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Civilian Identification Numbered Ships Photo Archive

Easterner (ID 3331)



Civilian call sign (1919):
Love - Mike - Pup - Quack
Freighter:

  • Built in 1918 as Seifuku Maru No. 20 by the Kawasaki Dockyard Co., Kobe, Japan
  • Renamed Easterner
  • Acquired by the Navy 12 November 1918 and commissioned USS Easterner (ID 3331) the same day
  • Decommissioned, struck from the Navy Register 14 May 1919 and returned to the United States Shipping Board
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 12,105 t.
  • Length 385'
  • Beam 51' 8"
  • Draft 27' 1"
  • Speed 10.5 kts.
  • Complement 70
  • Propulsion: Two single ended boilers, one 3,000hp vertical triple expansion steam engine, one shaft.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Easterner 78k In port, possibly on 29 August 1918, when she was inspected by the Twelfth Naval District. She is wearing pattern camouflage
    U.S. Navy photo NH 1-3542    		 Naval Historical Center
    Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships: Easterner (No. 3331), a cargo ship, was built in March 1918 as Seifuku Maru No. 20, by Kawasaki Dockyard Co., Kobe, Japan, for the USSB. Converted for naval use, she was transferred from the Shipping Board 12 November 1918; and commissioned the same day, Lieutenant Commander Joseph Fuchs in command.

    Assigned to the essential Naval Overseas Transportation Service, Easterner plodded between Norfolk and French ports twice, 1 December 1918 to 8 May 1919 carrying general cargo for the Army, including freight cars and engineering supplies. The second routine but vital cargo haul was enlivened by one incident, when 2 days out of Bordeaux, two stowaways, a hapless man and child, were detected and had to be turned over to immigration authorities upon arrival at Norfolk. Easterner was decommissioned and returned to the Shipping Board, 14 May 1919.

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