Lake Weston, a 2020 gross ton (2880 tons displacement) freighter, was completed at Wyandotte, Michigan, in March 1918. She had been ordered by the British under the name War Swift, but was requisitioned by the U.S. Shipping Board in August 1917 and given a new name in the American "Lake" series. Initially manned and operated by the Shipping Board for the Army, in the summer of 1918 the ship transported a load of Army general cargo from the United States to France. She then became one of many steamers operated under General Pershing in the Army coal trade, transporting coal from Cardiff, Wales, and Belfast, Northern Ireland to French ports in support of U.S. forces on the Western Front. Transferred to the Navy in November 1918, she was placed in commission at Cardiff in November 1918 as USS Lake Weston (ID # 2926) and continued to serve in the Army coal trade. At the end of December 1918 Lake Weston ran aground near Nash Point in the Bristol Channel. Damage to the ship and heavy weather prevented salvage, and in mid-January 1919 the wreck was declared a total loss. Stripped and sold locally to the highest bidder, she was salvaged by her new owner and, later in 1919, placed in commercial service as S.S. Panaghis Vergottis. The ship was renamed Strand in 1925, Rundo (in 1935), Salt (1938), Solbritt (1939), and Fidelia (1955). She was scrapped in Denmark in 1959.
This page features the only view we have concerning the American freighter Lake Weston, USS Lake Weston (ID # 2926), and S.S. War Swift, Panaghis Vergottis, Strand, Rundo, Salt, Solbritt, and Fidelia.
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 25 May 2008