USS Orizaba
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USS Orizaba (ID-1536/AP-24) was a transport ship for the United States Navy in both World War I and World War II. She was the sister ship of Siboney but the two were not part of a ship class. In her varied career, she was also known as USAT Orizaba in service for the United States Army, and as SS Orizaba in interwar civilian service for the Ward Line, and as Duque de Caxias (U-11) as an auxiliary in the Brazilian Navy after World War II.
USS Orizaba (ID–1536) departing New York via the North River for France in World War I (1918)
Orizaba under construction at William Cramp & Sons in Philadelphia, c. 1917
Katharine Hepburn, seen here in 1941, sailed on Orizaba to get a Mexican divorce in 1934.
USAT Orizaba in port, 1941
USS Siboney (ID-2999)
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USS Siboney (ID-2999) was a United States Navy troopship in World War I. She was the sister ship of USS Orizaba (ID-1536). Launched as SS Oriente, she was soon renamed after Siboney, Cuba, a landing site of United States forces during the Spanish–American War. After her navy service ended, she was SS Siboney for the New York & Cuba Mail Steamship Co.. The ship was operated under charter by American Export Lines beginning in late 1940. During World War II she served the U.S. Army as transport USAT Siboney and as hospital ship USAHS Charles A. Stafford.
"Periscope" view of the Siboney in convoy, by Musician Loren C. Holmberg, USN (c. 1919), shows the dazzle camouflage applied to the ship during World War I.
The first of two lifeboats from the torpedoed British troopship Dwinsk to be rescued by Siboney on 21 June 1918
Siboney arrives in New York Harbor in late 1918 or 1919 with returning soldiers crowding the rails.
USAT Siboney in port, c. 1942–1943