The USS America is typical of passenger ships of the times that were converted into troop ships during WW II. They returned to their original role as passenger ships when the war ended. This one was launched in August 1939, one day before the German invasion of Poland which plunged Europe into the war. She started right off sailing as a troop ship, stripped of her fancy tourist attractions and overrun with bunks installed to sleep many more passengers than originally planned. Her route was New York to Europe, sometimes with stops at Newport News, Virginia. In May 1941, the America was commissioned as the troop ship USS West Point. In November 1941, she sailed as part of a Canadian convoy bound for Singapore. Then the West Point saved 1,276 people from Singapore two weeks before the fall of the port in February. Thereafter, she saw extensive service between the Mediterranean and Australia followed by further duties to the Pacific and Europe. In 1946, the West Point was dropped from the Navy list and after a $6 million rehab entered the service for which she was intended. The ship, once again named the America, left New York for her first peacetime voyage from there to Cobh, Southampton, United Kingdom. Later she called at Cherbourg, France and around 1951 Bremen, Germany. But as passenger jet airlines began to cut into North Atlantic in the early 1960s, the America was forced to augment her North Atlantic service with cruises to the Caribbean. In 1964 she was withdrawn from North Atlantic service, sold to Okeania S/A and renamed Australis. Thus began sales and name changes, something that became common in the future. She went on to sail the immigrant trade route under Australis, making trips from Britain to Australia carrying 2,658 passengers in one class, more than any other passenger ship. In addition to Australia, she made stops at the Suez and Panama Canals, Port Everglades, Florida, and Southampton. The ship carried many cargoes in addition to passengers. After 1976, the fate of the former flagship of the United States merchant marine became increasingly frenetic. She was transferred from Panamanian to Greek registry and made her last voyage from Southampton to New Zealand, where she was laid up at Timaru. In 1978, she was sold to New York-based Venture Cruise Lines, which went bust after two incompetently managed cruises of the now renamed America. Repurchased by Chandris in 1978, she was renamed Italis, her forward dummy funnel was removed and she entered service as a cruise ship from Barcelona. Laid up for most of the 1980s, she was eventually renamed American Star and purchased by Thai interests for conversion to a floating hotel. While under tow to Ahuket in January 1994, she was blown ashore by a hurricane on the island of Fuerteventura, Canary Islands and split in two.

Author: Ellsworth Boyd

Ellsworth Boyd, Professor Emeritus, College of Education, Towson University, Towson, Maryland, pursues an avocation of diving and writing. He has published articles and photo’s in every major dive magazine in the US., Canada, and half a dozen foreign countries. An authority on shipwrecks, Ellsworth has received thousands of letters and e-mails from divers throughout the world who responded to his Wreck Facts column in Sport Diver Magazine. When he’s not writing, or diving, Ellsworth appears as a featured speaker at maritime symposiums in Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, Ft. Lauderdale, New York and Philadelphia. “Romance & Mystery: Sunken Treasures of the Lost Galleons,” is one of his most popular talks. A pioneer in the sport, Ellsworth was inducted into the International Legends of Diving in 2013.