WW II built LST sailed in civilian service into the 21st century

A few WW II LST hulls had longer civilian than military service use.
In 2006, the last WW II built destroyers were decommissioned by the foreign navies that
received them in years after WW II ended. The Philippines still operates a few
Destroyer Escorts and a gunboat version of the WW II minesweeper hull. A few
countries still operate the ATF and ATA fleet tugs of WW 2 as do some private firms.
One former LST still serves today as the ferry Cape Henlopen in Long Island Sound and
another as the dredge ship Columbus. These are two of the 4 last WW II combat ships in
use in the world.

Many World War II built LST were not retained by the Navy after the end of World War
II. Sales to private sector buyers were common in the late 1940’s. These ships were
converted to a variety of uses.

Some were broken up for scrap and their engines and fittings used on other types of new
and renovated ships. The diesel engines, steering systems and auxiliary motors of
scrapped , cancelled during construction or converted to barges former LSTs were a
major source of components for re-powering steam tugboats . The 1902 built 101 foot
coast and harbor tugboat Jupiter ,now an operational museum ship in Philadelphia , was
converted from steam to diesel in a Baltimore , Maryland shipyard in 1949 using
mechanical components of an LST it towed to the shipyard to be the source of parts for
the re-powering of the tugboat . This conversion allowed the tug to stay in commercial
service until 1999. The tug that was one of many that participated in the launching of the
battleship USS New Jersey at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard is docked directly across
the Delaware River from Camden , New Jersey where the battleship is moored as a
museum. The tugboat Saturn , now preserved in Maine, was owned by Independent Pier
Company of Philadelphia along with the Jupiter and repowered the same way alongside
the Jupiter

The moderate height,lower than a Liberty Ship or Victory Ship type freighter draft,
longer length than most coastal and river freight ship designs then in use, and hull
framing features , and low sale prices made the LST suitable for conversions to civilian
use.

Former LST were stripped of the interior spaces and fitted with liquid holding tanks to
transport up to 20,000 barrels of petroleum products, and converted a myriad of ways to
haul bulk cargoes. When the modern shipping container developed and increased in use
in the late 1950s barges converted from LST hulls were used to bring quantities of
containers of goods in and out of areas too shallow or not generating enough need for a
container ship to come to the port or an area lacking port facilities.The last known LST
hull in use as a general cargo barge was removed from service in 2008 and is for sale.The
shipbroker handling the sale says the barge will likely be purchased by a ship breaking
firm rather than return to service. Barges made from the hulls of WW II LST often
required special ballasting measures to handle under tow like purpose built barges would.
The post WW II expansion of the offshore oil drilling industry utilized former LST in
several ways. LST hulls were converted to unpowered drilling barges for exploratory and
initial wellhead establishment drilling. The successful use of the LST as a mobile
workshop/repair center in WW II inspired oil companies and well services firms to use
former LST as powered and unpowered oil rig tender vessels. The ships would be docked
alongside the oil rig to provide accommodations, supply storage and workshop space for
the operations of the oil rig. This was in the years before the accommodation and
workshop module mounted on the rig was developed and many of the wells were in more
shallow water and less complex than the modern platforms costing nearly as much as an
aircraft carrier. Clusters of wells could be maintained by one former LST that
periodically rotated back for refit and replenishment of supplies.

LST were converted to self propelled dredge ships and towed dredge barges. The dredge
Columbus is still in service today as self propelled, self loading hopper dredge utilizing
portions of the hull and superstructure of LST 987. ARL-10 was a U.S. Navy Landing
Craft Repair Ship converted upon construction from an LST . It was sold to the Canadian
Pacific Railroad in 1966 and converted into a rail trailer ferry. By 1990 it had been
converted into a non self propelled dredging unit.

There are a few barracks ships still being used by the navy that were built on LST hulls
ordered converted while under construction. The Echols , APB-37 later IX-504 , was
built in 1944 and sold in 2003. It now serves as a water treatment plant for a municipality
in the state of New York. The APL-40 ,ex IX-503 (1975 - 2001) ex USS Nueces (APB-
40) is still in service as a barracks barge at the U.S. Navy Naval Ship Repair Facility,
Yokosuka, Japan .

From the late 1940’s until 1955 WW II built LST were used by some firms as ocean
going freighters. World War II built LST have a high Metacentric Height. Metacentric
Height (GM) - determines the ability of the ship to right itself and the overall "stiffness"
of the ship, or its natural roll period. In general, higher values of GM indicate a vessel has
greater tendency to remain upright, and is therefore considered to be more stable.
However, when the vessel is somehow displaced from its upright position of equilibrium,
excessive values of GM tend to increase the forces and accelerations that cause the vessel
to return to the equilibrium position. This reduces the roll period and tends to result in
"snappier" rolls. In addition to making the ship uncomfortable for the crew, these severe
motions increase the forces on the cargo and cargo securing gear ‘’There were 2 incidents
of WW II built LST converted into U.S. flagged freighters sinking with multiple deaths
in each instance. In the final months of WW II and after the war ended the United States
Coast Guard developed requirements that if complied with by vessel owners would allow
for the operation of former LST as merchant ships. One of the requirements was that
because the LSTs had thinner hull plates than commercial ships, plating had to be
replaced when it sustained 15 percent thinning rather than the traditional merchant ship
standard of 25 percent. In 1952 the sinking of the , converted from an LST ,M.V.
Southern Isle led to restrictions on the amount of bulk cargo that could be carried on a
converted to a freighter LST and additional requirements for structural modifications for
the ships to remain in ocean going service. In December of 1954, the converted from an
LST, MV Southern Districts , while carrying a cargo of sulphur, sank with loss of all
crew members in the Atlantic Ocean with no bodies being ever sighted or recovered .
The United States Coast Guard revoked the authorization of WW II built LST hulls to
be used as self propelled ships for unlimited ocean coastwise routes before the
investigation of this instance of the loss of 23 mariners was completed.

The USS Washtenaw County , LST 1166, was one of the ships of the Terrebonne Parish
class of LST commissioned in 1953 . These were improvements on the WW II LST
design. The Washtenaw County was sold to private sector owner after decommissioning
in 1973 and operated as a freighter until removed from service because of mechanical
problems in the early 1980’s.

WW II built LST were converted into ferry vessels in coastal areas and on the Great
Lakes.
One LST served for 25 years as a ferry on the Great Lakes and after many years of lay
up became a museum . Another is still in service.

LST-393 was laid down on 27 July 1942 at the Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock
Co.; launched on 11 November 1942; sponsored by Miss Lucy Jean Sorenson; and
commissioned on 11 December 1942, Lt. John H. Halifax, USNR, in command. During
World War II, LST-393 was assigned to the European theater including the Normandy
invasion

Following the war, LST-393 returned to the United States and was decommissioned on 1
March 1946 and struck from the Navy list on 14 March 1947. On March 28, 1948, the
ship was sold to a private sector owner for conversion to merchant service. It was
renamed the Highway 16 . It served, with bow doors and landing ramp welded shut, as a
ferry carrying automobiles between Muskegon, MI and Milwaukee ,Wisconsin until
sometime in the year 1973 It was then laid up. The ship eventually became a museum
ship in 2005 in Muskegon, MI.

The former USS Buncombe County (LST-510 ) has since 1983 served as a ferry between
Orient Point, New York and New London, Connecticut.
LST 510 was laid down on 27 September 1943 at Jeffersonville, Ind., by the
Jeffersonville Boat and Machine Co.; launched on 30 November 1943; sponsored by Mrs.
C. P. Watson; and placed in reduced commission on 18 January 1944. Departing her
builders' yard three days later, on 21 January, LST 510 proceeded down the Mississippi
River to New Orleans, where she was placed in full commission on 31 January 1944, Lt.
George P. Andrews in command. The ship was assigned to the European theater and was
at the Normandy Invasion. It was decommissioned on July 1, 1946 . Buncombe County
(LST-510) was deemed "unfit for further Naval service" on 27 October 1958, and her
name was struck from the Navy list on 1 November 1958. In 1960 or 1961, the ship was
sold to the Chesapeake Bay Ferry District, of Norfolk, Va., the Commonwealth of
Virginia government agency which operated the ferry service across the Chesapeake
Bay from the Little Creek area of Virginia Beach to Kiptopeke, Virginia on the Eastern
Shore side of the Chesapeake Bay and renamed MV Virginia Beach. Ship was sold by
the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1964 or 1965 ,upon the ending of the Chesapeake Bay
ferry service with the April 15, 1964 opening of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel , to
the Delaware River and Bay Authority Ship was renamed the Cape Henlopen of the
Cape May., New Jersey – Lewes, Delaware ferry. The ship was sold to Cross Sound
Ferry Services Inc. in 1983 and underwent a total refurbishment before entering service
between Orient Point, New York and New London Connecticut where it remains in
service at present. Ship had new engines and structural changes to the bow done in the
21st century.