LANCASTER ID 2953
Ship Name and Designation History
This section lists the names and designations that the ship had during its lifetime. The list is in chronological order.
Built 1918 as WAR TROJAN by the Sun Shipbuilding Co., Chester, PA for the Cunard Steamship Co. Launched May 5 1918 Renamed LANCASTER prior to completion Acquired by the Navy June 19 1918 Acquired in 1921 by the Imperial Steamship Corp. of New York Acquired in 1922 by the Lancaster Steamship Corp. of New York Acquired in 1935 by the Argonaut Line of New York Acquired in 1940 by the American South African Line of New York Ran aground 30 December 1942 at Point El Hank, off Casablanca, Morocco and declared a total loss. |
This section lists active links to the pages displaying covers associated with the ship. There should be a separate set of pages for each name of the ship (for example, Bushnell AG-32 / Sumner AGS-5 are different names for the same ship so there should be one set of pages for Bushnell and one set for Sumner). Covers should be presented in chronological order (or as best as can be determined).
Since a ship may have many covers, they may be split among many pages so it doesn't take forever for the pages to load. Each page link should be accompanied by a date range for covers on that page.
- Covers Page 1 (1919)
Postmarks
This section lists examples of the postmarks used by the ship. There should be a separate set of postmarks for each name and/or commissioning period. Within each set, the postmarks should be listed in order of their classification type. If more than one postmark has the same classification, then they should be further sorted by date of earliest known usage.
A postmark should not be included unless accompanied by a close-up image and/or an
image of a cover showing that postmark. Date ranges MUST be based ONLY ON COVERS IN
THE MUSEUM and are expected to change as more covers are added.
>>> If you have a better example for any of the postmarks, please feel free to replace the
existing example.
|
Postmark Type |
Date From to Date To |
Thumbnail Link To Postmark Image |
Thumbnail Link To Cover Image |
|---|
|
Locy Type |
1919-01-18 |
 |
 |
Base Censor marking (Type 4.1) in magenta along with a partial APO 702 (Paris France) postmark.
|
N/A |
1919 |
 |
N/A |
Troop Billet Card, side 1.
|
N/A |
1919 |
 |
N/A |
Troop Billet Card, side 2.
Other Information
Note: "Assigned to NOTS, Lancaster departed New York July 13 with cargo for South American ports. Arriving Buenos Aires 10 days later, she discharged her cargo and proceeded to Marseilles, France, where she arrived October 28. After the Armistice was signed November 11, LANCASTER returned to New York the following month to join the Cruiser Transport Force
December 17.
LANCASTER together with other Units of the Cruiser Transport Force was assigned the task of returning World War I veterans from Europe to the United States. The force returned over 85 percent of the veterans during the period from November 1918 to July 1919. Completing her service, Lancaster decommissioned October 4 1919 and was returned to the USSB the
same day." {DANFS}
NAMESAKE - A city in southeastern Pennsylvania.
Three ships of the US Navy have been named LANCASTER - USS Lancaster (Screw Sloop 1859), USS Lancaster ID-2953 and USS Lancaster AK-193.
If you have images or information to add to this page, then either contact the Curator or edit this page yourself and add it. See Editing Ship Pages for detailed information on editing this page.
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