Southern Str

Southern

(Str.: dp. 3,100 (est.); 1. 288'0", b. 38'9:~, dr.
21'6~; s. 10.5 k. (max.); cpl. 59, a. 2 3-pfrs.)

Southern, a steamer built in 1889 by R. Thompson Sons & Co. at Sunderland, England, was purchased by the Navy on 16 April 1898. She was converted to a collier at the Boston Navy Yard and commissioned there on 2 May 1898, Comdr. Walton Goodwin in command.

Southern steamed out of Boston on 6 June and, for the remainder of 1898 and into 1899, she cruised the Atlantic coast from Boston to as far south as Jamaica. On 18 February 1899, the converted collier was placed out of commission at the Norfolk Navy Yard and converted to a prison ship. Southern was moved to Boston on 6 April 1902, where she resumed duty as a prison ship. In early July 1903, the prison ship was shifted to Portsmouth, N.H. In February 1913, she became station ship at Portsmouth.

When the United States entered World War I in the spring of 1917, Southern was still at Portsmouth. On 27 April, she received half of the first draft of recruits from the Great Lakes Training Station and for five months, trained them intensively. She returned to duty as a prison ship on 25 September 1917 and was so employed until 7 November 1918, when she became receiving ship at the Portsmouth (N.H.) Navy Yard. On 16 April 1922, Southery moved to the Boston Navy Yard and assumed duty there as receiving ship on the 26th. She continued in the assignment until she decommissioned on 12 July 1933. Her name was struck from the Navy list on 1 September 1933, and her hulk was sold to Boston Iron and Metal Co. of Baltimore, Md., on 1 December 1933.