S.S. W.L. Steed, a 6450 gross ton (13,000-tons displacement) oil tanker, was built at Quincy, Massachusetts, as part of the World War I shipbuilding effort. Transferred to the Navy upon completion, in September 1918 she was placed in commission as USS W.L. Steed (ID # 3449) and assigned to the Naval Overseas Transportation Service. Problems with her steering gear aborted her first attempt to carry oil across the Atlantic to England, and she was still in American waters when the 11 November Armistice brought the war's combat phase to an end. Following repairs, W.L. Steed completed one voyage to France and had a second prematurely ended by damage. She was decommissioned in late March 1919 and returned to the U.S. Shipping Board.
In 1922 W.L. Steed entered commercial service with the
Pan-American Petroleum and Transportation Company. The Standard
Oil Company became her owner in 1937 and operated her for the
rest of her career. On 2 February 1942, while off the U.S. East
Coast with a cargo of Columbian crude oil, W.L. Steed was
torpedoed, shelled and sunk by the German submarine U-103.
Her crew of thirty-eight all abandoned ship in her lifeboats,
but exposure to winter weather took the lives of all but four.
This page features the only views we have concerning the tanker W.L. Steed, which was USS W.L. Steed (ID # 3449) in 1918-1919.
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 29 October 2005