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Identification Numbered Vessel Photo Archive

Lake Ontario (ID 2992)



Call sign (1919):
Love - Jig - Have - Dog
Freighter/Mine Carrier:

  • Built in 1917 as War Castle by the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Co., Manitowoc, WI under contract to Cunard Steamship Co., Ltd., as agent for the Shipping Controller, London, England
  • Requisitioned by the U.S. Shipping Board under the Urgent Deficiencies Act of June 13, 1917
  • Launched 20 October 1917
  • Renamed Lake Ontario prior to completion
  • Acquired by the Navy 20 December 1917
  • Commissioned USS Lake Ontario (ID 2992), 19 February 1918 at New York
  • Decommissioned 27 February 1919 at Norfolk, VA and returned to the United States Shipping Board
  • Sold in 1926 to the Ford Motor Co. of River Rouge, MI
  • Scrapped at Detroit, MI in 1928.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 4,600 t.
  • Length 261'
  • Beam 43' 6"
  • Draft 20'
  • Speed 10 kts.
  • Complement 64
  • Armament: One 5"/51 and one 3"/50 mount
  • Propulsion: Two single ended boilers, one 1,275hp vertical triple expansion steam engine, one shaft.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Lake Ontario 64k Historical Collections of the Great Lakes
    Lake Ontario 109k Photographed circa late 1917, with ice and snow in the vicinity
    U.S. Navy photo NH 101999    		 Naval Historical Center
    Lake Ontario 106k 24 November 1917
    Manitowoc, Wisconsin
    National Archives photo from Shipscribe.com    		 Robert Hurst
    View the Lake Ontario (ID 2992)
    DANFS history entry located on the Naval History and Heritage Command website
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