USS Orizaba: Difference between revisions

By the early 1930s, ''Orizaba''{{'s}} typical route had remained virtually the same, though Nassau and Tampico were dropped as ports of call.<ref name=1933WardLine>{{cite web |title=Proposed sailings and passenger fares |publisher=[[Ward Line|New York and Cuba Mail Steamship Company]] |date=1 June 1933 |url=http://www.timetableimages.com/maritime/images/cml.htm |format=scan and summary of timetable |via=Maritime Timetable Images |access-date=21 January 2008}}</ref> It was in this period that American poet [[Hart Crane]] leapt to his death from ''Orizaba''. At around noon on 27 April 1932, while the ship was headed to New York—some {{convert|275|mi}} north of Havana and {{convert|10|mi}} off the Florida coast—Crane, clad in pajamas and overcoat, climbed the rail at the stern of the ship and plunged into the ocean. The captain of ''Orizaba'' immediately stopped the ship and launched four lifeboats that searched in vain for two hours, but no trace of the poet was ever found. Before he jumped, Crane had been drinking and, the night before, had been the victim of violence after an unwanted pick-up attempt of a crewman ended with a severe beating.<ref name=BrokenTower>Mariani, pp. 418–421.</ref>

 

In 1934, ''Orizaba'' was allocated the Code Letters WECX.<ref name=Orizaba34>{{cite journal |url=http://www.plimsollshipdata.org/pdffile.php?name=34b0634.pdf |title=Lloyd's Register, Steamers and Motorships |journal=Lloyd's Register |year=1934 |publisher=Lloyd's of London |access-date=27 May 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303221553/http://www.plimsollshipdata.org/pdffile.php?name=34b0634.pdf |archive-date=3 March 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In April 1934, American actress [[Katharine Hepburn]] sailed from New York on ''Orizaba'', eventually ending up in [[Mérida, Yucatán]]. After her arrival there on 22 April, she filed for divorce from businessman [[Ludlow Ogden Smith|Ludlow ("Luddy") Ogden Smith]], whom she had married in December 1928. After the divorce was finalized she and her travel companion, Laura Harding, planned to spend a week in Havana and return to New York on the Ward Line ship {{SS|Morro Castle|1930|2}}.<ref>{{cite news |last=Menendez |first=Carlos R |title=Katharine Hepburn in Yucatan awaiting action on divorce suit |work=[[The Atlanta Journal-Constitution|The Atlanta Constitution]] |date=2 May 1934 |page=19}}</ref> Other notable passengers on ''Orizaba'' in the 1930s included Ecuadorean diplomat [[Gonzalo Zaldumbide]] and Cuban president [[Fulgencio Batista]]. Zaldumbide, the Ecuadorean [[Minister (diplomacy)|Minister]] to the United States, sailed to Mexico for his new posting as Minister to Mexico in August 1932.<ref>{{cite news |title=Envoys plan leaving city on vacations |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=31 July 1932 |page=S1}}</ref> In February 1939, ''Orizaba'' carried Cuban leader Fulgencio Batista back to Havana after a two-week goodwill visit to Mexico.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30C12F73A5B177A93C5A81789D85F4D8385F9&scp=17&sq=Orizaba |format=fee |title=Cuban reception to Batista mixed |first=R. Hart |last=Phillips |work=The New York Times |date=17 February 1939 |access-date=22 January 2008 |page=11}}</ref>

 

At 650 on 21 December 1941, the [[USS Mount Vernon (AP-22)]] and USS Orizaba detached from the convoy headed for Bombay, and are bound for Mombasa. The remainder of the convoy continued to Bombay under the escort of DORSETSHIRE, arriving on 27 December 1941.

 

 

Following several months of coastal operations, ''Orizaba'', now armed with two [[5"/38 caliber gun|{{convert|5|in|mm|adj=on}}&nbsp;guns]] and four [[3"/50 caliber gun|{{convert|3|in|mm|adj=on}}&nbsp;guns]], departed New York in April 1942 on the first transatlantic run of her Second World War. Sailing via [[Iceland]], she steamed to [[England]], [[Cape Town]], [[Recife]], and [[Norfolk, Virginia|Norfolk]], [[Virginia]], from which she got underway for [[Bermuda]] and [[Puerto Rico]]. Returning to Norfolk in January 1943, she plied the [[East Coast of the United States|eastern seaboard]] for a month, then took up transatlantic duties again. Until July she traversed the ocean to [[Oran]], [[Algeria]], carrying troops over and prisoners of war back to New York.<ref name=DANFS-Orizaba />