USS LST-291
![]() USS LST-291 ran aground in 1954
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History | |
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Name | LST-291 |
Builder | American Bridge Company, Ambridge |
Laid down | 25 September 1943 |
Launched | 14 November 1943 |
Stricken | 19 May 1954 |
Honours and awards | 1 battle star (World War II) |
Fate | Sunk as target, July 1954 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | LST-1-class tank landing ship |
Displacement |
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Length | 328 ft (100 m) |
Beam | 50 ft (15 m) |
Draft |
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Propulsion | 2 General Motors 12-567 diesel engines, two shafts, twin rudders |
Speed | 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) |
Boats & landing craft carried | Two to six LCVPs |
Troops | approx. 140 officers and enlisted |
Complement | 8–10 officers, 100–115 enlisted |
Armament |
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USS LST-291 was a LST-1-class tank landing ship built for the United States Navy during World War II by the American Bridge Company in Ambridge, Pennsylvania.
LST-291 was laid down on 25 September 1943 and launched 14 November 1943. During World War II, the LST-291 was assigned to the Europe-Africa-Middle East Theater, and participated in the Invasion of Normandy in June 1944.[1]
In 1954, she ran aground on a coral reef off James Point, Eleuthera in the Bahamas. After 11 days of salvage operations which involved blasting a 1,000 foot channel through the reef, she was freed from the reef and towed back to the drydock at Jacksonville, Florida.[2] The damage she sustained was too extensive, however, and LST-291 was decommissioned, struck from the Naval Register on 19 May 1954, and sunk as a target in July 1954.
LST-291 earned one battle star for World War II service.
References
[edit]- ^ "Tank Landing Ship LST-291". navsource.org. Retrieved 6 July 2010.
- ^ "ProjectEleuthera.org: LST 291 – June 1954 "All Hands"". projecteleuthera.org. Retrieved 6 July 2010.
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
- Photo gallery of USS LST-291 at NavSource Naval History
External links
[edit]- "USS LST-291". Project Eleuthera. Retrieved 7 April 2010.