USS Keresan

	USS Keresan ca. late 1918.
History
United States
Name	USS Keresan
Namesake	The Keresan family of the Pueblo people (previous name retained)
Builder	Pickersgill and Sons, Ltd., Sunderland, England
Launched	18 December 1911
Completed	1912
Acquired	18 September 1918
Commissioned	18 September 1918
Decommissioned	26 June 1919
Fate	Transferred to United States Shipping Board 26 June 1919 for simultaneous return to owner
Notes	In commercial service as SS Eriodiade 1912-1914, as SS Keresan 1919-1921, as SS Mount Seward 1921-1922, as SS Debreczen 1922-1927, as SS Fenwell 1927-1928, as SS Chislehurst 1928-1933, and as Yolande B and SS Yolande 1933-1938; Wrecked 5 March 1938;
General characteristics
Type	Cargo ship
Tonnage	4,507 Gross register tons
Displacement	8,700 tons
Length	380 ft 6 in (115.98 m)
Beam	50 ft 1 in (15.27 m)
Draft	11 ft (3.4 m) (mean)
Propulsion	Steam engine
Speed	11 knots (maximum)
Complement	62
Armament	1 × 6-inch (152-millimeter) gun; 1 × 3-inch (76.2-millimeter) gun;

USS Keresan (ID-1806) was a United States Navy cargo ship in commission from 1918 to 1919.

Construction and early career

Keresan was launched in 1912 as the commercial cargo ship SS Electra for an Austro-Hungarian firm, but was sold prior to completion to another Austro-Hungarian company, M. V. Martinolich and Company, and renamed SS Erodiade. At the beginning of World War I in August 1914, Erodiade took refuge at Buenos Aires in neutral Argentina to avoid capture or destruction by Allied naval forces and was laid up there.

The United States seized all Central Powers ships in Western Hemisphere ports upon entering World War I on the Allied side in April 1917, and all Austro-Hungarian ships seized were purchased by American interests. The Kerr Navigation Company of New York City purchased Erodiade and seven other seized Austro-Hungarian cargo ships. Renamed SS Keresan, the ship went into commercial service with Kerr. Later in 1917 or in 1918, the United States Army chartered Keresan for carrying cargo to U.S. Army forces operating in Europe.

United States Navy service

The U.S. Navy took control of Keresan on 18 September 1918, assigned her the naval registry Identification Number (Id. No.) 1806, and commissioned her the same day as USS Keresan.

Assigned to the Naval Overseas Transportation Service, Keresan departed New York City on 1 October 1918 with a cargo of ammunition for American forces in Europe. Following the Armistice with Germany of 11 November 1918, Keresan returned to the United States in ballast, arriving at New York on 13 December 1918.

Keresan steamed to Buenos Aires in January 1919 with general cargo, arriving in February 1919. Delayed at Buenos Aires by a strike, she finally departed in early May 1919 with a cargo of maize and returned to New York on 5 June 1919.

Keresan was decommissioned on 26 June 1919 and transferred the same day to the United States Shipping Board for simultaneous return to Kerr Navigation.

Later career

The ship returned to commercial service as SS Keresan. She was sold to another American firm and became SS Mount Seward in 1921, then sold again in 1922, to a Hungarian firm that named her SS Debreczen. A British company bought her in 1927 and renamed her SS Fenwell, then sold her in 1928 to another British firm, which named her Chislehurst. Sold to a Shanghai, China-based firm in 1933, she became first SS Yolande B and then SS Yolande before being wrecked near Weihaiwei, China, on 5 March 1938.

References

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
Department of the Navy: Naval Historical Center Online Library of Selected Images: U.S. Navy Ships: USS Keresan (ID # 1806), 1918-1919. Originally S.S. Erodiade (Austrian Freighter, 1912). Later American S.S. Keresan
NavSource Online: Section Patrol Craft Photo Archive: Keresan (ID 1806)