Built for the North German Lloyd Lines at Schichau, Danzig, Germany at Yard No: 643. She was 13,182 gross tons, 581 feet in length and had a 62.3 foot beam. Her triple expansion engines and Schichau twin screws gave her a maximum speed of 16 kts. Passengers: 299 First class, 317 Second class, 172 Third class, 2,201 Steerage; Crew 273

Named after Frederich William, the "Great Elector" (Grosser Kurfurst) who ruled Brandenberg from 1640-1688. She was launched December 2, 1899 as Grosser Kurfurst and was completed April 26 1900. Her maiden voyage was on the Bremerhaven - New York route on May 5, 1900 and her first voyage was Bremerhaven - Australia November 7, 1900. Engaged in alternate service from Bremen to New York and Central America and from Bremen to Southampton, Suez Canal, Albany, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. The Australia voyages ended in January 1912.

On October 9, 1913 the British steamship Volturno of the Royal Line, caught fire in mid-Atlantic with 600 emigrants on board and sent out a distress call. The Grosser Kurfurst and eight other ships steamed to the rescue. The other vessels included the Seydlitz of NGL, the Carmania of Cunard Line, Kroonland of the Red Star Line, Minneapolis Atlantic Transport line, La Touraine of CGT, the Russian Czar and the British tanker Narragansett. The following morning, after the tanker Narragansett had calmed the sea by pumping out oil, 521 survivors were rescued and another 105 taken aboard Grosser Kurfurst.

When World War I broke out in Europe, Grosser Kurfurst boasted that she had "enormous carrying capacity" and "excellent passenger accommodation" for all classes from first to steerage. She was forced to seek shelter in New York in August of 1914. The United States Government interned these German ships wherever they had put into port, and upon the entrance of the United States into the hostilities on the side of the Allied and Associated Powers, on 6 April 1917, took them over for "safe keeping". Customs agents boarded the Grosser Kurfurst in the port of New York, along with 30 other German and Austro-Hungarian vessels, and sent their crews to an internment camp on Ellis Island. However, before these sailors left their ships, they carried out a program of systematic destruction calculated to take the longest possible time to repair. The Navy inspected the Grosser Kurfurst and designated her the "Id. No. 3005" and earmarked her for service with the Cruiser and Transport Force to carry troops to France.

She was commissioned into the US Navy as USS Grosser Kurfurst on 4 August 1917, at the New York Navy Yard, Comdr. Clarence S. Kempff in command. While the ship was undergoing the repairs and alterations necessitated by the German sabotage and in light of her expected role carrying troops across the Atlantic, General Order No. 320 of 1 September 1917 changed her name to USS Aeolus. Her armaments during her war years were four, 5-inch deck guns, 2 Colt machine guns, 1 Lewis machine gun, and 9 "depth mines". On 26 November 1917 the erstwhile luxury steamship now wearing war paint, departed the Port of Embarkation at Hoboken, N.J., bound for Europe on the first of eight round-trip voyages during World War I, carrying troops to the Old World. She reached St. Nazaire, France, on 10 December and spent Christmas in that French port before she headed home on the 28th bringing the voyage to a close when mooring at Newport News Va., January 9, 1918. Shifting thence to Hoboken Aeolus again sailed to France and returned from Brest again to Hoboken.

USS Aeolus in her war paint

Two events highlighted the ship's wartime convoy experiences. The first occurred during the beginning of what was to be the ship's third voyage to France. Aeolus, in convoy, departed Hoboken on 23 April 1918. Two days out, a steering gear casualty in the transport Siboney (Id. No. 2999) forced that ship to leave her assigned place in the formation. Aeolus, to avoid collision with Siboney, altered course radically, and in so doing struck the transport Huron (Id. No. 1408) at about 2100 hours, 25 April. Fortunately, no lives were lost, but both transports were damaged which necessitated their turning back. Aeolus reached Hoboken on 28 April. The second event occurred on 1 August 1918, while the ship was returning to the United States from Brest. At 0605, lookouts spotted what looked to be the wake of a submarine periscope some 6,000 yards distant. Changing course, Aeolus stood to general quarters and within a minute of the sighting, her number one and three guns commenced firing. For the next few minutes her gunners fired at the diminishing target until it pulled out of range at 0615.

While the signing of the armistice of 11 November 1918 signaled the end of hostilities an occasion that found the ship en route from St. Nazaire to Newport News, Va., it only meant the beginning of the task of returning American troops from "over there." During the war Aeolus had transported 24,770 men to the European battlefront in her eight voyages. In the postwar months, Aeolus conducted a further seven turn-around voyages, bringing back some 22,080 healthy veterans, and some 5,018 wounded and sick. Commencing her last voyage from Brest on 26 August 1919, Aeolus reached New York City on 5 September and was immediately detached from the Cruiser and Transport Force. Decommissioned at Newport News on 22 September, 1919 and turned over to the United States Shipping Board Aeolus was presumably struck simultaneously from the Navy list.

A partial list of sailings the Aeolus made and the troops she carried during WWI

Early in 1920, the Shipping Board let what one contemporary marine engineering journal called "one of the most extensive ship repair contracts ever awarded" in the history of the United States, to the Baltimore Dry Dock and Ship Building Co., of Baltimore, Md., to renovate the ship. Over the next few months Aeolus underwent massive alterations at a cost of nearly $3,000,000.

Remodeled quarters, an extensive refrigeration system to preserve cargoes of frozen meats as well as the food to be consumed during the voyage, and the conversion of the ship from coal to oil fuel, all helped to make Aeolus one of the best-equipped liners afloat. On September 10 1920, four men were killed in an explosion in the engine room. Resplendent in her new livery a battle gray hull with a white superstructure Aeolus departed Baltimore on 20 November 1920 and proceeded to New York City where, shortly thereafter, she was turned over to her operators, the Munson Steamship Company.

Aeolus sailed under the Munson Line's house flag, carrying passengers and freight to and from South American ports until the summer of 1922. Aeolus rammed and sank the British freighter Zero in South Atlantic, March of 1922 and took her crew aboard. In August of that year, she came under the flag of the Los Angeles Steamship Co. and was renamed City of Los Angeles. In September 1923 despite her age she was fitted-out by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, Quincy, as a luxury liner for 446 First class passengers. New turbines produced 11,000 SHP; 17 knots, remeasured at 12,642 gross Tons.

After being thoroughly reconditioned for her new operators, the liner sailed on 11 September 1922 for her maiden voyage under her new name, bound for Honolulu, Hawaii, in a new dazzling white paint scheme. By June 1924 she was back on the Los Angeles - Hawaii service, where she proved to be a popular ship, carrying Hollywood Stars and Business leaders. Along with her fleet mate Calawaii she sailed her regular service to and from the Hawaiian islands. In early 1931, the handsome liner figured in an experimental shore-to-ship airmail flight. A Ford tri-motor flying from the Grand Central Air Terminal at Glendale, California followed City of Los Angeles out to sea and, off the California coast, dropped a bag containing 12,527 envelopes onto the passenger liner's deck. The March 1931 issue of the Merchant Marine Bulletin speculated that this was probably the largest single consignment of airmail ever to pass through the Honolulu Post Office. LASSCO (Los Angeles Steam Ship Company) laid her up in 1932 due to world economic conditions. In 1933 Matson Line of San Francisco bought LASSCO and after a few voyages for her new owners, the City of Los Angeles was laid up in San Diego. In February 1937 loaded with scrap metal, City of Los Angeles sailed to Japan to be broken up.

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Aeolus Crew Muster

If you have a family member or know of someone who served on this ship please contact me and I will add a story about them her with thier shipmates.

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Stanley Scott

Stanley was the 10th of 11 children born to Francis "Frank" Marion Scott and Martha Jane Payne. He was born on Mar. 19, 1890 in Weir, Kansas when his parents settled there to farm, when this area was still the Indian Territory. When his older brothers reached the age of about 12, they would either run away from home or simply left to live with relatives. They all worked in the coalmines of the area. By June of 1900, Stanley, age 10, was the only one living at home with his parents on the farm in Cherokee Township, Kansas. His youngest brother had died as a child. Stanley worked on the farm with his father.

In 1901 they moved to the Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) to homestead. Stanley later returned to Kansas to work in the coalmines. On June 5, 1917 Stanley registered for the Draft and at the time was living in Arcadia, Kansas where he worked for the Doubleday Coal Company. On his draft card under the section of claiming exemptions Stanley wrote; “ Yes, Opposed to war.” And under the section of Physical appearance he was of medium build with brown eyes and light brown hair. He also listed that he had had his knee thrown out of joint. But these objections to war and his knee did not stop him from being exempt from military service. And so Stanley enlisted in the Navy during World War I when he was 27 years old. He enlisted at the U.S. Navy Recruiting Station in St. Louis, Missouri on June 19, 1917 as an apprentice seaman. His pay at date of enlistment was $16/month + $1.60/month. He was sent to the Naval Training facility at Newport, Rhode Island where he became a Seaman Second Class there on Oct. 27, 1917. He trained on the Receiving Ship at Boston for a month and then on the Receiving Ship at New York for a month. He is first recorded on the U.S.S. Aeolus on March 31, 1918 and served the rest of his time in the Navy on the Aeolus, where his S2C proficiency rating was a 3.5. Stanley became a Seaman on April 1, 1918 with a proficiency rating was then 3.7. And on January 1, 1919 became a Coxswain where his proficiency rating then ranged from 3.0-3.8. These Naval Professional Qualifications were based on proficiency rating, seamanship, ordnance, signaling, and ability as leader of men, sobriety, and obedience.

His service record indicates that he served in the War Zone aboard the troop transport USS Aeolus, for the following voyages, which entitled him to wear one war Service Chevron:

Stanley's record's were signed by the following commanding officers: E.S. Bisset (at St. Louis), R.Z. Johnson, W.A. Edgar, A.C. Hodgson, C.S. Kempff, H.G.S. Wallace, and C.C. Moses. He was last on board the Aeolus on Sept. 20, 1919 and left the Navy at the Naval Demobilization Station in St. Louis, Missouri on Sept. 22, 1919 with an honorable discharge. His pay was $41/month at the time of his discharge.

After the Navy, he returned to coal mining (digging and dynamiting) in Kentucky and in the Weir, Kansas area. When his parents became ill, he returned to Hastings, Oklahoma to care for them on their farm. Here he met and married his wife, Opal Hooper. After the deaths of his parents, he inherited this farm and worked for the WPA and drove a school bus during the Depression. He sold the farm in Oklahoma and traveled with his family (total of 9 people) in a Model A Ford and a 2-wheel trailer to California. With his savings of $500, he bought some land in the Lamont area and built his house where he was in the irrigation business there. Stanley died on July 7, 1975, at the age of 85. He is buried in the Greenlawn Cemetery, Bakersfield, California.

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