USS Ancon (ID-1467)

USS Ancon (ID-1467) was a screw steamship in the United States Navy. As SS Ancon, she was the first ship to sail through the Panama Canal. Ancon was built in 1902 at Sparrows Point, Maryland, by the Maryland Steel Company as the SS Shawmut. About 1910 she was purchased and renamed SS Ancon, by the Panama Railroad Company for the construction of the Panama Canal. Named after Ancon Hill, home to the head of the Canal Commission, the ship was the first to officially transit the canal in 1914 [August 15], just before the outbreak of World War I. She was acquired by the Navy from the United States Army at New Orleans on 16 November 1918, five days after the armistice ended World War I. The ship was outfitted as a troop transport and commissioned on 28 March 1919, Lt. Comdr. Milan L. Pittman, USNRF, in command. Continued