Lake Traverse, a 1993 gross ton (4880 tons displacement) freighter, was built at Duluth, Minnesota, in 1918 as part of the World War I emergency ship construction effort. She was ordered by the British as War Centaur but was requisitioned by the U.S. Shipping Board and renamed while in the early stages of construction. Completed at the end of April 1918, Lake Traverse was initially manned by the U. S. Shipping Board and sailed to Europe in convoy, carrying over 1,900 tons of Army general cargo. Once in European waters she initially operated on time charter in support of the Army. On 19 October 1918, while at Cardiff, Wales, she was taken over by the Naval Overseas Transportation Service (N.O.T.S.) and commissioned as USS Lake Traverse (ID # 2782). The ship, homeported at Cardiff, then served in the Army coal trade, carrying coal from Wales to French ports. On 10 March 1919 she was assigned to the Food Administration and operated between French ports, Rotterdam, and Danzig. She was released from this work at Bordeaux, France, in late July 1919 and then returned to the United States. USS Lake Traverse was decommissioned and returned to the Shipping Board on 26 August 1919. After several years in reserve, from 1925 to 1955 she operated for various commercial owners under the name Lake Traverse, mostly on the Great Lakes, and finally foundered due to sprung plates near Tortuga Island in the Caribbean on 6 July 1955.
This page features the only views we have concerning the American freighter Lake Traverse, which was USS Lake Traverse (ID # 2782) in 1918-1919.
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.
NOTES:
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 11 September 2007
New image added 5 January 2009