USAT Merritt US National Archives RG-111-US Army Signal Corps still photo collection

The USAT Merritt. Built in China in 1912 for the U.S. Army Quartermaster Department, she would ply the Philippines and run a shuttle service to Hawaii and California for 20 years. Sold on the commercial market as SS Bisayas, she was lost in 1942 to the Japanese who raised her and put her back in service as the Hishigata Maru until the USAAF sent her to the bottom for a final time in 1945.

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