Lake St. Clair, a 2308 gross ton (4880 tons displacement) freighter, was completed at Ecorse, Michigan, in April 1918. The ship was initially manned by a U.S. Shipping Board crew and took an Army cargo to Europe during the summer of 1918. Placed in commission by the Navy at Cardiff, Wales, in October 1918 as USS Lake St. Clair (ID # 2904), she was assigned to the Army coal trade, carrying coal from Cardiff, Wales, and Belfast, Northern Ireland to French ports. In mid-February 1919 Lake St. Clair was reassigned to the Food Administration, for whom she operated between French ports and Rotterdam, The Netherlands, the free city of Danzig, and Newcastle, England. Departing for the United States in early August, USS Lake St. Clair was decommissioned at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in September 1919 and returned to the Shipping Board. She was scrapped at Detroit, Michigan in 1926.
This page features all available views concerning the American freighter Lake St. Clair, which was USS Lake St. Clair (ID # 2904) in 1918-1919.
Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.
Page made 10 December 2007