Beef Boat Extraordinaire
Logistics. If Napoleon declared that an army travels on its stomach, how much less could a navy keep the sea if its sailors did not eat? Soldiers could forage, sailors could not.
To support this need, the Culgoa was acquired in the wake of Commodore George Dewey's victory at Manila Bay over a Spanish squadron in the spring of 1898. The schooner-rigged steamer, fitted to carry cargo and a limited number of first-class passengers, had been launched on 25 October 1889 at the North Sands yard of Joseph L. Thompson and Sons, Ltd., of Sunderland, England, and completed in 1890 for William Lund's Australian Line. She was purchased at Cavite, Philippine Islands, on 4 June 1898 from G. F. Walford for $247,705 to serve as a supply ship and was placed in commission at Manila on 3 December, Lieutenant Commander James W. Carlin in command.
The Culgoa not only provided meat and ice to the U.S. Asiatic Squadron at Manila but also large quantities of provisions to Army troops there. In August 1899, Rear Admiral Dewey, commander, Asiatic Squadron, contemplated condemning her and advertising her for sale as unsuitable. Her usefulness evidently outweighed her disposal, however, for after a period of repairs at Hong Kong, she remained in service, sailing on 18 November 1899 to resume her vital logistical work, making three voyages to Sydney and Brisbane, Australia, during 1900 and 1901.
On 22 July 1901, the Culgoa was detached from the Asiatic Station. Carrying among her cargo the instruments used in the Naval Observatory's Solar Eclipse Expedition (18 May 1901), she steamed westward around the globe through the Suez Canal to the New York Navy Yard, arriving on 26 September. Shifting to Boston Navy Yard soon thereafter, she was decommissioned on 16 October for a thorough overhaul of her main and refrigeration machinery and fitted out to serve as a repair ship.
Recommissioned on 1 October 1902, the Culgoa serviced the North and South Atlantic, Caribbean, and European Squadrons until she was once again decommissioned, on 11 August 1905. This time it looked permanent. After being stricken from the Navy List on 7 May 1906, steps were taken for her sale. But she was again spared and recommissioned at the New York Navy Yard on 12 September 1907 to carry out an emergency shipment of beef while on loan to the Panama Railway Company for the Isthmian Canal Commission.
Her next assignment would make history. Under the command of Commander John B. Patton she sailed on 11 December to join the Great White Fleet at Trinidad, then accompanied it around South America to the U.S. West Coast, then across the Pacific and into the Far East, ultimately returning to where her naval career had begun—Manila—on 5 October 1908. Pushing on as the Fleet continued its epic voyage, the Culgoa transported supplies from Manila to Amoy, China, for the fleet's Second Squadron, and in the Formosa Strait (28-29 October) established wireless communications with that unit. Returning to Cavite, she then supplied the fleet at Colombo (9-18 December) before setting course for Suez.
The next part of the Culgoa's voyage with the fleet, however, did not proceed as planned. At 0520 on 28 December an earthquake rocked both sides of the Strait of Messina, devastating the city of Messina, Sicily, in no less than 10 seconds, reducing at least 95 percent of the buildings to rubble, and killing an estimated two-thirds of its 150,000 inhabitants. British and French naval vessels arrived two days later to render aid. The Culgoa reported the tragedy to the flagship Connecticut (Battleship No. 18) shortly before midnight on 31 December. Rear Admiral Charles S. Sperry, commander-in-chief of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet, immediately ordered, as the Navy's surgeon general later reported, "all medical stores from every ship that could be spared" transferred to the Culgoa, as well as four hospital apprentices and two medical officers.
As the ship plowed toward Messina, her cooks and bakers prepared bread and boiled ham, almost 3,000 loaves and 2,200 pounds' worth. Reaching Messina on 8 January 1909, she was one of the first U.S. naval vessels to arrive, and boats from shore swarmed around her. "The occupants claim[ed] that they were hungry," Commander Patton reported, "and that the authorities would not give them sufficient food." Although giving little credence to their complaints, Patton ordered bread and ham distributed to all comers.
The next day, the Culgoa transferred 55 tons of provisions and sent a party of men ashore to begin excavating the U.S. Consulate to locate the remains of Consul A. S. Cheney and his wife. Lieutenant Louis J. Connelly, the ship's executive officer, walking about the city on the afternoon of the 9th, found it to be "practically a complete wreck. Many streets . . . filled to the level of the second floor with debris." Additionally, "a noticeable odor pervade[d] some localities, being that of dead people or the dogs that have been killed and left unburied."
Over the next few days, the storeship, after turning over the sad task of excavating the consulate to the Yankton, visited other towns on both sides of the strait. While Assistant Paymaster Maurice H. Karker noted that "tinned meats, sugar, rice, coffee, tea, butter, flour, and tinned vegetables," accounted for most of the supplies issued, Commander Patton stated that "our stores were needed for the sick and the delicate." The inhabitants particularly appreciated "small packages [of salt, tea, cocoa, and biscuits and canned meat] so they could be carried to the interior." Patton reported that Captain Umberto Cagni, of the Italian armored cruiser Napoli, with whom he coordinated supplying towns along the coast of Calabria, "requested me to deliver directly to the inhabitants when possible, [wishing] them to understand what country was aiding them."
"The amount of work to be done," Commander Patton later concluded, "is so great that what little we were able to do, amounted to more as an evidence of good will than any real aid. Our provisions added to their comfort, rather than to supply them necessities." Rear Admiral Sperry later expressed his "complete satisfaction with the manner in which [Commander Patton and the Culgoa had] performed this arduous and somewhat delicate duty."
Proceeding to Naples with the remains of Consul Cheney and his wife, the Culgoa offloaded the last of the relief supplies there and soon resumed her routine work.
After completing the round-the-world voyage at Hampton Roads on 17 February, the Culgoa ranged from the eastern seaboard to European waters and the Caribbean over the next 11 years, supplying ships and shore stations. This duty was punctuated by periodic stays at the New York Navy Yard for repairs and alterations. Designated on 17 July 1920 as a refrigerated storeship, AF-3, when the Navy adopted alphanumeric hull designations, the Culgoa had but 17 months of naval life left. Decommissioned at New York on 31 December 1921, her place in the train taken by the Arctic (AF-1), she was stricken from the List of (Naval) Vessels on 25 July 1922 and sold to Lucius H. Stewart, Maritime Exchange, New York City, the same day. Renamed the Champlain, she was ultimately broken up at New York by the end of 1924.
The Culgoa had fed the fleet, sustaining Uncle Sam's Bluejackets for a little more than two decades. Her service never shone as brightly, however, as when her Sailors extended what then-President Theodore Roosevelt called "acts of sincere and disinterested friendliness" to the people of the devastated cities and villages on both sides of the Strait of Messina during one week in January 1909.