Santa Elena Str

Santa Elena
(Str.: dp. 12,573; 1. 446'10"; b. 54'8"; dr. 23'6"; s.11 k.; cpl. 276)

Santa Elena (ID-4052) was built in 1907 by Blohm und Voss, Hamburg, Germany, for the Hamburg-South America Line; taken over by the Navy at Brest France, on 26 April 1919; and commissioned the same day, Lt. Comdr. L. M. Stewart in command.

Santa Elena was one of ten German passenger ships acquired in 1919 to help return American troops from Europe. She was delivered by a German crew to the Navy at Brest. She sailed from there with homecoming troops on 10 May 1919 and arrived at Hoboken, N.J. on 23 May. Departing Hoboken on 6 June, she returned to Hampton Roads on 23 July with her second and last complement of troops. She was then reallocated by the Allies to the United Kingdom and was decommissioned and transferred to the Cunard Line at New York on 20 August 1919. Subsequently allocated to France as reparations, she served the Chargeurs Reunis as Linois until World War II.