Please report any broken links or trouble you might come across to the Webmaster. Please take a moment to let us know so that we can correct any problems and make your visit as enjoyable and as informative as possible.

NavSource Online:
Civilian Identification Numbered Ships Photo Archive

Saint Francis (ID 1557)



Civilian call sign (1919):
Love - Dog - Pup - Vice
Freighter:

  • Built in 1914 as San Francisco by the North Ireland Ship Building Co., Londonderry, Ireland for the Isthmian Steamship Co. of London, England
  • Requisitioned by the War Department 17 November 1917
  • Renamed Saint Francis 17 February 1918
  • Acquired by the Navy 19 June 1918 at Baltimore, MD
  • Commissioned USS Saint Francis (ID 1557), 25 June 1918
  • Decommissioned 28 April 1919 at New York and transferred to the United States Shipping Board for return to her owner, the United States Steel Products Co. (Isthmian Steamship Co.)
  • Returned to her owner 28 December 1918 at New York
  • Renamed San Francisco in January 1919
  • Sold in 1933 to the International Freighting Co. of Wilmington, DE and renamed Lammot DuPont
  • Torpedoed and sunk 23 April 1942 in the North Atlantic.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 11,526 t.
  • Length 420'
  • Beam 52'
  • Draft 25' 9½"
  • Speed 12.5 kts.
  • Complement 62
  • Propulsion: Three single ended boilers, one 2,250hp verticle triple expansion steam engine, one shaft.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Saint Francis 96k Photographed prior to her World War I Naval Service
    U.S. Navy photo NH 102171    		 Naval Historical Center
    Saint Francis 107k In port, circa 1917
    Naval Historical Center photo NH 105602    		 Robert Hurst
    Commanding Officers
    01LCDR Niles J. Okland, USN1918
    Courtesy Joe Radigan
    Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships: Saint Francis, a steel-hulled screw freighter built in 1914 by the North Ireland Ship Building Co., Londonderry, Ireland, was acquired by the Navy at Baltimore on 19 June 1918 under United States Shipping Board (USSB) charter from the United States Steel Products Co.; and commissioned there on 25 June.

    Assigned to the Naval Overseas Transportation Service, the ship was loaded with Army supplies and sailed for New York where she joined a convoy and sailed for France on 4 July. The ships reached Brest on the 19th; and, the next day, Saint Francis proceeded to West Hampton, England, where she discharged her cargo. On 15 August, she sailed in convoy for the United States and reached Baltimore on the 27th. Reloaded with Army supplies, she again got underway on 18 September and steamed via New York to France and arrived at La Pallice on 13 October. The next day she proceeded to Saint Nazaire where
    she unloaded.

    Back in Baltimore on 14 November, three days after the armistice was signed, the ship was transferred from an Army to a USSB Account and sailed from New York on 26 January 1919 for Cristobal, Panama. After transiting the canal, she proceeded down the Pacific coast of South America and reached Valparaiso, Chile, on 17 February. After returning through the canal, the ship loaded a commercial cargo of sugar at Cienfuegos, Cuba, and arrived at New York on 8 April. She was decommissioned there on 28 April 1919 and the same day was transferred to the USSB for simultaneous return to her owner.

    Back To The Main Photo Index Back to the Civilian Identification Numbered Ships (ID) Photo Index
    Comments, Suggestions, E-mail Webmaster
    This page created by Joseph M. Radigan and maintained by David Wright
    All pages copyright NavSource Naval History