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Design
and Construction (1936 – 1939):
In 1936
plans were finalized
for three vessels designed by the noted naval architect George G.
Sharp, to
offer 52 passenger sailings a year versus the then present 26. They
were wholly
financed from profits, reserves and depreciation funds accrued over the
years
by Panama Railroad under the shrewd management of T.H. Rossbottom.
Bids were
received on April
16, 1937, from Bethlehem Steel Co. ($4,040,000 per ship), New York
Shipbuilding
Corp. ($4,076.000 per ship), Federal Shipbuilding and Newport News
Shipbuilding
& Dry Dock. On May 20, Secretary of War Harry H. Woodring announced
a
contract with Bethlehem Shipbuilding for "three modern fast fireproof
combination passenger-cargo liners" of 10,000 grit, carrying 200
passengers and 100,000 cubic feet of cargo with a speed of 16.5 knots
from
steam turbines. Alternative specifications for diesel propulsion had
been
given, but no such bids were received. The ships were to be built at
the Fore
River Shipyard, Quincy, Massachusetts and delivered in 18, 20 and 22
months
respectively.
Assigned
yard numbers 1467,
1468 and 1469, the keels of the first two were laid down on October 25
and the
third on November 15, 1937. Yard No. 1467 was christened PANAMA on September 24, 1938, by Mrs.
Raquel de
la Guardia de Boyd, wife of Dr. Don Augusto S. Boyd, Panama's
ambassador to the United
States. The 6,000-ton hull was 98 per
cent
complete with 90 per cent of the machinery also in place. On December
10, Mrs.
Harry Woodring launched No. 1468 as ANCON. No. 1469 took to the water
as
CRISTOBAL on March 4, 1939, sponsored by Mrs. Clarence S. Ridley, wife
of the
Governor of the Panama Canal Zone,
Brig.
General Clarence S. Ridley.
Prewar
Service with Panama
Line (1939 – 1942):
Delayed
six hours by thick
fog off Nantucket, CRISTOBAL (Captain W.J. Murphy) docked at Pier 65, New York at
3:30pm on
August 12, 1939, with T.H. Rossbottom, W.R.Pfizer and George G. Sharp
as
guests. With 200 passengers, she sailed on her maiden voyage at 3:00pm
on the
17th. The CRISTOBAL would remain line flagship for 42 years. She
returned to New York on September 2,
the day after Poland
was invaded and World War II
began.
WW2
War Service (1942 – 1946):
The SS
Cristobal was
requisitioned from the Panama Railroad Company by the U.S. Army on
January 11,
1942. Twelve days later -- her trim lines muddled with camouflage
paint,
and partially converted so every valuable inch could be utilized – the
Cristobal sailed from New
York
with troops and supplies. Destination: New Caledonia. However,
political
relations between the Free French, the Vichy French and the United States were not yet clear, so
the convoy
with which the Cristobal was travelling was diverted to Australia.
There the ship reloaded, picked up field artillery guns and proceeded
to New Caledonia.
Arriving at Noumea,
New Caledonia, the
first part of March,
1942, the troops disembarked by using the ship's lifeboats. For
days,
these troops sweated over the unfamiliar and back-breaking job of
handling all
cargo by hand. There were no facilities ashore at New Caledonia.
Our war was three
months old.
The Cristobal was next ordered back to New York. As she drew near the
Atlantic
Coast,
there was no rest for the officers and crew. The coastal waters
were
known to be infested with enemy submarines. None was spotted
until the Cristobal
was off Cape
Hatteras.
There the dark dripping
snout of an emerging sub was sighted. She hulked out of the water
as the
men on the Cristobal waited tensely. The men on the submarine
were
evidently just as amazed at finding an enemy ship so close by, and the
submarine submerged.
Back in New York
the Cristobal was further converted to carry 2,300 troops. She
next
headed for Belfast,
Ireland.
Then, on to Scotland
for British troops, and to join a convoy of British and American
ships.
On Memorial Day, 1942, the Cristobal sailed fur Suez. The long voyage, via
Freetown,
West Africa ... Capetown ... Durban, South Africa ... and Aden, Arabia
was made
safely, and the Cristobal, reached Suez July 23, 1942. Once
there, her
days seemed numbered, for she was exposed nightly to fierce air attack,
particularly from the ships' deadly enemy, the torpedo plane.
However, the Cristobal’s luck held, and the gallant ship started the
long trip
home unscathed. On this trip, her "passengers" were Italian
prisoners of war bound for Durban.
And this time she sailed alone. Thirty-one days later the men on
the Cristobal,
thankfully eased the ship into New York
Harbour, having stopped
a day in Durban,
while the Italian
prisoners disembarked, and a day in Capetown to pick up fuel oil.
At the end
of October, 1942,
the Cristobal left New York
again -- destination unknown. She was headed for the invasion of
Casablanca.
In the
space of eleven days the Cristobal was filled with wounded service men
at Casablanca ... 1,300 of them ... who
were brought back to New York.
For the duration of the war in Europe, the Cristobal made trips back
and forth
to the Mediterranean, North Africa and Italy
with occasional trips to England
and Iceland.
After the invasion of Normandy,
she
landed troops at Utah Beach and later at Le
Havre, Marseilles and Port
Said,
the Mediterranean entrance of the Suez Canal.
When the European conflict was ended, the Cristobal, brought back
troops from Italy, France
and England.
She carried a great many sick and wounded being particularly well
fitted for
use as a hospital ship.
In January, 1946, the ship underwent another partial conversion -- this
time
for the comfort of the bride and diaper trade. The Cristobal
carried a
vast number of war brides and children from England, France,
and Port Said
without a single casualty.
By the time she made her last war-service voyage, the stately Cristobal
was
quite used to the maze of didies and dainties hanging everywhere.
On her
last trip she carried American dependents to Bremerhaven,
Germany, and
returned with
war brides from France
and England.
Postwar
Service with Panama
Line (1946 – 1981):
After completing 4 years and 5 months service with the army, the
Cristobal was
gratefully returned to the Panama Line to once more proudly sail in
luxurious
peacetime dress. All that remains of her wartime service is the
ship's
log. January 11, 1942 - June 14, 1946, and the memories of the
men who
sailed the S.S. Cristobal.
On June
14, 1946, the Cristobal
was returned to the Panama Line, where she continued passenger/cargo
service
between New York and Panama
until
April 1961. In June of that year the Cristobal made her first
voyage
between New Orleans and Panama,
a route she was to ply
until her last voyage on September 19, 1981, after 42 years of U.S.
Government
service.
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