USS Bridgeport (AD-10)

USS Bridgeport (Id. No. 3009) at New York on 1 October 1917. She was originally the German liner SS Breslau.
History
Germany
Name	SS Breslau
Namesake	Breslau, Germany (today Wrocław, Poland)
Owner	North German Lloyd
Builder	Bremer Vulkan Vegesack, Germany
Laid down	1901
Launched	14 August 1901[1]
Maiden voyage	23 November 1901 to New York[1]
Route	Bremen–Baltimore, April 1902 Bremen–Baltimore–Galveston, September 1903 Bremen–Philadelphia, March 1910 Bremen–Boston–New Orleans, May 1914[2]
Captured	Interned at New Orleans, summer 1914; Seized by the United States, April 1917
United States
Name	USS Bridgeport Repair Ship No. 2
Namesake	Bridgeport, Connecticut[3]
Cost	$25,386 (refit costs)[4]
Acquired	Seized by the United States, April 1917
Commissioned	25 August 1917
Refit	Boston Navy Yard, September 1917 – March 1918
Reclassified	Destroyer Tender No. 10, 1 March 1918
Reclassified	AD-10, 17 July 1920
Decommissioned	3 November 1924
Stricken	2 October 1941
United States
In service	September 1943[5]
Renamed	USAHS Larkspur, September 1943[5]
Refit	Merrill-Stevens Drydock & Repair Co., Jacksonville, Florida, September 1943 – August 1944[5]
Renamed	USAT Bridgeport, January 1946[6]
Refit	Todd Shipyard, Hoboken, New Jersey, January 1946[6]
Out of service	16 April 1947[7]
Fate	Scrapped 1948[3]
General characteristics
Class and type	Köln class
Tonnage	7,524 tons[1]
Length	136.36 m (447 ft 5 in)[1]
Beam	16.46 m (54 ft)[1]
Propulsion	2 quadruple expansion steam engines, 3,600 hp (2,700 kW), twin screws[1]
Speed	12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)[1]
Capacity	60 cabin-class passengers, 1,660 steerage passengers[1]
Crew	94–120[1]
Differences as USS Bridgeport:[3]
Displacement	8,600 tons
Length	447 ft 7.5 in (136.436 m)[3]
Beam	54 ft 4 in (16.56 m)[3]
Draft	29 ft 2 in (8.89 m)[3]
Speed	12.5 knots (23 km/h; 14 mph)[3]
Complement	786
Armament	1917: 4 × 3-inch (76 mm) guns 1918: 8 × 5-inch (127 mm)/40-caliber guns 2 × machine guns 1920: 8 × 5-inch 51-caliber guns 2 × machine guns
Differences as USAHS Larkspur:[5]
Tonnage	7,995 tons
Length	447 ft 0 in (136.25 m)
Draft	29 ft 2 in (8.89 m)
Speed	10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Range	9,300 nmi (17,200 km; 10,700 mi)
Capacity	594 patients
Armament	None
Differences as USAT Bridgeport:[6]
Draft	29 ft 0 in (8.84 m)
Range	9,000 nmi (17,000 km; 10,000 mi)
Capacity	352 adults, 182 children

USS Bridgeport (AD-10/ID-3009) was a destroyer tender in the United States Navy during World War I and the years after. She was a twin-screw, steel-hulled passenger and cargo steamship built in 1901 at Vegesack, Germany as SS Breslau of the North German Lloyd line. Breslau was one of the seven ships of the Köln class of ships built for the Bremen to Baltimore and Galveston route.

Interned at New Orleans, Louisiana at the outbreak of World War I, Breslau was seized in 1917 by the United States after her entry into the war and commissioned into the Navy as USS Bridgeport. Originally slated to be a repair ship, she was reclassified as a destroyer tender the following year. Bridgeport completed several transatlantic convoy crossings before she was stationed at Brest, France, where she remained in a support role after the end of World War I. After returning to the United States in November 1919, she spent the next five years along the East Coast and in the Caribbean tending destroyers and conducting training missions. She was decommissioned in November 1924 and placed in reserve at the Boston Navy Yard.

After being struck from the Naval Vessel Register in October 1941, and a brief, unsuccessful attempt at merchant service early in World War II, she was transferred to the War Department for use by the United States Army in November 1942. The ship was selected for employment as a Hague Convention hospital ship and renamed USAHS Larkspur. She made three round trips to the United Kingdom before an extended tour of duty in the Mediterranean.

In January 1946, she was converted into transport ship USAT Bridgeport, destined for returning war brides and other military dependents from overseas. She continued in this role until laid up in the Reserve Fleet at Brunswick, Georgia, in 1947. Bridgeport was sold as surplus in February 1948 and broken up for scrap later that year at Mobile, Alabama.