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Unnumbered Ships Photo Archive

USS Alpaco



Civilian call sign:
Love - Nan - Jig - Mike
Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Precedence of awards is from top to bottom, left to right
World War I Victory Medal
Design 1001 Freighter:
  • Built by Hodge Shipbuilding Co., Moss Point, MS
  • Laid down, 02 October 1917
  • Launched, 04 July 1918
  • Completed for US Shipping Board as Alpaco (ON 217088), October 1918
  • Acquired by the Navy, 18 November 1918
  • Commissioned the same day at the Navy Yard Dock, New Orleans, LA
  • Ran trials and found "unseaworthy," 03 December 1918
  • Developed coal bunker fire during same trials and docked for rest of brief naval career
  • Decommissioned 19 December 1918
  • Returned to the United States Shipping Board, 20 December 1918
  • Final disposition, broken up by Western Marine & Salvage Co., August 1923
    Specifications:
  • Displacement 2,351 gross tons, 1,528 net tons
  • Length 268'
  • Beam 45' 2"
  • Draft 23' 6"
  • Speed 10 knots
  • Complement 53
  • Propulsion two Barber Asphalt Co. watertube boilers, one Prescott Engine Co. vertical triple expansion steam engine (19-32-56 x 36), one shaft, 1.400hp
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Alpaco
    1217999502    		 157k Alpaco ready for launching, July 1918.
    Photo courtesy Mississippi Shipbuilding and Maritime Center    		 Dave Wright
    Alpaco
    1217999501    		 660k Photographed in port, circa late 1918. Her ignomiously brief career highlights the problems (mainly inexperienced builders using poor quality lumber) with the Emergency Fleet Corporation's shipbuilding program.
    Naval History & Heritage Command photo NH 65095    		 Dave Wright
    View the Alpaco
    DANFS history entry located on the Naval History and Heritage Command website
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    This page created by Joseph M. Radigan and maintained by David Wright
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    Last Updated 07 January 2024