S.S. Deerfield, a 7622 gross ton refrigerated cargo freighter, was built in 1918 by the Sun Shipbuilding Corporation of Chester, Pennsylvania, for the United States Shipping Board. She was inspected by the Third Naval District in late October 1918 for possible Navy service and assigned the registry ID # 3564. Though it was intended that she be taken over, manned and operated by the Navy for Army account, this did not take place and Deerfield remained in civilian hands.
In subsequent years of commercial operation, Deerfield was renamed Kelvina and Mathew Luckenbach. On 19 March 1943, while steaming with the ill-fated convoy HX 229 in the north Atlantic, she left the convoy to proceed independently. She was intercepted by the German submarine U-527 and torpedoed. After her entire complement was rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Ingham, S.S. Mathew Luckenbach was finished off by U-523.
This page features the only view we have concerning the refrigerated cargo freighter Deerfield of 1918.
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 31 January 2006