On 16 October 1918, Munsomo departed with a mixed cargo for a second transatlantic crossing in convoy, reaching Brest, France, on 2 November 1918. She proceeded to Nantes to ballast, then returned to the United States, arriving at Newport News, Virginia, on 29 November 1918.
Munsomo next made a run to Antilla, Cuba, carrying general supplies and returned to the United States with a cargo of sugar, arriving at New York City.
She returned to mercantile service as SS Munsomo. In 1938, she was sold to Italian interests and renamed SS Capo Orso. Capo Orso was sunk during World War II by a torpedo dropped by a torpedo plane.
^The length of 828 ft 6 in (253 m) cited in the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS) (athttp://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/m15/munsomo.htm) and by NavSource Online (athttp://www.navsource.org/archives/12/171607.htm) clearly is a great exaggeration of the ship's length. The online version of DANFS appears to have been created by optical scanning of a hard copy, and contains frequent scanner errors; in this case, the initial "3" in her length of 328 feet 6 inches must have been misscanned as an "8", and the resulting length of "828" feet was simply copied without question by NavSource Online. A length of 828 feet 6 inches would have made Munsomo – in reality an average-sized ship – one of the largest of her time.
United States
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
