USS Lake Arthur (ID-2915)
AlternateTextHere S.S. Lake Arthur (American Freighter, 1918), S.S. Lake Weston (American Freighter, 1918), and S.S. Lake Stirling (American Freighter, 1918) -- listed from left to right | |
Career | |
---|---|
Name: |
1918: War Plum[1] 1918: Lake Arthur 1923: Virginia Limited 1930: Valentine 1923: Sesotris |
Namesake: | 1918: Lake Arthur, Louisiana[2] |
Owner: |
1918: Template:USSB 1921: Richmond–New York Steamship Co. 1925: Eastern Steamship Lines 1930: Gordon C. Leitch 1930: Helmsing and Grimm 1931: Schiffahrts A.G. Nord Ost 1932: Albert Klat 1935: Hanseatischen Reederei Emil Offen & Co.[3] |
Operator: | 1918–1919: United States Navy as USS Lake Arthur (ID-2915)[2] |
Port of registry: |
1918: [United States] 1921: New York 1925: Newport News, Virginia 1930: Middlesbrough 1930: 22x20px Riga 1932: 22x20px Alexandria 1935: 22x20px Hamburg[3] |
Builder: |
Detroit Shipbuilding Company Wyandotte, Michigan[1] |
Yard number: | 217[1] |
Launched: | 16 February 1918[1] |
Commissioned: | 17 September 1918 at Brest, France[2] |
Decommissioned: | 3 April 1919[2] |
Fate: | scuttled in the North Sea with cargo of chemical weapons, 17 November 1945 |
General characteristics | |
Type: | Design 1020 ship[4] |
Tonnage: | 1,948 GRT[2] |
Length: | 261 ft (80 m)[2] |
Beam: | 43 ft 6 in (13.26 m)[2] |
Draft: | 17 ft 9 in (5.41 m)[2] |
Propulsion: | 1 x triple-expansion steam engine[1] |
Speed: | 9 knots (17 km/h)[2] |
Complement: | 52 (as USS Lake Arthur, 1918–19)[2] |
Armament: | 1 x 3 in (7.6 cm) gun (World War I)[2] |
SS Lake Arthur (ID-2915) was a Design 1020 cargo ship that served in the Template:NOTS of the United States Navy during World War I. Originally ordered and begun under the name SS War Plum, she was renamed SS Lake Arthur by the Template:USSB. After her naval service, she operated commercially under a variety of names, before being scuttled in the North Sea with a load of chemical weapons in November 1945.
Career
Ordered by the British government, the ship was laid down by the Detroit Shipbuilding Company of Wyandotte, Michigan, under the name War Plum.[1] When the Template:USSB requisitioned all shipping under construction in the United States after the U.S. entered World War I in April 1917, she was renamed Lake Arthur,[3] after the southwestern Louisiana town of Lake Arthur.[2] The ship was launched on 16 February 1918, and completed in March.[2]
Under the auspices of the Template:USSB, Lake Arthur sailed across the Atlantic and was employed in cargo duties. While at Brest, France, on 17 September 1918, she was transferred the United States Navy and commissioned the same day under the command of Lieutenant Commander Edwin T. Madden, USNRF. She was assigned to the Template:NOTS and carried stores for the United States Army from ports in the United Kingdom to ports in France over the next five months. On 18 February 1919, loaded with U.S. Army cargo, Lake Arthur departed from Cardiff and arrived at Philadelphia on 11 March. There, she was decommissioned on 3 April and returned to the Template:USSB the same day.[2]
The Template:USSB sold Lake Arthur to the Richmond-New York Steamship Company of New York in 1921. The ship was renamed Virginia Limited in 1923, and sold to the Eastern Steamship Lines of Newport News, Virginia, in 1925. The ship was sold in 1930 to Gordon C. Leitch of Middlesbrough, and then, later the same year, to Helmsing and Grimm of Riga and renamed Valentine. The following year Schiffahrts A.G.Nord Ost, of Riga, purchased the ship. In 1932 Albert Klat of Alexandria purchased the ship and renamed her Sesostris.[3]
In 1935, Hanseatischen Reederei Emil Offen & Co. of Hamburg purchased the ship, and she remained under German control through the end of World War II. Sesotris was seized by the British at Kiel in May 1945. After she was loaded with a cargo of chemical weapons, Sesotris was steered to the Skagerrak Strait in the North Sea and scuttled on 17 November 1945.[3]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 ""2216036" (Lake Arthur)" (subscription required). Miramar Ship Index. R.B. Haworth. http://www.miramarshipindex.org.nz. Retrieved 29 June 2009.
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 "Lake Arthur". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Navy Department, Naval History & Heritage Command. http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/l1/lake_arthur.htm. Retrieved 29 June 2009.
- ↑ Colton, Tim. "General Cargo Ships Built in Great Lakes Shipyards". Shipbuildinghistory.com. The Colton Company. http://shipbuildinghistory.com/history/merchantships/wwi/lakes.htm. Retrieved 29 June 2009.
External links
- Photo gallery of Lake Arthur at NavSource Naval History
- Photo gallery at Naval Historical Center
- Pages with broken file links
- Unclassified articles missing geocoordinate data
- All articles needing coordinates
- Design 1020 ships
- Lake ships
- Ships built in Michigan
- 1918 ships
- Design 1020 ships of the United States Navy
- Merchant ships of the United Kingdom
- Merchant ships of Egypt
- Merchant ships of Latvia
- Merchant ships of Germany
- World War II merchant ships of Germany
- World War II merchant ships of the United Kingdom
- World War II shipwrecks in the North Sea
- Maritime incidents in 1945