Santa Teresa Str

Santa Teresa

(Str.: dp. 8,890 (f.), 1. 373'9", b. 51'6", dr. 24'5"
s. 11 k.; cpl. 254; a. 1 5", 1 4", 2 1-pdrs.)

Santa Teresa (ID. No. 3804), a passenger ship built for W. R. Grace and Co, New York, by William Cramp and Sons, Philadelphia; Pa., was requisitioned by the United States Shipping Board (USSB) in August 1917; launched on 4 July 1918; converted for use as a troop transport; and delivered to the Navy and commissioned on 18 November 1918, Comdr. Benjamin G. Barthalow in command.

Assigned to the Cruiser and Transport Force, Santa Teresa was employed in bringing World War I veterans home from Europe. From December 1918 to March 1919, the transport was concerned with carrying casualties. On her later voyages, she carried fewer wounded, and, as the number of American military men needing transportation decreased, she carried military dependents, Navy civilian employees, and diplomatic passengers. On 4 September 1919, she completed her seventh, and last, crossing from France. On the 5th, she shifted from New York to Philadelphia for inactivation; and, on 7 October 1919, she was decommissioned and returned to the USSB for redelivery to her owner.

Subsequently operated in merchant service as Santa Teresa by Grace Lines, Inc., and by the Panama Mail S. S. Co., Inc., as Kent by the Merchants and Miners Transportation Co., Baltimore, and as Ernest Hinds by the United States Army; she was reacquired by the Navy in July 1941 and recommissioned as Kent (AP28) (q.v.).