The SS Ulysses was the first of two steel-hulled, twin screw colliers constructed at Sparrows Point, Maryland by the Maryland Steel Company for the Panama Canal Company. The ships were to a Navy design and built under naval supervision but with major differences from the two previously constructed Navy colliers, and. Unlike the Navy ships and many colliers the ships had ten cargo handling king posts rather than the tall, specialized coaling booms as the ships were designed to transport coal to the Panama Canal and be unloaded by equipment there.
Construction
The keel was laid 19 May 1914 as hull number 144 with launch on 12 December 1914 and trials 14–15 April 1915. On 17 April 1915 was delivered at the Norfolk Navy Yard to the Panama Canal Company. Ulysses were registered at,, length overall, length between perpendiculars, beam, molded depth with a loaded draft of. Steam power was by means of three double ended diameter Scotch marine boilers that were long operating under forced draft. Main propulsion was by two triple expansionsteam engines with combined indicated 7,200 horsepower driving two screws with pitch adjustment from to for a design speed of. On trials Ulysses averaged on the standardization course. Two 25 kilowatt generators provided electrical power and a two-ton refrigeration unit was installed for ship's stores. Accommodation was designed for 32 officers and 146 men. The ship was designed to transport coal to the Panama Canal and then be unloaded by equipment there and thus did not have the coaling booms so characteristic of colliers designed for direct ship to ship coaling operations. Acceptance test for the unloader towers in Panama took place on 28 February 1916 first using Ulysses and then Achilles. Problems with the unloading towers were revealed during that test that delayed acceptance. Four cargo holds for coal and two oil holds forward were covered by hatches designed to hinge upward and served by ten king posts for raising and lowering the covers.
Operation
Ulysses shuttled between Hampton Roads and the Panama Canal Zone, carrying coal to Cristobal, into 1917. During World War I the ship received a main battery of one 5-inch gun and a 3-inch gun and a Navy armed guard crew to man them while the ship continued to discharge her longstanding duties. The guns were apparently removed shortly after the Armistice ended hostilities. Throughout the War, Ulysses belonged to the Panama Canal Company and operated under the control of the Panama Railroad. She continued in this status after peace returned until 1929, the last year in which her name appeared on shipping registers.
