REFUGE AH 11

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.

Transport / Hospital Ship
Keel Laid March 4 1920 for The Emergency Fleet Corp.
Assigned to The United States Mail Line
Launched February 23 1921 as BLUE HEN STATE
Delivered July 6 1921 and laid up until March 1922
Renamed PRESIDENT GARFIELD May 1922
Transferred to The United States Lines August 1922
Sold to The Dollar Line August 1923
Transferred 1938 to American President Lines, renamed PRESIDENT MADISON
Acquired by U.S. Navy April 11 1942


1. USS KENMORE AP-62
   Commissioned Transport (AP) August 5 1942
   Decommissioned September 16 1943 for conversion to Hospital Ship (AH)
   
   
2. USS REFUGE AH-11
   Recommissioned February 24 1944 - Decommissioned April 2 1946
   
   Struck from Naval Register May 8 1946
   Sold February 2 1948 to Consolidated Builders, Seattle, WA for scrap

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. President Garfield Covers Page 1     (1933-38)
2. Kenmore Covers Page 1     (1943)
3. Refuge Covers Page 1     (1944-45)

 

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	Date From to Date To	Thumbnail Link To Postmark Image	Thumbnail Link To Cover Image

 

Pursers Mark

1933-01-01

As S.S. PRESIDENT GARFIELD

 

U.S.T.P. SEA POST Duplex

1938-01-04

As S.S. PRESIDENT GARFIELD

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1st Commissioning August 5 1942 to September 16 1943

 

Locy Type 3z

1943-06-10

As KENMORE AP-62

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2nd Commissioning February 24 1944 to April 2 1946

 

USPO Machine Baltimore, Maryland

1944-02-24

Commissioning

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Locy Type 2z

1944-08-16

As REFUGE AH-11

 

Locy Type 9efu

1945-06-30

As REFUGE AH-11
Marking from back of cover

 

Other Information

KENMORE received one battle star for World War II service

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons...
China Service Medal (extended) - American Campaign Medal - Europe-Africa-Middle East Campaign Medal - Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (1) - World War II Victory Medal - Navy Occupation Service Medal (with Asia clasp) - Philippines Liberation Medal

NAMESAKE - Shelter or protection from danger

 

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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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