Kanawha (1899)
Encyclopedia
Kanawha was a 471-ton steam-powered
luxury yacht
initially built in 1899 for millionaire industrialist and financier Henry Huttleston Rogers
(1840–1909). One of the key men in the Standard Oil Trust, Rogers was one of the last of the robber barons
of the Gilded Age
in the United States
. He was also a "secret" philanthropist
.
Rogers was a major developer of coal
and railroad properties in West Virginia
along the Kanawha River
. Aboard the Kanawha, he frequently hosted his friends, including American humorist Mark Twain
and black
educator Booker T. Washington
.
After Rogers' death in 1909, the Kanawha served the U.S. Navy
during World War I
. After the war, it was sold to Marcus Garvey
's ill-fated Black Star Line
and renamed the S.S. Antonio Maceo. However, the former luxury yacht was apparently in poor condition by this time. A boiler
, used to generate steam to drive the ship, exploded, and a crew man was killed, while the vessel was located off the Virginia coast
on its first voyage from New York to Cuba
.
section of the Bronx
, New York City
. The shipyard moved after World War II
. The former shipyard property became part of Roberto Clemente State Park
.
The 471-ton Kanawha was approximately 200 feet (61 m) long. Manned by a crew of 39 people, Kanawha was often compared by the newspapers of the day to the North Star, the yacht of a member of the Vanderbilt family
. Even among its contemporaries in the fleet of the New York Yacht Club
, Kanawha was a large vessel, noted for her exceptional speed.
. Among his many other activities, Rogers was an active investor and developer of West Virginia's coal
lands and railroads in the area of the Kanawha River
in the late 19th and early 20th century.
The latter included the Kanawha and Pocahontas Railroad Company incorporated in 1898. Its line ran 15 miles (24.1 km) from the Kanawha River up a tributary called Paint Creek. Rogers negotiated its lease to the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway
(C&O) in 1901 and its sale to a newly formed C&O subsidiary, Kanawha and Paint Creek Railway Company, in 1902.
That same year, Rogers began investing with William Nelson Page
in the Deepwater Railway
, which was built south into new coal lands from Deepwater
in Fayette County
on the Kanawha River.
(1840–1909) was a self-made man from Fairhaven, Massachusetts
, a fishing village just over the bridge from the great whaling
port, New Bedford
. Fairhaven borders the Acushnet River
to the west and Buzzards Bay
to the south.
In the mid 1850s, whaling was already an industry in decline in New England
. Competition from Scandinavia
n water men, and the emergence of petroleum
and later natural gas
as a replacement fuel for lighting in the second half of the 19th century, caused a much further decline. Henry Rogers' father was one of the many men of New England who changed from a life on the sea to other work to provide for their families. However, the emergence of the petroleum industry
was to become the initial source of success for Henry Rogers.
"Hen" Rogers, as his friends knew him, had married his childhood sweetheart, Abbie Palmer Gifford
, the daughter of a retired ship captain, and gone to work in the newly-discovered oil fields of western Pennsylvania
. After several years of living in a shack at McClintocksville
(near Oil City
), and operating the small Wamsutta Oil Refinery
with a partner, Rogers had come to the attention of Charles Pratt
, an early pioneer of the emerging petroleum industry in the United States. Abbie and Henry Rogers and their young daughter Anne moved to the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn
, New York
, where he worked in Pratt's kerosene
refinery Astral Oil Works
. Pratt's product later gave rise to the slogan, "The holy lamps of Tibet are primed with Astral Oil".
Henry Rogers often slept on the floor of the Brooklyn refinery between work shifts, with Abbie bringing his meals to him there. While working for Pratt at Greenpoint, Rogers invented an improved way of separating naphtha
(a light oil similar to kerosene) from crude oil. He was granted U.S. Patent #120,539 on October 31, 1871. Rogers became Pratt's protégé and was made a partner in the newly-formed Charles Pratt and Company
.
By the mid-1870s, as his family eventually grew to 5 children, Rogers crafted a deal for with John D. Rockefeller
for Pratt principals to join his enterprises. Charles Pratt retired soon thereafter and founded Pratt Institute
, and his son, Charles Millard Pratt
, became Secretary of Standard Oil
. Rogers was quite a bit younger than his early mentor, and soon thrived within Rockefeller's organization, rising in the years thereafter to become a principal and a Vice President of the Standard Oil Trust by 1890.
Even after he was well-off financially, Henry Rogers continued to be what was many year later termed "a workaholic". He was an active developer of all types of natural resources and transportation enterprises. Soon, he had investments of his own own in natural gas, copper
, steel
, coal, and railroad industries. By 1899, he had already become one of the richest men in the United States.
s of the Gilded Age
, and was widely known by the nickname "Hell Hound Rogers".
Abbie had died suddenly in 1894. His children were now grown. Rogers subsequently married a divorcée, Emelie Augusta Randel Hart, and they lived in a townhouse in New York City, and maintained a large 85-room summer home at Fairhaven. Rogers and his family had given various public buildings and infrastructure to their hometown, and they vacationed at Fairhaven frequently.
in Virginia
. Among his personal friends were such diverse people as humorist Mark Twain
, leading black educator Booker T. Washington
, teacher Anne Sullivan
and her amazing deaf and blind pupil Helen Keller
, as well as Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie
. Rogers paid for Keller's education at Radcliffe College
. Twain and Washington were frequent guests aboard the Kanawha.
The newspapers, the leading media of the era, seemed to delight in attempting to monitor and report on the travels of the yacht, especially when Mark Twain was aboard. The archives of The New York Times
contain many published reports of their travels, which included at least one cruise together in 1902 north to the coast of Maine
, New Brunswick
and Nova Scotia
.
In April 1907, Rogers, Twain, and friends sailed to attend the opening day festivities of the Jamestown Exposition
held at Sewell's Point
in a rural section of Norfolk County, Virginia
. Twain's public popularity was such that large numbers of citizens paid to ride touring boats out to where the Kanawha was anchored in Hampton Roads in hopes of getting a glimpse of him. As the gathering of boats around the yacht became a safety hazard, he finally obliged by coming on deck and waving to the crowds.
When they were ready to depart the Norfolk
area, due to poor weather conditions the steam yacht was delayed by its captain for several days from leaving the Hampton Roads area and venturing into the Atlantic Ocean
. Rogers and some of the others in his party (without Twain) returned to New York by railroad. Due to his dislike of traveling by rail, Twain elected to return aboard the Kanawha, despite the delay. However, the news media reporters lost track of Twain's whereabouts; when he failed to return to New York City as scheduled, The New York Times speculated that he had been "lost at sea."
Upon arriving safely in New York and learning of this, to the relief (and likely delight) of his admiring public and no doubt to the great embarrassment of the journalists at the Times, the humorist issued essentially a replay of his famous "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated" statement. (He had originally sent this message in 1897 by cable from London
to the newspapers in the United States after his obituary had been mistakenly published.)
This time, Twain said, in part,
Later that year, Mark Twain and Rogers' son, Henry Jr. (Harry), returned to the Jamestown Exposition aboard the Kanawha. The departure from New York of the Kanawha, as well as that of Cornelius Vanderbilt
's steam yacht, the North Star, which left at the same time, was dutifully reported by The New York Times. The humorist helped host Robert Fulton Day
on September 23, 1907, celebrating the centennial of Fulton's invention of the steamboat. Twain was filling in for ailing former U.S. President Grover Cleveland
, and introduced Rear Admiral Purnell F. Harrington.
Known but to a very few, through Booker T. Washington, "Hell Hound Rogers" was a secret philanthropist
, encouraging the Negro educator and aiding in his educational efforts for African American
s by deploying a new concept which came to be known as anonymous donor matching funds
to contribute very large amounts of money in support of several teacher's colleges
(now Hampton University
and Tuskegee University
) and literally dozens of small schools in the South over the same 15-year period of the Twain-Rogers friendship.
Dr. Washington only revealed this situation in June 1909 just weeks after Rogers' death as he made a pre-planned tour along the Virginian Railway, traveling in Rogers' private rail car "Dixie".
, completed in 1909, which extended 450 miles (724.2 km) from the Kanawha River to coal pier
s at Sewell's Point
on Hampton Roads near Norfolk, Virginia.
The VGN was planned and initially developed in secrecy right under the noses of some of Rogers' contemporaries, notably Alexander Cassatt
and William Vanderbilt
, heads of the Pennsylvania Railroad
(PRR) and New York Central Railroad
(NYC) respectively. They had secretly entered into a "community of interests pact" to control the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway
(C&O) and the Norfolk and Western Railway
(N&W) in the coal fields, and block all competitors.
Ostensibly headed by coal mining manager William Nelson Page
, with Rogers as a silent partner
, the leaders of the big railroads were skeptical that Page could finance and complete his venture, which had issued no bonds, and sold no stock. The fact they didn't know was that the new $40 million dollar Virginian Railway was financed almost entirely from Rogers' personal fortune. However, that situation was apparently the source of considerable stress to him after the Financial Panic of 1907
put an unexpected strain on his resources. In the summer of 1907, Rogers suffered a stroke
, and took 5 months to recover. He regained his health, at least to most appearances. By mid-1908, he had made the necessary financial adjustments, and the construction on his railroad had resumed. The new Virginian Railway's coal pier was at Sewell's Point, right next door to the Jamestown Exposition site.
The railroad had a final spike ceremony on January 29, 1909, which was also Henry Rogers' 69th birthday. In April of that year, during a tour along the new railroad in his private railcar, Dixie, he was feted with celebrations by communities all along the new rail line, notably at Norfolk, Victoria
, and Roanoke
in Virginia, and at Princeton, West Virginia
.
However, despite the celebrations of early 1909, Rogers was not destined to live to see his new railroad in full operation, scheduled for July 1.
. On the morning of Wednesday, May 20, 1909, he awoke at his townhouse in New York City, and complained to his wife that he was feeling poorly. She immediately called for his doctor, but within the hour, he was dead from another stroke. Following an elaborate funeral in New York City, his body was transported by train to Massachusetts, and he was interred at Fairhaven that Saturday next to his beloved Abbie in Riverside Cemetery. He had outlived her by only one day short of 15 years.
The master of the Kanawha would not be returning to the luxury yacht. Not much seems to be recorded about the fate of the Kanawha in the period immediately following the death of its original owner. Rogers' only son, Henry Jr., had the family's large summer home in Fairhaven torn down soon thereafter. It also seems unlikely that adequate funds among the Rogers children and their families, or even the will to continue cruises of the Kanawha, survived the death of the Standard Oil magnate and founder of the Virginian Railway.
. The Navy had earlier had another ship also named Kanawha, USS Kanawha (AO-1)
— a fleet oiler built in 1914. To avoid potential confusion, the former Rogers yacht was commissioned by the Navy as USS Kanawha II (SP-130)
.
Following brief service in the vicinity of New York City, in June 1917 Kanawha II became one of the early ships sent across the Atlantic Ocean to operate in European waters. For the rest of the War, and for some months after the November 1918 Armistice, the ex-yacht performed patrol and convoy escort missions off western France, making occasional contact with German
submarines
.
In March 1918, Kanawha II was renamed USS Piqua, probably to avoid message confusion with the Navy oiler. In the summer of 1918, she was the flagship
of the U.S. District Commander based at Lorient
, France
.
Her European service ended in May 1919, when Piqua began a month-long voyage back to the United States. She was decommissioned and returned to her owner at the beginning of July 1919.
was a shipping line incorporated by Marcus Garvey
, who organized the United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). The Black Star Line derived its name from the White Star Line
, another shipping line whose success Garvey felt he could duplicate, which would become a standard of his Back-to-Africa movement
.
Unfortunately for Garvey and his efforts, the ships he purchased beginning in 1919 were apparently both overpriced and in poor condition. Among these was the once-grand and well-maintained Kanawha. It was noted that Dr. Washington, the late educator, had been an honored guest aboard the ship years earlier. Renamed by the Black Star Line the S.S. Antonio Maceo, after putting in for unplanned repairs at Norfolk
, it blew a boiler
and killed a man off the Virginia coast
on its first voyage from New York to Cuba
, and had to be towed back to New York. The Black Star Line stopped sailing in February 1922, and was soon out of business.
Steamboat
A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels...
luxury yacht
Yacht
A yacht is a recreational boat or ship. The term originated from the Dutch Jacht meaning "hunt". It was originally defined as a light fast sailing vessel used by the Dutch navy to pursue pirates and other transgressors around and into the shallow waters of the Low Countries...
initially built in 1899 for millionaire industrialist and financier Henry Huttleston Rogers
Henry H. Rogers
Henry Huttleston Rogers was a United States capitalist, businessman, industrialist, financier, and philanthropist. He made his fortune in the oil refinery business, becoming a leader at Standard Oil....
(1840–1909). One of the key men in the Standard Oil Trust, Rogers was one of the last of the robber barons
Robber baron (industrialist)
Robber baron is a pejorative term used for a powerful 19th century American businessman. By the 1890s the term was used to attack any businessman who used questionable practices to become wealthy...
of the Gilded Age
Gilded Age
In United States history, the Gilded Age refers to the era of rapid economic and population growth in the United States during the post–Civil War and post-Reconstruction eras of the late 19th century. The term "Gilded Age" was coined by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in their book The Gilded...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. He was also a "secret" philanthropist
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...
.
Rogers was a major developer of coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
and railroad properties in West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
along the Kanawha River
Kanawha River
The Kanawha River is a tributary of the Ohio River, approximately 97 mi long, in the U.S. state of West Virginia. The largest inland waterway in West Virginia, it has formed a significant industrial region of the state since the middle of the 19th century.It is formed at the town of Gauley...
. Aboard the Kanawha, he frequently hosted his friends, including American humorist Mark Twain
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
and black
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
educator Booker T. Washington
Booker T. Washington
Booker Taliaferro Washington was an American educator, author, orator, and political leader. He was the dominant figure in the African-American community in the United States from 1890 to 1915...
.
After Rogers' death in 1909, the Kanawha served the U.S. Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. After the war, it was sold to Marcus Garvey
Marcus Garvey
Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr., ONH was a Jamaican publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, and orator who was a staunch proponent of the Black Nationalism and Pan-Africanism movements, to which end he founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League...
's ill-fated Black Star Line
Black Star Line
The Black Star Line was a shipping line incorporated by Marcus Garvey, organizer of the Universal Negro Improvement Association . The shipping line was supposed to facilitate the transportation of goods and eventually African Americans throughout the African global economy...
and renamed the S.S. Antonio Maceo. However, the former luxury yacht was apparently in poor condition by this time. A boiler
Boiler
A boiler is a closed vessel in which water or other fluid is heated. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications.-Materials:...
, used to generate steam to drive the ship, exploded, and a crew man was killed, while the vessel was located off the Virginia coast
Graveyard of the Atlantic
Graveyard of the Atlantic is a nickname of two locations known for numerous shipwrecks: the treacherous waters in the Atlantic Ocean along the Outer Banks of North Carolina and the Virginia coastline south of the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay at Cape Henry; and around Sable Island, off the coast...
on its first voyage from New York to Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
.
Builder
Consolidated Shipbuilding was a builder of luxury yachts. The Kanawha was built in 1899 at the shipyard on Matthewson Road, in the Morris HeightsMorris Heights, Bronx
Morris Heights is a low income residential neighborhood located in the west Bronx. The neighborhood is part of Bronx Community Board 5. Its boundaries, starting from the north and moving clockwise are: West Burnside Avenue to the north, Jerome Avenue to the east, the Cross-Bronx Expressway to the...
section of the Bronx
The Bronx
The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. The shipyard moved after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The former shipyard property became part of Roberto Clemente State Park
Roberto Clemente State Park
Roberto Clemente State Park is a state park in the South Bronx, New York in the USA. The park is in the northern part of New York City, adjacent to the Harlem River, the Major Deegan Expressway and the Morris Heights station on Metro-North's Hudson Line...
.
The 471-ton Kanawha was approximately 200 feet (61 m) long. Manned by a crew of 39 people, Kanawha was often compared by the newspapers of the day to the North Star, the yacht of a member of the Vanderbilt family
Vanderbilt family
The Vanderbilt family is an American family of Dutch origin prominent during the Gilded Age. It started off with the shipping and railroad empires of Cornelius Vanderbilt, and expanded into various other areas of industry and philanthropy...
. Even among its contemporaries in the fleet of the New York Yacht Club
New York Yacht Club
The New York Yacht Club is a private social club and yacht club based in New York City and Newport, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1844 by nine prominent sportsmen. The members have contributed to the sport of yachting and yacht design. The organization has over 3,000 members as of 2011. ...
, Kanawha was a large vessel, noted for her exceptional speed.
Source of original name
The name Kanawha was probably selected by the original owner, Henry Huttleston RogersHenry H. Rogers
Henry Huttleston Rogers was a United States capitalist, businessman, industrialist, financier, and philanthropist. He made his fortune in the oil refinery business, becoming a leader at Standard Oil....
. Among his many other activities, Rogers was an active investor and developer of West Virginia's coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
lands and railroads in the area of the Kanawha River
Kanawha River
The Kanawha River is a tributary of the Ohio River, approximately 97 mi long, in the U.S. state of West Virginia. The largest inland waterway in West Virginia, it has formed a significant industrial region of the state since the middle of the 19th century.It is formed at the town of Gauley...
in the late 19th and early 20th century.
The latter included the Kanawha and Pocahontas Railroad Company incorporated in 1898. Its line ran 15 miles (24.1 km) from the Kanawha River up a tributary called Paint Creek. Rogers negotiated its lease to the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway
Chesapeake and Ohio Railway
The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis P...
(C&O) in 1901 and its sale to a newly formed C&O subsidiary, Kanawha and Paint Creek Railway Company, in 1902.
That same year, Rogers began investing with William Nelson Page
William N. Page
William Nelson Page was an American civil engineer, entrepreneur, industrialist and capitalist. He was active in the Virginias following the U.S. Civil War...
in the Deepwater Railway
Deepwater Railway
The Deepwater Railway was an intrastate short line railroad located in West Virginia in the United States which operated from 1898 to 1907.William N. Page, a civil engineer and entrepreneur, had begun a small logging railroad in Fayette County in 1896, sometimes called the Loup Creek and Deepwater...
, which was built south into new coal lands from Deepwater
Deepwater, West Virginia
Deep Water, also known historically as Deepwater, is an unincorporated census-designated place on the Kanawha River in Fayette County, West Virginia, United States. As of the 2010 census, its population was 280. It is best known as the starting point of the Deepwater Railway founded in 1898 by...
in Fayette County
Fayette County, West Virginia
As of the census of 2000, there were 47,579 people, 18,945 households, and 13,128 families residing in the county. The population density was 72 people per square mile . There were 21,616 housing units at an average density of 33 per square mile...
on the Kanawha River.
Henry Huttleston Rogers
Henry Huttleston RogersHenry H. Rogers
Henry Huttleston Rogers was a United States capitalist, businessman, industrialist, financier, and philanthropist. He made his fortune in the oil refinery business, becoming a leader at Standard Oil....
(1840–1909) was a self-made man from Fairhaven, Massachusetts
Fairhaven, Massachusetts
Fairhaven is a town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It is located on the south coast of Massachusetts where the Acushnet River flows into Buzzards Bay, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean...
, a fishing village just over the bridge from the great whaling
Whaling
Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...
port, New Bedford
New Bedford, Massachusetts
New Bedford is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States, located south of Boston, southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, and about east of Fall River. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 95,072, making it the sixth-largest city in Massachusetts...
. Fairhaven borders the Acushnet River
Acushnet River
The Acushnet River is the largest river, long, flowing into Buzzards Bay in southeastern Massachusetts, in the United States. The name "Acushnet" comes from the Wampanoag or Algonquian word, "Cushnea", meaning "as far as the waters", a word that was used by the original owners of the land in...
to the west and Buzzards Bay
Buzzards Bay
Buzzards Bay is a bay along the southern edge of Massachusetts in the United States. The name may also refer to:*Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts, a village in Bourne, Massachusetts*Buzzards Bay , the name of the horse that won the 2005 Santa Anita Derby...
to the south.
In the mid 1850s, whaling was already an industry in decline in New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
. Competition from Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
n water men, and the emergence of petroleum
Petroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
and later natural gas
Natural gas
Natural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural...
as a replacement fuel for lighting in the second half of the 19th century, caused a much further decline. Henry Rogers' father was one of the many men of New England who changed from a life on the sea to other work to provide for their families. However, the emergence of the petroleum industry
Petroleum industry
The petroleum industry includes the global processes of exploration, extraction, refining, transporting , and marketing petroleum products. The largest volume products of the industry are fuel oil and gasoline...
was to become the initial source of success for Henry Rogers.
"Hen" Rogers, as his friends knew him, had married his childhood sweetheart, Abbie Palmer Gifford
Abbie G. Rogers
Abbie Gifford Rogers , was the first wife of Henry Huttleston Rogers, , a United States capitalist, businesswoman, industrialist, financier, and philanthropist....
, the daughter of a retired ship captain, and gone to work in the newly-discovered oil fields of western Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
. After several years of living in a shack at McClintocksville
McClintocksville, Pennsylvania
McClintocksville, Pennsylvania was a small community in Cornplanter Township in Venango County located in the state of Pennsylvania in the United States.- History :...
(near Oil City
Oil City, Pennsylvania
Oil City is a city in Venango County, Pennsylvania that is known in the initial exploration and development of the petroleum industry. After the first oil wells were drilled nearby in the 1850s, Oil City became central in the petroleum industry while hosting headquarters for the Pennzoil, Quaker...
), and operating the small Wamsutta Oil Refinery
Wamsutta Oil Refinery
Wamsutta Oil Refinery was established around 1861 in McClintocksville in Venango County near Oil City, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It was the first business enterprise of Henry Huttleston Rogers , who became a famous capitalist, businessman, industrialist, financier, and philanthropist.-...
with a partner, Rogers had come to the attention of Charles Pratt
Charles Pratt
Charles Pratt was a United States capitalist, businessman and philanthropist.Pratt was a pioneer of the U.S. petroleum industry, and established his kerosene refinery Astral Oil Works in Brooklyn, New York. An advertising slogan was "The holy lamps of Tibet are primed with Astral Oil." He...
, an early pioneer of the emerging petroleum industry in the United States. Abbie and Henry Rogers and their young daughter Anne moved to the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, where he worked in Pratt's kerosene
Kerosene
Kerosene, sometimes spelled kerosine in scientific and industrial usage, also known as paraffin or paraffin oil in the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Ireland and South Africa, is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid. The name is derived from Greek keros...
refinery Astral Oil Works
Astral Oil Works
Astral Oil Works was founded in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn, New York by Charles Pratt. Pratt was a pioneer of the petroleum industry who formed Charles Pratt and Company with Henry H. Rogers. The Pratt interests became part of John D...
. Pratt's product later gave rise to the slogan, "The holy lamps of Tibet are primed with Astral Oil".
Henry Rogers often slept on the floor of the Brooklyn refinery between work shifts, with Abbie bringing his meals to him there. While working for Pratt at Greenpoint, Rogers invented an improved way of separating naphtha
Naphtha
Naphtha normally refers to a number of different flammable liquid mixtures of hydrocarbons, i.e., a component of natural gas condensate or a distillation product from petroleum, coal tar or peat boiling in a certain range and containing certain hydrocarbons. It is a broad term covering among the...
(a light oil similar to kerosene) from crude oil. He was granted U.S. Patent #120,539 on October 31, 1871. Rogers became Pratt's protégé and was made a partner in the newly-formed Charles Pratt and Company
Charles Pratt and Company
Charles Pratt and Company was an oil company that was formed in Brooklyn, New York, in the United States by Charles Pratt and Henry H. Rogers in 1867. It became part of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil organization in 1874....
.
By the mid-1870s, as his family eventually grew to 5 children, Rogers crafted a deal for with John D. Rockefeller
John D. Rockefeller
John Davison Rockefeller was an American oil industrialist, investor, and philanthropist. He was the founder of the Standard Oil Company, which dominated the oil industry and was the first great U.S. business trust. Rockefeller revolutionized the petroleum industry and defined the structure of...
for Pratt principals to join his enterprises. Charles Pratt retired soon thereafter and founded Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute is a private art college in New York City located in Brooklyn, New York, with satellite campuses in Manhattan and Utica. Pratt is one of the leading undergraduate art schools in the United States and offers programs in Architecture, Graphic Design, History of Art and Design,...
, and his son, Charles Millard Pratt
Charles Millard Pratt
Charles Millard Pratt was an American oil industrialist and philanthropist.-Early life:Pratt was born and raised in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, the eldest son of Charles Pratt and Lydia Ann Richardson....
, became Secretary of Standard Oil
Standard Oil
Standard Oil was a predominant American integrated oil producing, transporting, refining, and marketing company. Established in 1870 as a corporation in Ohio, it was the largest oil refiner in the world and operated as a major company trust and was one of the world's first and largest multinational...
. Rogers was quite a bit younger than his early mentor, and soon thrived within Rockefeller's organization, rising in the years thereafter to become a principal and a Vice President of the Standard Oil Trust by 1890.
Even after he was well-off financially, Henry Rogers continued to be what was many year later termed "a workaholic". He was an active developer of all types of natural resources and transportation enterprises. Soon, he had investments of his own own in natural gas, copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
, steel
Steel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
, coal, and railroad industries. By 1899, he had already become one of the richest men in the United States.
Rogers' new yacht
At the time he had the Kanawha built, Henry Rogers was known widely in the media as simply "H.H. Rogers". He was known publicly as one of the last of the robber baronRobber baron (industrialist)
Robber baron is a pejorative term used for a powerful 19th century American businessman. By the 1890s the term was used to attack any businessman who used questionable practices to become wealthy...
s of the Gilded Age
Gilded Age
In United States history, the Gilded Age refers to the era of rapid economic and population growth in the United States during the post–Civil War and post-Reconstruction eras of the late 19th century. The term "Gilded Age" was coined by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in their book The Gilded...
, and was widely known by the nickname "Hell Hound Rogers".
Abbie had died suddenly in 1894. His children were now grown. Rogers subsequently married a divorcée, Emelie Augusta Randel Hart, and they lived in a townhouse in New York City, and maintained a large 85-room summer home at Fairhaven. Rogers and his family had given various public buildings and infrastructure to their hometown, and they vacationed at Fairhaven frequently.
Mark Twain and newspapers
For the last ten years of his life, the Kanawha became Rogers' preferred mode of travel between Fairhaven and New York, as well as on cruises to Hampton RoadsHampton Roads
Hampton Roads is the name for both a body of water and the Norfolk–Virginia Beach metropolitan area which surrounds it in southeastern Virginia, United States...
in Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
. Among his personal friends were such diverse people as humorist Mark Twain
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
, leading black educator Booker T. Washington
Booker T. Washington
Booker Taliaferro Washington was an American educator, author, orator, and political leader. He was the dominant figure in the African-American community in the United States from 1890 to 1915...
, teacher Anne Sullivan
Anne Sullivan
Johanna "Anne" Mansfield Sullivan Macy , also known as Annie Sullivan, was an American teacher best known as the instructor and companion of Helen Keller.-Early life:Sullivan was born on April 14, 1866 in Feeding Hills, Massachusetts...
and her amazing deaf and blind pupil Helen Keller
Helen Keller
Helen Adams Keller was an American author, political activist, and lecturer. She was the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree....
, as well as Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American industrialist, businessman, and entrepreneur who led the enormous expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century...
. Rogers paid for Keller's education at Radcliffe College
Radcliffe College
Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was the coordinate college for Harvard University. It was also one of the Seven Sisters colleges. Radcliffe College conferred joint Harvard-Radcliffe diplomas beginning in 1963 and a formal merger agreement with...
. Twain and Washington were frequent guests aboard the Kanawha.
The newspapers, the leading media of the era, seemed to delight in attempting to monitor and report on the travels of the yacht, especially when Mark Twain was aboard. The archives of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
contain many published reports of their travels, which included at least one cruise together in 1902 north to the coast of Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
, New Brunswick
New Brunswick
New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only province in the federation that is constitutionally bilingual . The provincial capital is Fredericton and Saint John is the most populous city. Greater Moncton is the largest Census Metropolitan Area...
and Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
.
In April 1907, Rogers, Twain, and friends sailed to attend the opening day festivities of the Jamestown Exposition
Jamestown Exposition
The Jamestown Exposition was one of the many world's fairs and expositions that were popular in the United States in the early part of the 20th century...
held at Sewell's Point
Sewell's Point
Sewells Point is a peninsula of land in the independent city of Norfolk, Virginia in the United States, located at the mouth of the salt-water port of Hampton Roads. Sewells Point is bordered by water on three sides, with Willoughby Bay to the north, Hampton Roads to the west, and the Lafayette...
in a rural section of Norfolk County, Virginia
Norfolk County, Virginia
Norfolk County was a county of the South Hampton Roads in eastern Virginia in the United States that was created in 1691. After the American Civil War, for a period of about 100 years, portions of Norfolk County were lost and the territory of the county reduced as they became parts of the separate...
. Twain's public popularity was such that large numbers of citizens paid to ride touring boats out to where the Kanawha was anchored in Hampton Roads in hopes of getting a glimpse of him. As the gathering of boats around the yacht became a safety hazard, he finally obliged by coming on deck and waving to the crowds.
When they were ready to depart the Norfolk
Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....
area, due to poor weather conditions the steam yacht was delayed by its captain for several days from leaving the Hampton Roads area and venturing into the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
. Rogers and some of the others in his party (without Twain) returned to New York by railroad. Due to his dislike of traveling by rail, Twain elected to return aboard the Kanawha, despite the delay. However, the news media reporters lost track of Twain's whereabouts; when he failed to return to New York City as scheduled, The New York Times speculated that he had been "lost at sea."
Upon arriving safely in New York and learning of this, to the relief (and likely delight) of his admiring public and no doubt to the great embarrassment of the journalists at the Times, the humorist issued essentially a replay of his famous "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated" statement. (He had originally sent this message in 1897 by cable from London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to the newspapers in the United States after his obituary had been mistakenly published.)
This time, Twain said, in part,
- "...I will make an exhaustive investigation of this report that I have been lost at sea. If there is any foundation for the report, I will at once apprise the anxious public."
Later that year, Mark Twain and Rogers' son, Henry Jr. (Harry), returned to the Jamestown Exposition aboard the Kanawha. The departure from New York of the Kanawha, as well as that of Cornelius Vanderbilt
Cornelius Vanderbilt
Cornelius Vanderbilt , also known by the sobriquet Commodore, was an American entrepreneur who built his wealth in shipping and railroads. He was also the patriarch of the Vanderbilt family and one of the richest Americans in history...
's steam yacht, the North Star, which left at the same time, was dutifully reported by The New York Times. The humorist helped host Robert Fulton Day
Robert Fulton
Robert Fulton was an American engineer and inventor who is widely credited with developing the first commercially successful steamboat...
on September 23, 1907, celebrating the centennial of Fulton's invention of the steamboat. Twain was filling in for ailing former U.S. President Grover Cleveland
Grover Cleveland
Stephen Grover Cleveland was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States. Cleveland is the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms and therefore is the only individual to be counted twice in the numbering of the presidents...
, and introduced Rear Admiral Purnell F. Harrington.
Secret philanthropy
The newspapers seemed less aware that on cruises aboard the Kanawha, Twain and Rogers were joined at frequent intervals by Dr. Washington. From all outward appearances, Washington was apparently just another friend. That part was mostly true, but there was more.Known but to a very few, through Booker T. Washington, "Hell Hound Rogers" was a secret philanthropist
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...
, encouraging the Negro educator and aiding in his educational efforts for African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
s by deploying a new concept which came to be known as anonymous donor matching funds
Matching funds
Matching funds, a term used to describe the requirement or condition that a generally minimal amount of money or services-in-kind originate from the beneficiaries of financial amounts, usually for a purpose of charitable or public good.-Charitable causes:...
to contribute very large amounts of money in support of several teacher's colleges
Normal school
A normal school is a school created to train high school graduates to be teachers. Its purpose is to establish teaching standards or norms, hence its name...
(now Hampton University
Hampton University
Hampton University is a historically black university located in Hampton, Virginia, United States. It was founded by black and white leaders of the American Missionary Association after the American Civil War to provide education to freedmen.-History:...
and Tuskegee University
Tuskegee University
Tuskegee University is a private, historically black university located in Tuskegee, Alabama, United States. It is a member school of the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund...
) and literally dozens of small schools in the South over the same 15-year period of the Twain-Rogers friendship.
Dr. Washington only revealed this situation in June 1909 just weeks after Rogers' death as he made a pre-planned tour along the Virginian Railway, traveling in Rogers' private rail car "Dixie".
Virginian Railway
Beginning in 1902, Rogers was an investor in the modest Deepwater Railway. It was initially just a short line railroad, much like several others in West Virginia Rogers had been involved with. Unlike the earlier enterprises, the Deepwater Railway did not find a buyer among the large railroads, and eventually grew to become the West Virginia portion of Rogers' final life's work, the coal-hauling Virginian RailwayVirginian Railway
The Virginian Railway was a Class I railroad located in Virginia and West Virginia in the United States. The VGN was created to transport high quality "smokeless" bituminous coal from southern West Virginia to port at Hampton Roads....
, completed in 1909, which extended 450 miles (724.2 km) from the Kanawha River to coal pier
Coal pier
A coal pier is a transloading facility designed for the transfer of coal between rail and ship.The typical facility for loading ships consists of a holding area and a system of conveyors for transferring the coal to dockside and loading it into the ship's cargo holds...
s at Sewell's Point
Sewell's Point
Sewells Point is a peninsula of land in the independent city of Norfolk, Virginia in the United States, located at the mouth of the salt-water port of Hampton Roads. Sewells Point is bordered by water on three sides, with Willoughby Bay to the north, Hampton Roads to the west, and the Lafayette...
on Hampton Roads near Norfolk, Virginia.
The VGN was planned and initially developed in secrecy right under the noses of some of Rogers' contemporaries, notably Alexander Cassatt
Alexander Cassatt
Alexander Johnston Cassatt was the 7th president of the Pennsylvania Railroad , serving from June 9, 1899 to December 28, 1906. Frequently referred to as A. J. Cassatt, the great accomplishment under his stewardship was the planning and construction of tunnels under the Hudson River to finally...
and William Vanderbilt
William Kissam Vanderbilt
William Kissam Vanderbilt was a member of the prominent American Vanderbilt family. He managed railroads and was a horse breeder.-Biography:...
, heads of the Pennsylvania Railroad
Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad was an American Class I railroad, founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the "Pennsy", the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
(PRR) and New York Central Railroad
New York Central Railroad
The New York Central Railroad , known simply as the New York Central in its publicity, was a railroad operating in the Northeastern United States...
(NYC) respectively. They had secretly entered into a "community of interests pact" to control the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway
Chesapeake and Ohio Railway
The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis P...
(C&O) and the Norfolk and Western Railway
Norfolk and Western Railway
The Norfolk and Western Railway , a US class I railroad, was formed by more than 200 railroad mergers between 1838 and 1982. It had headquarters in Roanoke, Virginia for most of its 150 year existence....
(N&W) in the coal fields, and block all competitors.
Ostensibly headed by coal mining manager William Nelson Page
William N. Page
William Nelson Page was an American civil engineer, entrepreneur, industrialist and capitalist. He was active in the Virginias following the U.S. Civil War...
, with Rogers as a silent partner
Silent partner
Silent partner may refer to:*An anonymous member of a business partnership, or one uninvolved in management*The Silent Partner, the name of several films*Silent partner , a piece of climbing equipment...
, the leaders of the big railroads were skeptical that Page could finance and complete his venture, which had issued no bonds, and sold no stock. The fact they didn't know was that the new $40 million dollar Virginian Railway was financed almost entirely from Rogers' personal fortune. However, that situation was apparently the source of considerable stress to him after the Financial Panic of 1907
Panic of 1907
The Panic of 1907, also known as the 1907 Bankers' Panic, was a financial crisis that occurred in the United States when the New York Stock Exchange fell almost 50% from its peak the previous year. Panic occurred, as this was during a time of economic recession, and there were numerous runs on...
put an unexpected strain on his resources. In the summer of 1907, Rogers suffered a stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
, and took 5 months to recover. He regained his health, at least to most appearances. By mid-1908, he had made the necessary financial adjustments, and the construction on his railroad had resumed. The new Virginian Railway's coal pier was at Sewell's Point, right next door to the Jamestown Exposition site.
The railroad had a final spike ceremony on January 29, 1909, which was also Henry Rogers' 69th birthday. In April of that year, during a tour along the new railroad in his private railcar, Dixie, he was feted with celebrations by communities all along the new rail line, notably at Norfolk, Victoria
Victoria, Virginia
Victoria is an incorporated town in Lunenburg County, Virginia, United States. The population was 1,821 at the 2000 census.- History :Lunenburg County in the Southside region was established on May 1, 1746 in Great Britain's Virginia Colony from Brunswick County...
, and Roanoke
Roanoke, Virginia
Roanoke is an independent city in the Mid-Atlantic U.S. state of Virginia and is the tenth-largest city in the Commonwealth. It is located in the Roanoke Valley of the Roanoke Region of Virginia. The population within the city limits was 97,032 as of 2010...
in Virginia, and at Princeton, West Virginia
Princeton, West Virginia
Princeton is a city in Mercer County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 7,652 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Bluefield, WV-VA micropolitan area which has a population of 111,586. It is the county seat of Mercer County...
.
However, despite the celebrations of early 1909, Rogers was not destined to live to see his new railroad in full operation, scheduled for July 1.
Death of Henry Rogers
Rogers had been warned by his doctor and friends, notably John D. Rockefeller, to slow down his work pace. However, he found that difficult. In May 1909, he spent a leisurely weekend at Fairhaven, and visited old friends. However, the following week, he was back at work at his office in the Standard Oil Building at 26 Broadway in ManhattanManhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
. On the morning of Wednesday, May 20, 1909, he awoke at his townhouse in New York City, and complained to his wife that he was feeling poorly. She immediately called for his doctor, but within the hour, he was dead from another stroke. Following an elaborate funeral in New York City, his body was transported by train to Massachusetts, and he was interred at Fairhaven that Saturday next to his beloved Abbie in Riverside Cemetery. He had outlived her by only one day short of 15 years.
The master of the Kanawha would not be returning to the luxury yacht. Not much seems to be recorded about the fate of the Kanawha in the period immediately following the death of its original owner. Rogers' only son, Henry Jr., had the family's large summer home in Fairhaven torn down soon thereafter. It also seems unlikely that adequate funds among the Rogers children and their families, or even the will to continue cruises of the Kanawha, survived the death of the Standard Oil magnate and founder of the Virginian Railway.
World War I
According to records of the U.S. Navy, after nearly two decades as a pleasure craft the Kanawha was acquired by the Navy in late April 1917 for use in World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. The Navy had earlier had another ship also named Kanawha, USS Kanawha (AO-1)
USS Kanawha (AO-1)
The third USS Kanawha was a replenishment oiler of the US Navy. She was laid down 8 December 1913 by the Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, California; launched 11 July 1914; sponsored by Miss Dorothy Bennett; and commissioned 5 June 1915, Lt. Comdr...
— a fleet oiler built in 1914. To avoid potential confusion, the former Rogers yacht was commissioned by the Navy as USS Kanawha II (SP-130)
USS Kanawha II (SP-130)
USS Kanawha II -- later renamed USS Piqua -- was a yacht acquired by the U.S. Navy during World War I. She was placed into service as an escort for Allied convoys traveling across the dangerous North Atlantic Ocean...
.
Following brief service in the vicinity of New York City, in June 1917 Kanawha II became one of the early ships sent across the Atlantic Ocean to operate in European waters. For the rest of the War, and for some months after the November 1918 Armistice, the ex-yacht performed patrol and convoy escort missions off western France, making occasional contact with German
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
submarines
U-boat
U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
.
In March 1918, Kanawha II was renamed USS Piqua, probably to avoid message confusion with the Navy oiler. In the summer of 1918, she was the flagship
Flagship
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, reflecting the custom of its commander, characteristically a flag officer, flying a distinguishing flag...
of the U.S. District Commander based at Lorient
Lorient
Lorient, or L'Orient, is a commune and a seaport in the Morbihan department in Brittany in north-western France.-History:At the beginning of the 17th century, merchants who were trading with India had established warehouses in Port-Louis...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
.
Her European service ended in May 1919, when Piqua began a month-long voyage back to the United States. She was decommissioned and returned to her owner at the beginning of July 1919.
Black Star Line
The final chapter in the life of the Kanawha was as unusual as the way it had started. The Black Star LineBlack Star Line
The Black Star Line was a shipping line incorporated by Marcus Garvey, organizer of the Universal Negro Improvement Association . The shipping line was supposed to facilitate the transportation of goods and eventually African Americans throughout the African global economy...
was a shipping line incorporated by Marcus Garvey
Marcus Garvey
Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr., ONH was a Jamaican publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, and orator who was a staunch proponent of the Black Nationalism and Pan-Africanism movements, to which end he founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League...
, who organized the United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). The Black Star Line derived its name from the White Star Line
White Star Line
The Oceanic Steam Navigation Company or White Star Line of Boston Packets, more commonly known as the White Star Line, was a prominent British shipping company, today most famous for its ill-fated vessel, the RMS Titanic, and the World War I loss of Titanics sister ship Britannic...
, another shipping line whose success Garvey felt he could duplicate, which would become a standard of his Back-to-Africa movement
Back-to-Africa movement
The Back-to-Africa movement, was also known as the Colonization movement, originated in the United States in the 19th century, and encouraged those of African descent to return to the African homelands of their ancestors. This movement would eventually inspire other movements ranging from the...
.
Unfortunately for Garvey and his efforts, the ships he purchased beginning in 1919 were apparently both overpriced and in poor condition. Among these was the once-grand and well-maintained Kanawha. It was noted that Dr. Washington, the late educator, had been an honored guest aboard the ship years earlier. Renamed by the Black Star Line the S.S. Antonio Maceo, after putting in for unplanned repairs at Norfolk
Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....
, it blew a boiler
Boiler
A boiler is a closed vessel in which water or other fluid is heated. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications.-Materials:...
and killed a man off the Virginia coast
Graveyard of the Atlantic
Graveyard of the Atlantic is a nickname of two locations known for numerous shipwrecks: the treacherous waters in the Atlantic Ocean along the Outer Banks of North Carolina and the Virginia coastline south of the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay at Cape Henry; and around Sable Island, off the coast...
on its first voyage from New York to Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
, and had to be towed back to New York. The Black Star Line stopped sailing in February 1922, and was soon out of business.