited the usual internet haunts and have done a metacrawler search and nothing comes up.

 

I have a copy of the discharge papers for a sailor and the paper says he served aboard the USS Adonis between January 17, 1918 and April 17, 1918.

 

Can anyone provide some background info on this vessel?

 

Also, can someone please tell me what it means when the discharge paper says "Receiving Ship, Charleston, South Carolina, April 22, 1918 to April 24, 1918."

 

Thanks for your time.

[sigsaye]

I have visited the usual internet haunts and have done a metacrawler search and nothing comes up.

 

I have a copy of the discharge papers for a sailor and the paper says he served aboard the USS Adonis between January 17, 1918 and April 17, 1918.

 

Can anyone provide some background info on this vessel?

 

Also, can someone please tell me what it means when the discharge paper says "Receiving Ship, Charleston, South Carolina, April 22, 1918 to April 24, 1918."

 

Thanks for your time.

A receiving ship was a vessel that was used by the Navy as a floating Barracks to house transient Sailors enroute someplace else. They would also usualy have offices to process the Sailors' paper work. It would appear that your Sailor detached Adonis on 17 Apr '18 from wherever she was, and proceeded to Charleston, checking aboard the Receiving ship for seperation, and then checking out 24 Apr '18. This is generally very common as Adonis may not have had the facilities to fully seperate the Sailor (medical facilities, dispursing to pay him up to date, what ever, and he was sent to Charleston for seperation.

 

Steve Hesson

[disneydave]

Hello Steve.

 

Thanks for answering part of my question - appreciate that.

 

The sailor I am researching left the Naval Training Station at Great Lakes and went to a receiving ship in Charleston. From there to the USS Adonis. He later went to another receiving ship in Charleston and then on to the USS Houston.

 

He was eventually discharged on February 14, 1919. In approx. 2 1/2 years he went from Apprentice Seaman to Quartermaster 3rd Class.

 

The sailor's name you might wonder?

 

None other than Walt Disney's brother and future business partner Roy Disney.

[sigsaye]

Hello Steve.

 

Thanks for answering part of my question - appreciate that.

 

The sailor I am researching left the Naval Training Station at Great Lakes and went to a receiving ship in Charleston. From there to the USS Adonis. He later went to another receiving ship in Charleston and then on to the USS Houston.

 

He was eventually discharged on February 14, 1919. In approx. 2 1/2 years he went from Apprentice Seaman to Quartermaster 3rd Class.

 

The sailor's name you might wonder?

 

None other than Walt Disney's brother and future business partner Roy Disney.

OK, Then QM3/c Disney was using the receiving ship as a transit barracks while he moved from shp to ship. Possibly, Adonis or Houston were not in port when he arrived so he reported to the Receiving ship to have his orders stamped that he did in fact report to the "port in which ship is located" on time.

 

Thanks for the info on QM3/c Disney.

Steve Hesson

[j. t. thompson]

Hello disneydave,

 

I think it's the SS Adonis, A Dutch freighter requisitioned by the United States during the war.

 

SS Adonis, shown with early war neutrality markings.                                                                         Marien Lindenborn Collection

 

 

In this correspondence, Adonis is referred to as lying idle in an American port on January 21, 1918.

 

 

President Wilsons proclamation concerning the requisitioning of Dutch ships.

 

[j. t. thompson]

March 21, 1918:

 

 

 

 

[j. t. thompson]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[j. t. thompson]

 Although 31 of the Dutch ships entered U.S. Navy service (1,)  Adonis was put into general service.

 

 

On August 6, 1918, SS Merak was attacked and sunk off of Diamond Shoals, North Carolina, by U-140.

Merak, one of the seized Dutch vessels, had loaded coal at Newport News, Virginia and was bound for South America.

The crew abandoned ship in two lifeboats. One of the lifeboats made it to shore. The other was spotted the following day by SS Adonis.

Adonis rescued the crewmen and carried them to Norfolk, Virginia. (2) (3)

 

(1) Naval History and Heritage Command / Rijndam

https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/r/rijndam.html

 

(2) Sentinels and Saviors of the Seas

      Adam M. Grohman

 

(3) SS Merak

https://divehatteras.com/merak.html

[j. t. thompson]

 

 

 

 

 

[j. t. thompson]

After the war, SS Adonis was returned to the owners, the Royal Netherlands Steamship Co. (Koninklijke Nederlandsche Stoomboot Maatschappij.)

KNSM operated Adonnis until August 3, 1929, when she capsized and sank about 8 miles from Cap Ferrat.

The crew got away safely.