Built at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, with designation "Naval Transport Number One", the USS Henderson was designed as an advance floating Marine base. She was named for Colonel Commandant Archibald Henderson who was Commandant of the Marine Corps from 1820 to 1859. The Henderson was christened on 17 June 1916 by Miss Genevieve W. Taylor, the granddaughter of Commandant Henderson, and was commissioned on 24 May.
Under command of Lt. C.W. Steel, USN, the USS Henderson sailed on her maiden voyage for France, laden with troops and supplies, on 24 May 1917. Before the Armistice, she completed ten round trips between the United States and France, carrying troops and supplies. After the Armistice she made eight more such trips, bringing home 10,000 troops.
After completion of her wartime duties, the USS Henderson operated in both the Carribean and the Pacific, transporting Marines to and from several of campaigns. She participated in early amphibious exercises in in Panama in 1924, in the second Nicaraguan Campaign between 1926 and 1933, and carried Marines to Shanghai, China in 1927 where she remained in a supporting role for six months.
In World War II the Henderson made twenty voyages between the west coast of the United States and Hawaii, ferrying troops and supplies. She was decommssioned in 1943, renamed the USS Bountiful and served out the rest of the war as a hospital ship. She was decommissioned for the final time in September 1946.
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Information derived from "Life Aboard the USS Henderson", by LtCol Jomaes McBrayer Sellers, USMCR (Ret), Marine Corps Gazette, June 1993 and from The War Record of the USS Henderson, by Lt Henry J. Fry, Chaplain's Corps, USN, published by Brooklyn Eagle Press, 1919.
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