USS Oglala

USS Oglala (ID-1255/CM-4/ARG-1) was a minelayer in the United States Navy. Commissioned as Massachusetts, she was renamed Shawmut a month later, and in 1928, was renamed after the Oglala, a sub-tribe of the Lakota, residing in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Massachusetts was built as a fast cargo vessel for the New England Navigation Company by William Cramp & Sons of Philadelphia in 1907. In 1911 the ship was sold to the Maine Steamship Company and converted to passenger service. The next year Massachusetts was sold to the Eastern Steamship Corporation. The ship then operated in overnight coastal passenger steamer service through the Cape Cod Canal and Long Island Sound between Boston and New York City. After the US entered World War I, Massachusetts and her sister ship Bunker Hill, were among eight civilian steamships purchased to lay the North Sea Mine Barrage.

Three new ships for the New England Navigation Company, controlled by the New Haven railroad interests, were designed to compete with the Metropolitan Line vessels Yale and Harvard using the outside, offshore passage yet be capable of using the inside passage through sounds. The three vessels were designed by the Quintard Iron Works Company of New York with heavy construction for offshore operation and characteristics necessary for inshore operation. The main deck, with the exception of machinery was designed for 1,500 tons of cargo. The second deck had officers quarters and a few passenger staterooms with more officers quarters on the upper deck. Massachusetts and Bunker Hill had reciprocating engines driving twin screws while the later Old Colony, otherwise identical, was designed with Parsons turbines driving triple screws.

Massachusetts was laid down in 1907, by the William Cramp & Sons Ship & Engine Building Company at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as hull number 342, U.S. Official Number 204012 and signal KWBM, for the New England Navigation Company. The ship was launched 29 January 1907.

As built propulsion machinery was by two four cylinder, triple expansion engines supplied with steam by eight single ended boilers. The vessel was twin screw with the contract requiring the engines develop 7,000 horsepower. The ship made a trial run on 4 June 1907 between New York and Fall River exceeded requirements for 18 kn (21 mph; 33 km/h) with 720 tons of cargo making the run in 7 hours and 48 minutes with an average speed of 20 kn (23 mph; 37 km/h) with 800 tons of cargo.

The conversion in 1911 changed registered tonnage from 4,029 GRT, 1,724 NRT to 4,779 GRT, 2,575 NRT and depth of hold from 31.6 ft (9.6 m) to 30.2 ft (9.2 m). Registered crew size went from 60 to 107

Along with her sister ships, Bunker Hill and Old Colony, Massachusetts provided overnight coastal cargo steamer service through the Cape Cod Canal and Long Island Sound between New York City, Boston, and Portland, Maine.

In 1911, Massachusetts and Bunker Hill returned to the Cramp & Sons shipyard for conversion to passenger service and from coal to fuel oil in 1912 with the ship being sold to the Eastern Steamship Corporation. Financial difficulties forced Eastern Steamship Corporation into receivership in 1914, and it emerged three years later as the Eastern Steamship Lines.