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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Photo # NH 103079:  Freight Lighter # 53 alongside USS Princess Matoika, 1919

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

YF-53 (1908-1944) -- Formerly named Coal Barge # 210 and Freight Lighter # 53

YF-53, a 110-foot (250 ton capacity) wooden barge, was built at at the Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Virginia, in 1908 as Coal Barge # 210. Subsequently fitted with an enclosed superstructure, she was renamed Freight Lighter #53 in 1915. The barge became YF-53 in 1920, when the Navy implemented its system of alpha-numeric designators and hull numbers. After serving in the Fifth Naval District, which included the Norfolk Navy Yard, for her entire career, YF-53 was stricken from the register of Naval vessels in January 1944.

This page features the only views we have concerning YF-53, which was formerly Coal Barge # 210 and Freight Lighter # 53.


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.


NOTE: The following photographs show Freight Lighter # 53 as a subordinate element in a view of another subject:

Photo #: NH 78695

USS Craven
(Destroyer # 70)

View on the main deck looking aft from amidships, while she was under construction at the Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Virginia, on 4 June 1918.
Her keel was laid on 20 November 1917 and she was launched on 29 June 1918.
Note Freight Lighter # 53 in the center background.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 100KB; 740 x 595 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 103079

USS Princess Matoika
(ID # 2290)

In port in 1919.
U.S. Navy Freight Lighter # 53 (formerly Coal Barge # 210) is alongside. She was assigned to the Norfolk, Virginia, area, which may be the location of this scene.
The original image is printed on postal card ("AZO") stock.

Donation of Dr. Mark Kulikowski, 2005.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 69KB; 740 x 465 pixels

 


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

Page made 28 February 2006