USS Mongolia

by Robert Koehler on April 7, 2007

What U.S. ship fired the first U.S. shot on the high seas of WW I? Why, the USS Mongolia, of course! (HT to fellow blogger)

{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Thomo The Lost April 8, 2007 at 1:03 am: The USS Mongolia was not a member of the US Navy until taken over in April 1918 so she was still a civilian vessel when she fired on the German Submarine. If I was a pedant I’d note the S.S. Mongolia fired the opening shot for the US in 1917.
2 Paul H. April 8, 2007 at 5:12 am: I couldn’t find a link to prove it, but if the US Navy followed the same pattern for arming civilian merchant ships in the WWI period as they did in WWII, then it would have been a US Navy guncrew manning the deck gun of the ship when it fired on the German submarine.

In World War II these USN gun crews assigned to merchant marine ships were known as the “Armed Guard”; I can’t prove that the same system and nomenclature was used during WWI but it seems likely. One or more USN officers and a crew of USN gunners would have been assigned to the ship to man the deck gun(s) (in WWII, both for surface and anti-aircraft fire, should have been only a surface gun in WWI).

One link I saw seemed to indicate that some USN personnel in WWII would have also been assigned for communications duty in ship’s radio room. All USN personnel assigned to the ship would have been subject to the final authority of the ship’s civilian master.

The fairly well-known WWII movie “Action in the North Atlantic” while a fictional account provides I think an accurate view of the relationship between a merchant marine ship’s crew and their assigned accompanying USN armed guard.
3 Netizen Kim April 8, 2007 at 12:52 pm: Who thought it was a good idea to name a naval ship after a land-locked nation?
4 terrible dan April 8, 2007 at 2:48 pm: If I had to guess, Admiral Horthy from Hungary.
5 Thomo The Lost April 8, 2007 at 4:13 pm: You are correct Paul H – and I’ve got the link to prove it

Mongolia, 13,638 gross ton passenger-cargo steamship, was built in 1904 at Camden, New Jersey, for trans-Pacific commercial service. In 1915 she was shifted to Atlantic routes and in March 1917 received a self-defense armament of Navy-manned guns. On 19 April she fought off a German submarine, the first such engagement after the United States entered World War I. Mongolia continued civilian operation for another year, mainly carrying U.S. troops to Europe. In April 1918 she was taken over by the Navy and, in early May, placed in commission as USS Mongolia (ID # 1615)

This was from THE place to check about US Navy vessels, Department of the Navy — Naval Historical Center and is the link to USS Mongolia.

There are some neat photos of her as well as her sister ship, USS Manchuria (but you’ll need to search “USS Manchuria” to locate them).

Now to return to looking at the ships of the desert here
6 Thomo The Lost April 8, 2007 at 4:35 pm: Oh, and Netizen Kim, Mongolia may be landlocked but it does have a navy – albeit a small one. It also has naval vessels – albeit a small one

I think the navy runs to about 7-10 officers and ratings and the vessel is a single boat that is based on Lake Huvsgol up towards the Russian border.

It also has a Maritime Administration that handles registration of vessels around the world (Flags of Convenience).