USS General W. C. Gorgas (ID-1365) was a cargo liner that was launched in Germany in 1902 as Prinz Sigismund for the Hamburg America Line.

In 1919 she spent a few months in the United States Navy, repatriating troops from France to the USA.

Prinz Sigismund was unique, being the only member of the class built by AG "Neptun" in Rostock.

[1][5][6][7] Her single screw was driven by a quadruple-expansion engine that was rated at 318 NHP[1] and gave her a speed of 12 knots (22 km/h).

[11] For the season from September 1912 to January 1913 HAPAG advertised Prinz Sigismund and her sister ship Prinz Eitel Friedrich making round trips from New York to Fortune Island (now Long Cay), Montego Bay, Kingston, Colón, and Puerto Limón.

[14] When the First World War began in August 1914, Germany ordered its merchant ships to take refuge in the nearest neutral port.

The United States Shipping Board (USSB) assumed ownership of Prinz Sigismund and appointed the Panama Canal Railway to manage her.

She was renamed after William C. Gorgas, the United States Army Medical Corps General who directed the sanitation measures to control mosquitoes, and mosquito-borne diseases, to enable the building of the Panama Canal.

On 8 March she was commissioned into the US Navy, with the Naval Registry Identification Number ID-1365 and call sign GJDS.

On 25 April 1919 she left New York for Bordeaux, France, where she loaded cargo and embarked US troops.

[5] Libby already owned one of her sister ships, formerly Prinz Eitel Friedrich, now renamed Otsego.

[19] In November 1941, before the Attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States Department of War chartered General W. C. Gorgas and had her converted into a US Army troopship.