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NavSource Online:
Section Patrol Craft Photo Archive

Polar Bear (ID 3666)


Refrigerated Cargo Ship: Built in 1918 by the Baltimore Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Co., Baltimore, MD; Acquired by the Navy 28 September 1918; Commissioned 3 December 1918; Decommissioned 10 March 1919 and returned to the United States Shipping Board; Laid up in 1923; Abandoned due to age and deterioration during the fiscal year 1930.

Specifications: Displacement 8,835 t.; Length 353' 3"; Beam 49'; Draft 23' 1"; Speed 12 kts.; Complement 86;
Armament unknown.


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Size Image Description Source
Polar Bear 69k In port, 1918.
USN Photo NH 102133
Naval Historical Center

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships: Polar Bear (ID-3666) was built in 1918 by the Baltimore Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Co., Baltimore, Md., requisitioned by USSB for use in NOTS as a refrigerated cargo ship 28 September 1918; and commissioned at Baltimore 3 December 1918, Lt. Comdr. Richard Russell Lukens, USNRF, in command.

Assigned to NOTS, Polar Bear sailed 19 December 1918 with a full earzo of general Army supplies for the American Expeditionary Force in France. She dlseharged her cargo at La Palliee, Verdun, Bordeaux and Paulliae before returning to the U.S. 3 February 1919.

Polar Bear was decommissioned at New York 10 March 1919, and was returned to the USSB.


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