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Identification Numbered Vessel Photo Archive

Lake Arthur (ID 2915)



Civilian call sign:
Love - Jig - Sail - Fox
Freighter:

  • Built in 1918 as War Palm by the Detroit Shipbuilding Co., Wyandotte, MI under contract to the Cunard Steamship Co., Ltd. of London, England
  • Requisitioned by the United States Shipping Board
  • Launched 16 February 1918
  • Completed as Lake Arthur
  • Acquired by the Navy 17 September 1918 and commissioned USS Lake Arthur (ID 2915) the same day at Brest, France
  • Decommissioned 3 April 1919 and returned to the United States Shipping Board
  • Sold in 1921 to the Richmond-New York Steamship Co. of Newport News, VA and renamed Virginia Limited
  • Sold in 1925 to the Eastern Steamship Lines of Portsmouth, VA
  • Sold in 1930 to Gordon C. Leitch of Middlesborough, England
  • Resold in 1930 to Helmsing and Grimm of Riga, Latvia and renamed Valentine
  • Sold in 1932 to Schiffahrts A.G. Nord Ost of Riga
  • Sold again in 1932 to Klat Albert of Alexandria, Egypt and renamed Sesostris
  • Sold in 1934 to Hanseatische Reederei Emil Offen and Co. of Hamburg, Germany
  • Seized the the British in May 1945 at Kiel, Germany and used as a chemical ammunition dump
  • Scuttled 31 December 1946 in the North Sea in the Skagerrak Strait, SW from Arendal, Norway with a cargo of chemical weapons.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 1,948 t.
  • Length 261'
  • Beam 43' 6"
  • Draft 17' 9¼"
  • Speed 9 kts.
  • Complement 52
  • Armament: One 3"/50 mount
  • Propulsion: Two single ended boilers, one 1,300ihp vertical triple expansion steam engine, one shaft.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Lake Arthur 75k Historical Collections of the Great Lakes
    Lake Arthur 95k Lake Arthur, S.S. Lake Weston (later USS Lake Weston, ID-2926) and S.S Lake Stirling (no U.S. WW I service) fitting out at the Detroit Shipbuilding Company Shipyard, Wyandotte, Michigan, circa Spring 1918
    Naval Historical Center photo NH 104072    		 Robert Hurst
    View the Lake Arthur (ID 2915)
    DANFS history entry located on the Naval History and Heritage Command website
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