SS President Cleveland (1920)

USS Tasker H. Bliss
History
United States
Name	Golden State President Cleveland Tasker H. Bliss
Namesake	California (nickname) President Grover Cleveland General Tasker H. Bliss
Builder	Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock
Cost	$6,291,944.92[2]
Yard number	256
Launched	17 July 1920[1]
Acquired	19 August 1942
Commissioned	USS Tasker H. Bliss (AP-42), 15 September 1942
Stricken	7 December 1942
Identification	U.S. Official number 220485
Honors and awards	1 Battle Star
Fate	Sunk, 12 November 1942
General characteristics
Type	Emergency Fleet Corporation Design 1029 ship
Displacement	12,568 long tons (12,770 t)
Length	535 ft (163 m)
Beam	72 ft 2 in (22.00 m)
Draft	27 ft 8 in (8.43 m)
Propulsion	Steam turbine(s)
Speed	16.5 kn (19.0 mph; 30.6 km/h)
Complement	235
Armament	Unknown

SS President Cleveland was originally built as Golden State for the United States Shipping Board (USSB), one of the planned World War I troop transports converted before construction into passenger and cargo vessels launched as Emergency Fleet Corporation Design 1029 ships first known, along with the smaller Design 1095 versions, in the trade as "State" ships due to names assigned for the nicknames of states and later as "535s" for their length overall. Almost all ships of both designs were renamed for United States presidents by May 1921, with Golden State being renamed President Cleveland. As one of the USSB-owned ships operated by agents of the board, President Cleveland was allocated to and operated by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company until sold by the USSB to the Dollar Steamship Line in 1925. After the demise of that line and creation of a new, replacement line, American President Lines, the ship remained with that line until government acquisition for the Second World War.

President Cleveland was acquired by the War Department and renamed Tasker H. Bliss and converted into a troop transport which served in the Pacific immediately preceding and after outbreak of the war. She was acquired from the United States Army by the United States Navy for war use, commissioned USS Tasker H. Bliss on 15 September 1942, and designated as transport AP-42. On 12 November 1942, while supporting Operation Torch of the North African campaign she was sunk after being struck by a German submarine’s torpedo at Fedala Bay, Morocco. From the 235 men on board, 31 died in the sinking or afterwards from their wounds.^[3]