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USS General G. W. Goethals

1912 Ship

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionDec 10, 2025
Entity authorityQ3276740 ↗
Source-derived summary

USS General G. W. Goethals (ID-1443) was a German cargo liner that the United States seized during the First World War. She was launched in 1911 for the Hamburg America Line (HAPAG) as Grunewald. In 1917 the US seized her in Panama, and the Panama Canal Railway (PCR) operated her for the United States Shipping Board (USSB). 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. In 1920 the PRC bought her from the USSB. In 1925 the Black Star Line owned her. In 1926 the Munson Steamship Line bought her and renamed her Munorleans. She was scrapped in Scotland in 1937.

This was the first of three steamships that HAPAG named Grunewald. The second was her sister ship Wasgenwald, which HAPAG renamed in 1926. The third was a ship that was built in 1940, and HAPAG bought and renamed in 1951.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “USS General G. W. Goethals” is 1912 Ship. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through General, Goethals and Ship, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1443, 1911, 1917, 1919—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, General, Goethals and Ship is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “1912 Ship” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 10, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q3276740. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1443, 1911, 1917 and 1919.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “USS General G. W. Goethals”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow USS General G. W. Goethals primary sources, USS General G. W. Goethals archive and General research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “USS General G. W. Goethals”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “USS General G. W. Goethals” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.