CITY OF SOUTH HAVEN-STEAMSHIP

Originally the civilian steamship City of South Haven (1903)

USS CITY OF SOUTH HAVEN, a 1719 gross ton coastal troop transport, was built at Toledo, Ohio, in 1903 as the passenger steamship of the same name. She operated commercially on the Great Lakes, primarily on southern Lake Michigan, for the next fifteen years. In April 1918 the ship was purchased by the Navy and sent to Chicago, Illinois, for conversion work.

Commissioned in November 1918,
two days before the Armistice ended the First World War fighting, CITY OF SOUTH HAVEN left the lakes later in the month and went to Boston, Massachusetts, to prepare for service in European waters. However, this requirement soon evaporated and she remained in the U.S.

Sold in December 1919,

Her new owners renamed her CITY OF MIAMI and operated her between Florida and Cuba. The steamer returned to the Great Lakes in 1923. Under the name E.G. CROSBY, she was employed on Lake Michigan until laid up in 1931. While idle at Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, she suffered massive fire damage in December 1935 and was subsequently scrapped.