USS ''Hector'' (AC-7) was a collier acquired by the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

prior to

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. She carried

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

to those ships still using it as fuel to build up steam for their engines, and continued that service until her wrecking and sinking in 1916. She was the

sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same Ship class, class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They o ...

of .

Construction and career

''Hector'' — the second ship to be so named by the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...

— was launched on 3 July 1909 by the

Maryland Steel Company Maryland Steel, in Sparrows Point, Maryland, US, was founded in 1887. It was acquired by Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation in 1916 and renamed as the Bethlehem Sparrows Point Shipyard. The shipyard was sold in 1997 to Baltimore Marine Industries ...

Sparrows Point, Maryland Sparrows Point is an industrial area in unincorporated Baltimore County, Maryland, United States, adjacent to Edgemere. Named after Thomas Sparrow, landowner, it was the site of a very large industrial complex owned by Bethlehem Steel, known ...

and commissioned on 22 October 1909. She was on special service with the Atlantic Fleet from commissioning through 1913, when she was stationed at

Norfolk, Virginia Norfolk ( ) is an independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. It had a population of 238,005 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in Virginia, third-most populous city ...

. From there, ''Hector'' served as a fuel ship, ferrying freight and fuel up the

U.S. East Coast The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, the Atlantic Coast, and the Atlantic Seaboard, is the region encompassing the coastline where the Eastern United States meets the Atlantic Ocean; it has always played a m ...

and down to the Caribbean, especially

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and

Santo Domingo Santo Domingo, formerly known as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city of the Dominican Republic and the List of metropolitan areas in the Caribbean, largest metropolitan area in the Caribbean by population. the Distrito Na ...

Sinking of ''Hector''

''Hector'' was battered by winds of for 16 hours during the Charleston Hurricane of 1916 while at sea in the Atlantic Ocean off

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

. She was disabled when hatches gave way and her boiler room flooded. The ship was wrecked on a reef off Point Romaine, South Carolina on 14 July 1916, breaking in two and sank three days later.

References

External links

USS ''Hector'' (Collier # 7), 1909-1916
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hector Colliers of the United States Navy Ships built in Sparrows Point, Maryland Shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean 1909 ships Maritime incidents in 1916