USAT Thomas was a United States Army transport ship purchased on 26 July 1898 for Spanish–American War service.

The ship was built by Harland & Wolff, Belfast and launched as Persia in May 1894 for the Hamburg-American Packet Company (Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfarhrt Aktien-Gesellschaft (HAPAG)) with service to New York.

From 1919 until 1928 the ship was based in San Francisco making routine trips to the Philippines on a regular route normally involving stops in Honolulu, Guam, Nagasaki, Japan and after World War I briefly serving Vladivostok as a result of the Allied intervention in Siberia.

In association with that service the ship was one of ten Army transports involved in evacuation of the Czechoslovak Legion from Vladivostok to Trieste, Italy.

The ship's cargo capacity included refrigerated space for carriage of fresh meat from the United States to Europe.

[note 2][4] In the 1928 register, under Quartermaster Corps, United States Army, Thomas is listed as 7,685 GRT, 5,644 NRT assigned signal GWBM with a complement of 13 officers and 172 men and home station of San Francisco.

[5] Persia, a Hamburg-American Packet Company ship, code letters RKBG, 5,796 GRT, 3,687 NRT, with three decks was registered in Hamburg, Germany.

[3] The ship was sold in 1897 to the British Atlantic Transport Company, LTD.[3][6][7] Minnewaska, code letters PWMV, British Official Number 108287, was registered at 5,713 GRT, 3,653 NRT with port of registry London and owner as Atlantic Transport Company, LTD.[7][note 3] The ship was in service on the line's London—New York service making three round trips between March and May 1898 before sale.

[12] The ship arrived in New York from Cramp and Sons 20 October 1899 and was placed in dry dock for hull painting in final preparation to transport troops to the Philippines transiting the Suez Canal.

Thomas is shown in the list of thirteen Atlantic fleet ships as having the largest troop transport capacity with 95 officers and 1,654 men.

On 16 March 1901 Thomas sailed with 1,918 troops of the 28th and 35th Infantry Regiments returning them to the United States the middle of April.

The group was recruited by David Barrows, director of the colonial education system, and included a mix from well known professors at high-ranking universities to applicants seeking employment in teaching.

[19] The ship's routine ATS Pacific fleet service between San Francisco and Manila is reflected in figures for the fiscal year 1905.

The ship's third and last voyage of the fiscal year departed San Francisco on 31 March 1905 with 46 officers, 754 enlisted, 87 civilians for a total of 887 passengers.

Sheridan was activated to fill a gap in January sailings to Manila and held about a month in the Philippines before returning to San Francisco with the 14th Cavalry.

[26] In October 1922 the Thomas took aboard passengers and crew of the Los Angeles Steamship Company liner SS City of Honolulu, which had caught fire about 670 miles northeast of the Hawaiian Islands, and landed them at San Pedro, California.

[27] In March 1928 Thomas made her final voyage for the Army Transport Service and was turned over to the United States Shipping Board for disposal and sold to the American Iron and Metal Company 14 May 1929 for scrapping at Oakland, California.

[6] Passengers during the ship's Army service were roughly estimated to be 40,000 officers, 200,000 men and civilians including prominent military and government officials of which none were lost to accident.