SS Ancon

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SS Ancon was an American cargo and passenger ship that became the first ship to officially transit the Panama Canal in 1914 although the French crane boat Alexandre La Valley completed the first trip in stages during construction prior to the official opening. The ship was built as Shawmut for the Boston Steamship Company by the Maryland Steel Company, Sparrows Point, Maryland and put into Pacific service operating out of Puget Sound ports for Japan, China and the Philippine Islands. Shawmut and sister ship Tremont were two of the largest United States commercial ships in service at the time and the company eventually found them too expensive to operate. Shawmut and Tremont were acquired by the United States Government through the agency of the Panama Railroad Company's Panama Railroad Steamship Line, whose assets were entirely owned by the government and critical to construction of the canal, to serve between New York and the Atlantic terminus during canal construction. Both ships were renamed for features of the canal; Shawmut for the Pacific side terminus Ancon and Tremont as Cristobal for the Canal's Atlantic port. Though not the first vessel to make a complete transit, Ancon made the first official and ceremonial transit with a delegation of some two hundred dignitaries aboard. After the end of World War I the ship saw very brief service from 28 March to 25 July 1919 as a commissioned United States Ship, USS Ancon (ID-1467), making two round trip voyages from the New York Port of Embarkation to France returning troops home. Ancon was returned to Panama Canal service and was in service with the canal until 1939 when the ship was sold to private parties known as the Permanente Steamship Company and renamed Permanente.