USS Lenape (ID-2700)
_port_view_20_August_1918.jpg)
USS Lenape (ID-2700) on 20 August 1918. Note the coal barges and Lenape 's open coaling doors.
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| History | |
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 United States
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| Name: | USS Lenape (ID-2700) |
| Builder: |
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| Launched: | 1912 |
| Acquired: | 10 April 1918 |
| Commissioned: | 24 April 1918 |
| Decommissioned: | before 28 October 1918 |
| Struck: | before 28 October 1918 |
| Fate: | returned to U.S. Army, 28 October 1918 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage: | 3,389 GRT |
| Displacement: | 7,000 t |
| Length: | 398 ft (121 m) |
| Beam: | 50 ft (15 m) |
| Draft: | 18 ft 6 in (5.64 m) |
| Speed: | 15 knots (28 km/h) |
| Troops: |
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| Complement: | 226 |
| Armament: |
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USS Lenape (ID-2700) was a troop transport for the United States Navy in 1918, during World War I. She was launched in 1912 as SS Lenape, a passenger steamer for the Clyde Line. After the entry of the United States into World War I in 1917, she was chartered by the United States Army as transport USAT Lenape. After her Navy service ended in October 1918, she was returned to the Army.
Lenape was launched by Newport News Shipbuilding Co. of Newport News, Virginia, in 1912 for the Clyde Steamship Company, known as the Clyde Line. She operated as a passenger steamer on the East Coast of the United States, typically on a New York City–Charleston–Jacksonville route.
After the United States declared war on Germany, the units that comprised the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) were selected in early May and ordered to Europe within 30 days. The Army, needing transports to get the men and materiel to France, re-formed the Army Transport Service. A committee of shipping executives pored over registries of American shipping and, on 28 May 1917, selected Lenape and thirteen other American ships that were sufficiently fast, could carry enough coal in their for transatlantic crossings, and, most importantly, were in port or not far at sea. After Lenape discharged her last load of passengers, she was officially chartered by the Army on 1 June.
Before any troop transportation could be undertaken, all of the ships had to be hastily refitted—in little more than two weeks in the case of Lenape. Of the fourteen ships, ten, including Lenape, were designated to carry human passengers; the other four were designated as animal ships. The ten ships designated to carry troops had to have all of their second- and third-class accommodations ripped out and replaced with berths for troops. Cooking and toilet facilities had to be greatly expanded to handle the large numbers of men aboard. Structural reinforcement below the platforms was required before the ships could outfit for guns at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
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