COLUMBIA AG 9

Ship Name and Designation History

This section lists the names and designations that the ship had during its lifetime. The list is in chronological order.

Great Northern Class Transport
Built 1915 at William Cramp & Sons, Philadelphia, PA


1. GREAT NORTHERN (Passenger Liner)
Owned and operated by Great Northern Pacific Steam Ship Company of Astoria, OR.
Acquired by U.S. Navy September 19 1917 and converted to Transport


2. USS GREAT NORTHERN ID-4569
Commissioned November 1 1917 - Decommissioned August 15 1919
Transferred to U.S. Army Transportation Service


3. USAT GREAT NORTHERN
Commissioned August 15 1919
Reacquired by U.S. Navy August 8 1921


4. USS GREAT NORTHERN AG-9
Recommissioned Miscellaneous Auxiliary (AG) August 11 1921


5. USS COLUMBIA AG-9
Renamed November 19 1921
Decommissioned March 4 1922


6. H. F. ALEXANDER (Commercial Service)
Sold 1922 to Canadian Pacific Steamship Co. and renamed
Reacquired by War Shipping Board 1942
Assigned to U.S. Army Transport Service


7. USAT GEORGE S. SIMONDS
Commissioned July 26 1942 - Decommissioned 1946
Laid up in National Defense Reserve Fleet James River Group 1946

Sold for scrapping, 25 February 1948, to Boston Metals Co., Baltimore, MD.

 

Naval Covers

This section lists active links to the pages displaying covers associated with the ship. There should be a separate set of pages for each name of the ship (for example, Bushnell AG-32 / Sumner AGS-5 are different names for the same ship so there should be one set of pages for Bushnell and one set for Sumner). Covers should be presented in chronological order (or as best as can be determined).

Since a ship may have many covers, they may be split among many pages so it doesn't take forever for the pages to load. Each page link should be accompanied by a date range for covers on that page.

1. Covers Page 1     (DATE RANGE)

 

Postmarks

This section lists examples of the postmarks used by the ship. There should be a separate set of postmarks for each name and/or commissioning period. Within each set, the postmarks should be listed in order of their classification type. If more than one postmark has the same classification, then they should be further sorted by date of earliest known usage.

A postmark should not be included unless accompanied by a close-up image and/or an image of a cover showing that postmark. Date ranges MUST be based ONLY ON COVERS IN THE MUSEUM and are expected to change as more covers are added.
 
>>> If you have a better example for any of the postmarks, please feel free to replace the existing example.

 

Postmark Type --- Killer Bar Text	Postmark Date	Thumbnail Link To Postmark Image	Thumbnail Link To Cover Image

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S.S. GREAT NORTHERN

 

USPO Duplex Cancel Hilo Hawaii

1915-07-30

N/A

Ship stationary (front only)

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1st Commissioning 1 November 1917 to 15 August 1919

 

Censor Marking

1918-02-06

Postcard cancelled on 7 Feb 1918 with by a USPO Machine Cancel from Charleston SC. From the Jim Myerson collection.

 

Locy Type 2rz

1919-07-06

YMCA Postcard. From the Jim Myerson collection.

 

Locy Type 3 "NAVY / TRANSPORT"

1919-08-07

Postcard. From the Jim Myerson collection.

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2nd Commissioning 11 August 1921 to 4 March 1922

 

Locy Type 3s(AC) "FLAGSHIP / U.S.ATL.FLT"

1922-02-05

Postcard. From the Jim Myerson collection.

 

Locy Type 3s(AC) "FLAGSHIP / U.S.ATL.FLT"

1922-02-07

From the Jim Myerson collection.

 

Locy Type 3s(AC) "FLAGSHIP / U.S.ATL.FLT"

1922-02-09

From the Jim Myerson collection.

 

Locy Type 9

1922-01-30

From the Jim Myerson collection.

 

Other Information

GREAT NORTHERN

USS Great Northern earned the World War I Victory Medal (with Transport clasp) during her Naval career.

NAMESAKE - Former name retained - A reference to the vast North American Continent

COLUMBIA

NAMESAKE - The personification of The United States of America

GEORGE S. SIMONDS

USS George S. Simons earned the American Campaign Medal and the World War II Victory Medal

NAMESAKE - George S. Simonds U.S. Army General
Simonds graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1899. After graduation he was assigned to the 22d Infantry. He served in the Philippines and China. He returned to West Point in 1904 as an instructor in the Department of Law. In addition from 1915 to 1917 he also taught in the Department of Tactics. When World War I began, he was sent to France as an observer. After returning to America he was assigned to the General Staff of the General Headquarters of the American Expeditionary Force and returned to France again in 1917. Lieutenant Colonel George S. Simonds, Infantry, was Chief of Staff of the 2nd Corps, American Expeditionary Force. He received the Army Distinguished Service Medal for service in World War I. Simonds was promoted to Brigadier General in 1924. Brigadier General Simonds served as Chief of the War Plans Division of the War Department from September 1 1927 to September 1 1931. In 1932 he was assigned to run the Army War College. Previously he was Douglas MacArthur's chief war planner, and his appointment was made to improve the planning ability in the Army War College. Simonds was promoted to Major General in 1933. Major General Simonds served as Deputy Chief of Staff in the War Department from February 2 1935 to May 28 1936. In June 1936, Simonds took command of the Fourth United States Army and Ninth Corps; the headquarters was at the Presidio of San Francisco. General Simonds retired from the Army at San Francisco, retiring in 1938. He died 7 months later and was buried in the West Point Cemetery.

 

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If you have images or information to add to this page, then either contact the Curator or edit this page yourself and add it. See Editing Ship Pages for detailed information on editing this page.

 

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