USAT Buford - Ship's History

Ship's History

The ship had begun life as the SS Mississippi, constructed by Harland & Wolff of Belfast, Ireland for Bernard N. Baker of Baltimore and the Atlantic Transport Line. She was launched on August 29, 1890 and began her maiden voyage, from London, on October 28, 1890. In command was her first captain, Hamilton Murrell, "Hero of the Danmark Disaster," who a year earlier had saved 735 lives from the sinking Danish passenger ship Danmark, the largest single rescue at the time.

For the first year of her career, the Mississippi plied the waters between London, Swansea, Philadelphia and Baltimore.

In January, 1892, the Mississippi was moved to the London-New York route, where she remained until she was purchased by the U.S. Army Quartermaster Department as part of a seven ship deal on June 24, 1898 and became an army transport ship, serving in the Spanish American War. The Mississippi was assigned the number "25" on July 5, 1898. However, she sailed under her given name until March 2, 1899, the following year, when she was officially renamed USAT Buford, in honor of Gen. John T. Buford, the Union cavalry officer and hero of the Battle of Gettysburg of the American Civil War.

On May 28, 1900, Buford entered the naval yards of the Newport News Ship-Building Company for a major refitting as a troop-ship for service between the United States and the Philippines. Two of her original four masts were removed; the other two were replaced with long masts. Once back in service, Buford regularly sailed from San Francisco to Honolulu and Guam terminating in Manila, and returning via Nagasaki and Honolulu.

At 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, Buford was in San Francisco when the Great Quake of 1906 struck. She was taken from the pier into the bay to avoid the resultant fire and was one of three transports - Buford, Crook and Warren - used in the harbor as temporary storehouses for the supplies coming into the stricken city by sea in the weeks following the disaster.

In 1907 and 1911, Buford was involved in famine relief missions to China. In 1912–1916, she was involved in refugee and troop missions during the Mexican Revolution. Buford was in Galveston harbor when a massive hurricane hit on August 17, 1915 and was the city's sole line of communication to the outside world through her radio.

With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Buford continued her refugee rescue work, bringing away Americans who wished to flee the European fighting. She supported of the American war effort once the U.S. entered the conflict.

In December 1918, Buford underwent another refit to prepare her for transporting American Expeditionary Force troops home from the war. On January 14, 1919 she was transferred to the U.S. Navy, commissioned as the USS Buford (ID 3818) the next day, and assigned to troop transport duty. During the next half-year she made four round trip voyages between the United States and France, bringing home over 4700 soldiers. She made one more voyage to the Panama Canal Zone before she was decommissioned by the Navy on September 2, 1919 and returned to the Army Transport Service.