![cover image](https://wikiwandv2-19431.kxcdn.com/_next/image?url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1d/USSLakePepin.jpg/640px-USSLakePepin.jpg&w=640&q=50)
SS Samoa
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The SS Samoa was a 1,997-ton cargo ship that was able to escape an attack off the coast of California in the early days of World War II. The Samoa was built under a United States Shipping Board (USSB) contract in 1918 as the SS Muerthe, but was launched as the USS Lake Pepin, named after Lake Pepin, by the McDougall Duluth Shipbuilding Company of Duluth, Minnesota measured at 3,600 tons deadweight. She had a triple expansion engine steam engine with 1,250 horsepower (930 kW), a 251-foot (77 m) length, 43.5-foot (13.3 m) beam, a draft of 17 feet 8+1⁄2 inches (5.398 m), a top speed of 9.25 knots (17.13 km/h; 10.64 mph). The vessel had a crew of 52, with the hull # 9 and O.N.ID # 21699. The USS Lake Pepin (ID # 4215) was owned and operated by the United States Navy, commissioned at Montreal, Quebec, Canada on 4 September 1918. For World War I she was fitted with one 3"/50 caliber gun. The Navy put her in Naval Overseas Transportation Service as a coal carrier traveling between the United Kingdom and France as a United States Navy Temporary auxiliary ship. Her coal service ended in May 1919. In June 1919 she returned to the US with a cargo of World War I vehicles and weapons and unused ammunition. The US Navy decommissioned the Lake Pepin on 18 June 1919.[1] In 1923 she was, renamed Samoa purchased and operated by the Hammond Lumber Company. In 1936 she was sold to the Wheeler Logging Company of Portland, Oregon. In February of 1941 she was sold to W. A. Schaefer Company.
![]() USS Lake Pepin, in 1923 SS Samoa | |
History | |
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Name | USS Lake Pepin (ID 4215) |
Namesake | Lake Pepin, Minnesota |
Builder | McDougall Duluth Shipbuilding Company |
Launched | 30 March 1918 |
Acquired | 4 September 1918 |
Commissioned | 4 September 1918 |
Decommissioned | 18 June 1919 |
Out of service | 18 June 1919 |
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Name | SS Samoa |
Acquired | 1923 |
Namesake | Samoa a Polynesian island country |
Fate | Scrapped 1947 |
General characteristics as USS Lake Pepin | |
Displacement | 4,500 tons |
Length | 261 ft (80 m) |
Beam | 43 ft 6 in (13.26 m) |
Draft | 17 ft 10 in (5.44 m) |
Propulsion | triple expansion engine steam engine |
Speed | 9.25 knots |
Complement | 122 |
Armament | 2 x 3"/50 caliber guns (for World War I only) |
Notes | 1919 call sign LMJT |
![Thumb image](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/db/Cape_Mendocino_Coast.jpg/640px-Cape_Mendocino_Coast.jpg)
![Thumb image](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f6/I-26_Japanese_submarine.jpg/320px-I-26_Japanese_submarine.jpg)