SS Ophir was a Dutch steamship that was built in 1904. She carried passengers, cargo and mail between Rotterdam and the Dutch East Indies until March 1918, when the United States seized her under angary and she became USS Ophir (ID-2800). In November 1918 a fire and explosion damaged her beyond economic repair. She was scrapped in 1922.
Ophir's registered length was 394.4 ft (120.2 m), her beam was 47.1 ft (14.4 m) and her depth was 27.2 ft (8.3 m).[4] Her tonnages were 4,726 GRT, 1,005 NRT and 4,650 DWT. She had berths for 146 passengers: 60 first class, 32 second class, 24 third class, and 30 steerage.[1]
On 20 March 1918 President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation seizing all Dutch merchant ships in ports of the USA and its territories. The next day Ophir was taken over at Honolulu, and on 25 March she was commissioned as USS Ophir, with the ID number ID–2800. Her commander was Lieutenant Commander MP Nash, USNRF.[8]
On the first voyage she left New York on 1 June with four other ships and reached La Pallice on 7 or 9 June. As well as cargo, she carried sailors, tugboat men, and 500 sacks of mail. She returned to New York via Verdun, Quebec, where she called on 27 June.[10]
Fire and sinking
On 25 October, Ophir started a fourth transatlantic voyage from the East Coast of the United States.[8] Her cargo included coal, drums of "aviation oil" (possibly castor oil), ambulances, and five Jeffery Quad trucks.[10] On 1 November, an ensign of her ship's company died of Spanish flu.[11] On 8 November Ophir left Gibraltar for Marseille.[8] But fire was discovered aboard, thought to be in the lower part of her number two hold, in which she was carrying about 500 tons of coal. She turned back, re-entered Gibraltar on the evening of 10 November, and anchored off the North Mole.[10]
Ophir's crew fought the fire with her own firefighting equipment until the evening of 11 November, when an explosion blew the hatches off number two hold[10] and killed two of her enginemen.[11] Water that had been pumped through firehoses into the hold threatened to break through the bulkhead into her fire room. This would extinguish her furnaces and thus disable her pumps. Lieut Cmdr Nash asked permission from the Royal Navy Senior Naval Officer (SNO) for the ship to be beached. The SNO agreed, and a pilot took her to shallows where she was grounded in 4+1⁄2 fathoms (8 m) of water. Her boilers were put out of action, and the ship continued to burn.[10]
On 16 November 1918 the two dead crewmen were buried in North Front Cemetery, but in June 1919 their bodies were repatriated to the USA. In January 1919 HM Tug Crocodile pumped the water out of Ophir. On 18 January her number one hold and after hold were dry, only 3 feet (1 m) of water remained in her number two hold. Her surviving crew was repatriated to the USA, and a team was sent from the USA to refloat and repair her.[10] She was refloated on 10 February 1919.[9] On 22 May 1919 the five Jeffrey Quad trucks, which had spent weeks under 16 feet (5 m) of water, were sold to a buyer in Cadiz.[10] On 30 July her wreck was offered at auction in London, but no-one bought her.[1]
Return voyage
On 25 November 1919, Ophir left Gibraltar under her own power, crewed by six officers and 68 enlisted men, and carrying the wives of eight of the enlisted men as passengers. Only one of her three boilers was working. She called at the Azores, and two days later she broke down. Off Bermuda the minesweeperUSS Bobolink took her in tow. About 100 nautical miles (190 km) off Cape Henry they encountered a storm, which broke the tow rope. Ophir drifted for 36 hours in 100-mile-per-hour (160 km/h) wind and heavy sea. Eventually she storm abated, and on 9 January 1920 she reached Norfolk, Virginia under her own power. On 16 January she was decommissioned and transferred to the Department of War.[10]