USS Lydia (ID-3524)

Note: This ship should not be confused with the first USS Lydia (SP-62), which was in commission during an overlapping period.

History
United States
Name:
  • SS Szell Kalman (1902-18)
  • USS Lydia (1918-24)
  • SS Manzoni (1924-40)
Namesake: Previous name retained
Builder: Wigham Richardson and Company, Newcastle upon Tyne, England[1]
Cost: £70,903
Yard number: 383
Launched: 29 Jan 1902
Completed: 24 Mar 1902
Acquired: 23 October 1918
Commissioned: 26 October 1918
Decommissioned: 15 May 1919
Fate:

Returned to United States Shipping Board 15 May 1919

Sunk 5 Jul 1940 after being torpedoed by British aircraft at Tobruk, later refloated and broken up by British salvors
Notes:
  • In commercial service as Austro-Hungarian SS Szell Kalman prior to World War I
  • Under U.S. Shipping Board control as SS Lydia 1919-1925
  • In commercial service as Italian SS Manzoni from 1925
General characteristics
Type: Cargo ship
Tonnage: 2,432 tons
Length: 366 ft (112 m)
Beam: 48 ft 2 in (14.68 m)
Draft: 23 ft (7.0 m)
Propulsion: Steam engine
Speed: 10.5 knots
Complement: 88
Armament: none
For other ships with the same name, see USS Lydia.

The second USS Lydia (ID-3524) was a United States Navy cargo ship in commission from 1918 to 1919.

Lydia was built as a commercial freighter in 1902 by Wigham Richardson and Company at Newcastle upon Tyne, England, in the United Kingdom. Prior to World War I, the Royal Hungarian Sea Navigation Company of Austria-Hungary operated her as SS Szell Kalman.

On 1 Jun 1917 she was seized by Brazilian authorities while laid up at Pernambuco.

By 1918 she had come under the control of the United States Shipping Board, from which the U.S. Navy acquired her on 23 October 1918 for use in World War I. The Navy assigned her Identification Number (Id. No.) 3524 and commissioned her as USS Lydia on 26 October 1918 at Baltimore, Maryland, with Lieutenant Commander Frederick W. Taylor, USNRF, in command..

Assigned to the Naval Overseas Transportation Service, Lydia departed Baltimore on 7 November 1918 -- four days before the war ended with the Armistice with Germany of 11 November 1918 -- bound for Norfolk, Virginia, where she joined a convoy bound for Europe on 15 November 1918. Loaded with aviation steel and general supplies, she arrived at Nantes, France, during the first week in December 1918. She departed Nantes on 14 December 1918 for Baltimore, where she arrived on 4 January 1919. There she loaded a cargo of food for the United States Food Administration, and departed for the Mediterranean on 7 February 1919. She arrived at Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire on 16 March 1919, exchanged her cargo for water ballast, and departed on 30 March 1919 for the United States. Steaming via Gibraltar, she arrived at Norfolk on 9 May 1919.

The Navy decommissioned Lydia on 15 May 1919 and returned her to the United States Shipping Board the same day. She became SS Lydia.

In 1925, the Shipping Board sold Lydia to Adria Società Anonima di Navigazione Marittima of Fiume, Italy. Renamed SS Manzoni, she operated out of Fiume until after World War II.

References
Specific
  1. "SS Szell Kalman (1902)". www.tynebuiltships.co.uk. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
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