USS Sudbury

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USS Sudbury began life as the Shawmut Steamship Company cargo ship Sudbury, hull number 340, built by the Merchant Shipbuilding Corporation in Chester, Pennsylvania. She was launched on 29 September 1917, completed in March 1918, and was taken over by the U.S. Navy on 5 March 1918, commissioned the same day as USS Sudbury (ID-2149).

During World War I she served with the Naval Overseas Transportation Service, carrying Army supplies to France. She left Philadelphia on 20 March 1918, joined a convoy in New York, and sailed for Brest, arriving 8 April 1918. She then proceeded to Bordeaux, unloaded, and returned to New York on 5 May 1918. On her maiden voyage a turbine problem limited speed to about 9 knots, but she completed three more trips to France in 1918. In January 1919 she departed Philadelphia for Trieste, returning to Philadelphia by 3 April 1919. She was decommissioned and stricken from the Navy List on 11 April 1919 and returned to the U.S. Shipping Board.

The Shawmut Line operated Sudbury until 1925, after which she passed to the American Ship and Commerce group through various companies. In 1927 she was renamed Munbeaver, owned by the Sudbury Steam Ship Corporation. By 1930 she was with the Munson Steamship Line, and later in the 1930s she was sold to an Italian company, Cia Genovese di Naviga Vapori SA, Genoa, and renamed Capo Alba.

In 1941 Capo Alba operated in the Atlantic and sought refuge in the Canary Islands. She left Tenerife on 1 April 1941 and was later taken over by Germany on 8 September 1943. Capo Alba was damaged by bombing at Nantes in March 1944 and scuttled there on 18 August 1944. The hulk was raised and broken up in 1946.

As built, Sudbury was a 5,075-GRT cargo ship with a displacement of 10,400 tons. She measured about 402 feet 1 inch in length, 51 feet 2 inches in beam, and had a mean draft of 23 feet 10.5 inches. Propulsion came from a Westinghouse steam turbine with one propeller, giving about 11 knots. Her crew numbered about 52 in 1918 (104 per later records). Armament during wartime included one 5-inch, 51-caliber gun and one 6-pounder gun.

Officially, Sudbury carried the number 215991 with signal LJQV and had Boston as home port.