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Identification Numbered Vessel Photo Archive

Wabash (ID 1824)



Civilian call sign (1919):
Love - Have - Tare - Dog
Freighter:

  • Built in 1900 as Wartburg by Wigham Richardson and Co., Ltd., Newcastle-on-Tyne, England
  • Renamed Türingen in 1907
  • Renamed Seneca in 1917
  • Acquired by the Navy 9 February 1918
  • Commissioned USS Wabash (ID 1824), 16 February 1918
  • Decommissioned 21 April 1919 and returned to the United States Shipping Board
  • Sold to her former owner 22 May 1919
  • Subsequently, she operated commericially under the U.S. flag until the mid-1920s, when she was transferred to Italian registry
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 10,475 t.
  • Length 393'
  • Beam 49' 11"
  • Draft 26' (mean)
  • Speed 11.4 kts.
  • Complement 82
  • Armament: One 5"/40 and one 3"/50 mount
  • Propulsion: Three single ended boilers, one 2,500ihp vertical quadruple expansion steam engine, one shaft.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Wabash 81k In port, circa 1917
    U.S. Navy photo NH 89796    		 Naval Historical Center
    Commanding Officers
    01LCDR Frank C. Seeley, USNRF16 February 1918
    02LCDR Charles H. Sargent, USNRF1918 - 1919
    Courtesy Joe Radigan
    Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships: Wartburg-a single-screw, steel-hulled freighter completed in 1900 at Newcastle-on-Tyne, England, by Wigham Richardson and Co., Ltd., for service with the Deutsche Dampferfahrts Gesellschaft-was renamed Türingen between 1906 and 1907 and owned by the Norddeutscher Lloyd line. She was interned by the United States Government at the onset of World War I. In April 1917, when the United States entered the conflict, the steamer was taken over by the United States Shipping Board (USSB). She was acquired by the Navy on 9 February 1918, at Hoboken, N.J., for use with the Naval Overseas Transportation Service. The cargo ship was renamed Wabash; designated Id. No. 1824; and commissioned on the same day, Lt. Comdr. Frank C. Seeley, USNRF
    in command.

    Loaded with construction iron and ammunition, Wabash -departed New York City on 28 February, bound for France. After delivering her cargo at Paulliac, she returned to the United States on 22 April. She made four more voyages to St. Nazaire, France, and returned to New York from her last run on 6 April 1919. Decommissioned on 21 April, the freighter was returned to the USSB.

    The ship subsequently home-ported at New York and operated under the flag of the North Atlantic and Western Steamship Co., until sometime in 1924 or 1925. She was then transferred to Italian registry.

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