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Sioux again
Dec. 6th, 2006 06:28 pmI did some web research to try to confirm or deny the accuracy of what my grandfather told me about the USS Sioux.
Turns out there have been three US Navy ships by that name. The first and the most recent were tugboats. There was quite a lot of information online about THEM, but not much about the ship in between. Which would have been my grandfather's, if his story was correct.
I did find one very short article, though. No photos. I would have liked to see what the ship looked like, but oh well. You can see the article yourself at
http://www.historycentral.com/navy/MISC%202/siouxII.html
in the unlikely event you're interested.
Grandfather's story holds up pretty well. Notably, the fact that when she arrived in La Pallice, in France, she received "urgent voyage repairs" and was then held in European waters as being unfit for service in the North Atlantic in winter. That would seem to indicate that she got thrashed within an inch of her life by a storm, as Grandfather said.
What didn't hold up was his assertion-- or the assertion I remember him making, perhaps incorrectly-- that she was outfitted by the Navy, made one voyage only, and then was scrapped. In fact the Navy used her for about a year. She made several voyages for them, including two across the Atlantic. After the war she was returned to her original owners and served them for another ten years.
I'll leave the original entry unedited, though, as an example of how verbal history can drift.
Turns out there have been three US Navy ships by that name. The first and the most recent were tugboats. There was quite a lot of information online about THEM, but not much about the ship in between. Which would have been my grandfather's, if his story was correct.
I did find one very short article, though. No photos. I would have liked to see what the ship looked like, but oh well. You can see the article yourself at
http://www.historycentral.com/navy/MISC%202/siouxII.html
in the unlikely event you're interested.
Grandfather's story holds up pretty well. Notably, the fact that when she arrived in La Pallice, in France, she received "urgent voyage repairs" and was then held in European waters as being unfit for service in the North Atlantic in winter. That would seem to indicate that she got thrashed within an inch of her life by a storm, as Grandfather said.
What didn't hold up was his assertion-- or the assertion I remember him making, perhaps incorrectly-- that she was outfitted by the Navy, made one voyage only, and then was scrapped. In fact the Navy used her for about a year. She made several voyages for them, including two across the Atlantic. After the war she was returned to her original owners and served them for another ten years.
I'll leave the original entry unedited, though, as an example of how verbal history can drift.
