USS General G. W. Goethals (ID-1443) was a German cargo liner that the United States seized during the First World War.

In 1919 she spent six months in the United States Navy, in which she made three round trips to and from France to repatriate US troops.

[2] In 1907 and 1908 Furness, Withy & Co in England built a class of three single-screw ships for HAPAG: Westerwald, Spreewald, and Frankenwald.

Bremer Vulkan built her quadruple-expansion engine, which was rated at 400 NHP, and gave her a speed of 11 knots (20 km/h).

[8] Germany ordered its merchant ships to take refuge in the nearest German or neutral port.

On 12 September 1916 it was reported that her Chief Engineer was drowned when a launch in which he was traveling overturned in the Chagres River below the spillway of the Gatun Dam.

On 30 June President Woodrow Wilson issued an executive order authorising the USSB to take possession and title of 87 German ships, including Grunewald.

The ship General G. W. Goethals was registered in New York; her US official number was 215106; and her code letters were LHDT.

[14] At about 14:00 hrs on 1 September the submarine USS S-5 sank accidentally during a practice crash dive at position 38°36′N 74°00′W / 38.600°N 74.000°W / 38.600; -74.000, 55 nautical miles (102 km) east of Cape Henlopen.

The Chief Wireless Operator, CF Asche, found that Alanthus' transmitter had a range of only about 20 nautical miles (37 km).

His Assistant Wireless Operator, HO Byers, used Goethals' apparatus to transmit the first signal about the emergency at 18:00 hrs.

The Fourth Naval District at Philadelphia Navy Yard received the signal, and sent the destroyer USS Breckinridge to assist.

At about 19:00 hrs Grace, using a ratchet drill, started making a line of holes around an area of hull plating about 12 by 10 inches (300 by 250 mm).

He ensured that all the watertight doors in the submarine were closed, to help to keep her afloat, and emerged through the hole at 02:45 hrs.

[16] The piece of S-5's hull plating that Chief Engineer Grace removed to free the submariners is displayed in the National Museum of the United States Navy in the Washington Navy Yard in Washington, D.C. On 10 January 1925 the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) bought General G. W. Goethals for the Black Star Line.

[22] Munson Line bought the ship at auction for a fraction of what the UNIA had paid for her,[21] and renamed her Munorleans.

There United States Customs Service officers found 14 Spanish and Portuguese stowaways hiding under a wooden structure in one of her coal bunkers.