USAT John L. Clem

John L. Clem began her service life as the United States Navy troop transport USS Santa Ana (ID-2869). Between the wars she served as a commercial ocean liner under various names. In 1941 she was acquired by the U.S. Army and assigned the name USAT John L. Clem, about which time she was also briefly assigned a US Navy ID, AP-36. She did not serve with the Navy however, and spent most of the war as an Army transport until being converted into a hospital ship, the USAHS John L. Clem.

Pre-WWII service

Santa Ana, a 5,000 gross ton (8890 tons displacement) transport, was built in 1918 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by William Cramp and Sons, as a civilian passenger liner.

She was taken over by the Navy upon completion and placed in commission in February 1919. As a unit of the Cruiser and Transport Force, she made four round-trip voyages to bring World War I veterans from France. USS Santa Ana completed this work in July 1919 and, later in that month, was decommissioned and turned over to the U.S. Shipping Board. Between the World Wars she operated commercially under the names Santa Ana, Guatemala, Santa Cecilia and Irwin.

World War II

In March 1941 the U.S. Army purchased the Irwin. Renamed John L. Clem, she was converted to a troopship at New York City, and operated between the United States East and Gulf Coasts and ports in the Caribbean and Central America from June 1941 to September 1943. She was then sent to Mobile, Alabama, where she was converted to a hospital ship.

Upon completion of this work in June 1944, John L. Clem steamed across the Atlantic to begin duty in the western Mediterranean. She returned to the U.S. in June 1945 to begin preparations for service in the Pacific. However, Japan surrendered and the plans were cancelled.

Postwar service

After the Japanese surrender, John L. Clem was reconverted to a transport and used to carry workers between Jamaica and Florida.

She was turned over to the War Shipping Administration early in 1946 and later assigned to the U.S. Public Health Service. In December of that year she was laid up in the Maritime Commission's National Defense Reserve Fleet at Brunswick, Georgia, under her previous name of Irwin. The ship was sold for scrapping in January 1948.

References

• John L. Clem, Navsource Online.
• This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.