Career | |
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Name: | Europa, ex MV William Lester |
Builder: | Penn-Jersey Shipbuilding Company, Camden, New Jersey |
Laid down: | 2 March 1942 |
Launched: | 7 December 1942 |
Acquired: | By Navy uncompleted 24 November 1943 transferred to U.S. Army 25 November 1943 |
Renamed: | by Army Thomas F. Farrell, Jr. |
Struck: | 6 December 1943 |
Fate: | Scrapped, 1967 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type: | Enceladus-class cargo ship |
Displacement: | 1,677 long tons (1,704 t) light 5,202 long tons (5,285 t) full |
Length: | 269 ft 10 in (82.25 m) |
Beam: | 42 ft 6 in (12.95 m) |
Draft: | 20 ft 9 in (6.32 m) |
Propulsion: | Diesel, single shaft, 1,300 shp (969 kW) |
Speed: | 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
Complement: | 83 officers and enlisted |
Armament: | 1 × 3"/50 caliber gun |
Europa (AK-81)[Note 1] was never commissioned and thus never bore the USS designation.[1]
The ship was laid down 2 March 1942 as MV William Lester, a Maritime Commission type (N3-M-A1) hull, under Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 464)[2], at the Penn-Jersey Shipbuilding Company of Camden, New Jersey and launched 7 December 1942.[3] Assigned to the Navy as Europa (AK-81), named for Europa,[4] the smallest of the Galilean moons of planet Jupiter, scheduled to become an Enceladus-class cargo ship. She was delivered to the Navy uncompleted 24 November 1943; transferred the next day, 25 November 1943, to the United States Army;[4] stricken from Navy lists 6 December 1943.[3]
The ship, renamed Thomas F. Farrel Jr., after an Engineering officer killed in the war, began conversion in December, 1943 to an Engineer Port Repair ship manned by a military crew under the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The ship did not complete conversion until 30 April 1944 and did not sail for Europe until late summer.[5] The ship was one of the port repair ships making it to Europe in time to assist in the restoration of ports.[6]
Thomas F. Farrel Jr. was disposed of by Maritime Administration sale 11 March 1965[3] and was scrapped in 1967.[2]
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