The mine layer Oglala which was lost in the Japanese attack upon Pearl Harbor was formerly the 4,200 ton passenger steamer Massachusetts of the Metropolitan Line of the New England Steamship Co. On March 12, 1909, she went ashore on Cedar Tree Neck in Vineyard Sound.
At the time of the grounding she was bound westward through the Sound. As soon as Nobska was passed, the captain went to bed, thinking she was on a straight course. For some reason she worked toward the Vineyard side of the Sound, and the officer in charge, finding herself in shallow water, gave orders to steer south and thus beached her. The steamer lay stranded with 250 tons of freight aboard for several days, but was floated with little damage.
The Massachusetts was converted into a mine layer in 1917, and the pictures of her which have appeared since her destruction at Pearl Harbor bear little resemblance to the old Sound liner.
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