In late June 1943, Andrew Furuseth arrived in Gibraltar, and on 7 July joined a convoy headed to Hampton Roads, Virginia, arriving there 23 July 1943.[11][12] On 16 August, the ship made a round trip to Casablanca, arriving off Cape Henry on 4 October.[13][14][15]
On 25 October 1943, Andrew Furuseth steamed from Hampton Roads as part of Convoy UGS 22 and arrived at Casablanca on 12 November.[15][16] In November, the ship sailed from Oran to Augusta, Sicily.[17] Through the end of 1943, the ship plied the waters of the Mediterranean, calling at Augusta, Oran, Naples, and Bizerte, before returning to Hampton Roads on 17 January 1944.[18][19][20]
In February 1944, the Furuseth departed on another voyage to Augusta, with a cargo of explosives, 500 troops, and 2500 pieces of mail.[21] The ship made a roundtrip to Naples before returning to Hampton Roads on 14 April 1944.[22][23]
In May, the veteran steamship departed Hampton Roads for another trip to Oran with 44 troops aboard.[24] The Furuseth returned to Virginia in mid June, but left again for Oran in mid July.[25][26] The ship operated locally in the Mediterranean through the end of November, at which time Andrew Furuseth returned once again to Hampton Roads.[27][28][29][30]
On 29 December 1944 and again on 14 March 1945, the Liberty ship departed on roundtrips to Oran, returning on 24 February and 9 May, respectively.[31][32][33][34]
With the end of hostilities in Europe, Andrew Furuseth began the task returning troops to the United States. Typical voyages included returning troops to Boston on 3 August, 735 troops to New York on 2 October, 570 troops from Antwerp to New York on 10 December, and 573 troops from Le Havre to New York on 19 January 1946.[35][36][37][38] During the December voyage from Antwerp, a soldier aboard Andrew Furuseth was transferred by motor launch in mid-ocean to U.S. Navy transport USS Lejeune for an emergency appendectomy.[39]
Later career
In 1947, Andrew Furuseth was sold to Norwegian interests and renamed Essi. In 1959, she was sold to Japanese owners and renamed Niobe. In June 1967, Niobe was scrapped at Nirao, Japan.[1]
The story goes that, as part of U.S. Navy experiments into rendering ships invisible, Eldridge vanished from its berth in Philadelphia and was accidentally teleported to Norfolk, Virginia and back again on 28 October 1943. According to the U.S. Navy, no evidence has been uncovered supporting that such an experiment occurred and details of the story contradict facts about the Eldridge. Also, the Navy archives contains a letter from Lt. (j.g.) William S. Dodge, USNR, (Ret.), the Master of Andrew Furuseth in 1943, categorically denying that he or his crew observed any unusual event while in Norfolk. Eldridge and Andrew Furuseth were not even in Norfolk at the same time.[15]
