Here is some information for you.
There have been at least four ships named MATSONIA, the most recent of which is still in operation. The MATSONIA of interest to you was built by Cramp Shipbuilding, Philadelphia, PA, in 1927, originally named MALOLO. The ship was built for and operated by the Matson Line, a company which is still in existence as Matson Inc. (She was the first ship designed by William Francis Gibbs, a famed naval architect who much later designed SS UNITED STATES, the fastest ocean liner ever built.) In 1937 MALOLO was renamed MATSONIA, replacing an earlier ship of the same name and of the same company. MALOLO/MATSONIA operated as a luxury passenger liner in the Pacific, primarily between the U.S. West Coast and Hawaii.
In November 1941 MATSONIA was requisitioned by the U.S. Navy as a troop transport, and converted to carry as many as 3,000 troops, nearly triple her civilian passenger load. She continued to operate in the Pacific, making many voyages to and from Australia, carrying troops and, after the war, war brides.
The ship was returned to Matson Line in 1946 and continued service as a passenger liner in the Pacific. Matson Line sold her in 1949 to Home Lines which renamed her ATLANTIC. (The name MATSONIA was given to a third and later a fourth Matson Line ship.) She served in the Mediterranean and Atlantic between Europe and New York. In 1955 she was sold to a Greek shipping company and renamed QUEEN FREDERICA, again operating primarily in the Mediterranean and Atlantic. She was sold to a different Greek company in 1965, retaining the same name, and operated initially between Greece and Australia, later primarily in the Mediterranean only. She was scrapped in Greece in 1977-1978.
See http://www.shipbuildinghistory.com/history/shipyards/2large/inactive/cramp.htm and scroll to hull number 509. Also see http://www.ssmaritime.com/malolo-matsonia.htm for a detailed story of her career, although there are only a few sentences on her World War II activities.
Similar to MATSONIA, there were a number of ships named COMET, at least four of which operated during World War II, although two of them had been renamed before their military service. One of them, under the name USS POLLUX, was lost off Newfoundland in 1942. Another, named USS SHASTA, was an ammunition supply ship. A third COMET, a tanker, likely operated only in the Great Lakes during the war.
The remaining ship named COMENT (and I cannot account for the “small” and “large” designations you, and now I, found on the Armed Guard website), was as follows.
USS COMET, a class C2 cargo ship, was constructed by Moore Dry Dock Co., Oakland, CA, launched in December 1943. She was immediately assigned to the U.S. Navy for conversion to a troop transport and commissioned in February 1944. She operated in the Pacific from 1944 until being decommissioned in 1946. She was sold into commercial service in 1948, renamed PIONEER REEF, sold again in 1965 and renamed AUSTRALIAN REEF, and was scrapped in Taiwan in 1970.
See:
http://www.shipbuildinghistory.com/history/shipyards/2large/inactive/moore.htm, scroll to hull number 229
http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/c11/comet-iii.htm
http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/22/22166.htm, which includes photographs of the ship
I hope you find this useful.
Ron Carlson, Webmaster
Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website
www.armed-guard.com
Responses
« Back to index | View thread »