abstract
| - SS Alameda, one of four Design 1128 civilian tankers, was built by William Cramp and Sons for the United States Shipping Board, but was acquired by the U.S. Navy after her completion. After suffering a major fire in 1921, she was decommissioned in 1922 and sold. Repaired, she entered commercial service as SS Olean in 1925. Around the time the United States entry into World War II in December 1941, Olean was equipped with defensive armament and a complement of Naval Armed Guardsmen. In March 1942, the tanker was sailing unescorted off the North Carolina coast, when she was torpedoed twice by German submarineU-158 and abandoned with the loss of six men. The ship, however, remained afloat and was towed to Hampton Roads, Virginia. Although originally thought too damaged to repair, she nevertheless reentered service under the control of the War Shipping Administration in April 1943 as SS Sweep. In October 1943, the U.S. Navy selected Sweep for service as a floating storage tanker in the Pacific. The ship was transferred to Navy control in July at Eniwetok, and commissioned as USS Silver Cloud (IX-143). She was transferred to Manus in August, and to Leyte in January 1945. At the end of 1945, she sailed to Mobile, Alabama, to await disposal. Transferred to the War Shipping Administration in March 1946, she was struck from the Naval Vessel Register in April, sold for scrapping in January 1947.
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