SS Edenton

SS Edenton was a steel-hulled cargo ship built in 1918 for the United States Shipping Board as part of the Board's World War I emergency shipbuilding program.

Edenton briefly served in the U.S. Navy in the immediate postwar period as USS Edenton (ID-3696), participating in a famine relief mission to Eastern Europe before decommissioning in 1919. Between the wars, the ship was placed into commercial service as SS Edenton.

In early 1941, Edenton was acquired by the War Department for service with the U.S. Army. Considered for transfer to Navy as AK-38 but retained by the Army for use as a transport and renamed USAT Irvin L. Hunt. Irvin L. Hunt survived the war and after transfer to the Maritime Commission, was again renamed SS Edenton. The ship was scrapped in 1948.

Construction and design

Edenton was built in Seattle, Washington in 1918 at the No. 1 Plant of the Skinner & Eddy Corporation—the first in a series of 23 Design 1079 cargo ships built by Skinner & Eddy under the USSB's emergency wartime shipbuilding program. The ship was laid down on 3 September, launched 52½ working (66 calendar) days later on 9 November, and delivered on 5 December—a total time under construction of just 70 working (92 calendar) days.