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USS Leedstown (AP-73)

USS Leedstown (AP-73).jpg
History
Name: USS Leedstown
Builder: Federal Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co., Kearny, New Jersey
Launched: 1933
Acquired: 6 August 1942
Commissioned: 24 September 1942
Struck: 7 December 1942
Honors and
awards:
1 battle star (World War II)
Fate: Sunk, 9 November 1942
General characteristics
Type: Troopship
Displacement:
  • 8,600 long tons (8,738 t) light
  • 9,135 long tons (9,282 t) full
Length: 484 ft (148 m)
Beam: 72 ft (22 m)
Draft: 26 ft (7.9 m)
Speed: 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph)
Troops: 2,505
Complement: 538

USS Leedstown (AP-73), (originally SS Santa Lucia) was a Grace Line passenger and cargo ocean liner that served as a United States Navy amphibious assault ship in World War II. She was one of four sister ships (the others being Santa Elena, Santa Paula and Santa Rosa) ordered in 1930 from the Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company of Kearny, NJ.

Santa Lucia was acquired for the Navy in August 1942, converted for amphibious assault service and renamed USS Leedstown. She was commissioned in late September 1942 and almost immediately crossed the Atlantic to Belfast, Northern Ireland, where she joined a force preparing for Operation Torch, the invasion of French North Africa.

Early on the evening of 8 November, shortly after putting her troops and some of her cargo ashore east of Algiers, she was attacked by Ju 88 bombers and immobilised by a torpedo in her stern. The next day three bombs only just missed her. On 9 November 1942 the German submarine U-331 hit her with two torpedoes. She sank bow first off the Algerian coast with the loss of eight men out of more than 500 aboard when abandon ship was ordered.

Coordinates: 36°49′13″N 3°9′55″E / 36.82028°N 3.16528°E / 36.82028; 3.16528


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