SS Edenton

Edenton was delivered to the Navy three weeks after the end of World War I on 5 December 1918. She was commissioned the same day at the Puget Sound Navy Yard as USS Edenton (ID-3696), with Lieutenant Commander E. F. Kenney, USNRF, placed in command.[3]

Edenton began her one and only Navy mission on 11 December 1918, when she sailed for the east coast of the U.S. with a cargo of flour bound for Eastern Europe on a postwar famine relief mission. Arriving at New York on 27 January 1919, Edenton departed on 19 February for Trieste, Italy where her cargo was duly delivered. She then returned to the United States, arriving at New Orleans, Louisiana on 4 May. The ship was decommissioned a few days later on 12 May and returned to control of the U.S. Shipping Board.[3]

Following her decommission, Edenton was placed into merchant service by the USSB as SS Edenton. The ship appears to have ranged far and wide during this period of her career.

In the early 1920s, Edenton operated in both transatlantic and South American service, sailing between the United States and ports such as Rotterdam, the Netherlands and Havana, Cuba.[7] On 29 March 1925, Edenton suffered a collision about 35 miles east of Barcelona, Spain with a French schooner, Ville de Bassens. The schooner was sunk in the accident, but apparently no lives were lost. Edenton suffered only minor damage.[8]

By the late 1920s, the ship was in operation for the Roosevelt Line, sailing between U.S. ports such as New York and Los Angeles to various locations in the Pacific, including Honolulu, Hawaii; Manila, Philippines and the Far East.[9][10][11] By 1930, Edenton was working for American Export Lines, making mail and parcel runs to Mediterranean and Near Eastern destinations such as Casablanca, Morocco; Piraeus, Greece; Constanța, Romania and Constantinople, Turkey.[12][13]

The onset of the Great Depression in 1929–1930 substantially reduced international trade, and many mercantile vessels were laid up in this period due to lack of work. There is no record in readily available sources of Edenton's movements in the later 1930s, which indicates that she may have been one of those ships laid up.

USAT Irvin L. Hunt stranded in the Makassar Strait in 1941. The ship was refloated and served through the end of the war.

In February 1941, Edenton was acquired from the U.S. Maritime Commission by the War Department. Initially earmarked for Navy service and assigned the hull number AK-38, she was instead retained by the Army for use as a transport, and renamed USAT Irvin L. Hunt servicing the San Francisco—Honolulu—Manila route.[5][14][15]

During July 1941 the ship ran aground in the Makassar Strait, Netherlands East Indies.[14] The ship remained in Army service for the duration of the war, during which time she saw service in the Pacific Theater.[14] After the war, Irvin L. Hunt was retained by the Army until January 1947, when she was returned to the Maritime Commission as SS Edenton and placed in the reserve fleet at Astoria, Oregon.[14] Edenton was scrapped by Dulien Steel Products of Seattle, Washington in 1948.[6]