I usually don’t post during the week, but this is a post based on my experience this past weekend. On Sunday, a WWII ship came to my small town of Ashland City, to our park by the Cumberland River. The 83-year-old ship is 328 feet long and 50 feet wide. Over 4,000 showed up on Saturday, and roughly only 6,000 people live in the town. I boarded the ship on the tank deck, and it was like a warehouse. Then I walked through and up the decks. It has 6 decks in all, and it would be easy to get lost.
I explored the ship and saw the post office, the galley, the bunks, the engine room, watertight doors, the bulkhead, and most of the things I write about. The veterans were so much fun to talk to onboard. Inside, I felt like I was touching history and living it. I have a lot of pictures of the visit at the bottom. It was an incredibly massive ship inside.
After looking out from the top deck, I imagined a ship listing. How high it was above the water, and how hard it would be to lower a lifeboat. I am planning to visit some riverboats in Nashville and maybe a steamboat in Granville, Tennessee. I want to learn more so when I tell these stories I get a better idea of what I’m writing.
I also thought about the RMS Olympic and other ocean liners. LST-325 is roughly 328 feet long. Olympic was about 882 feet. You’re talking about putting nearly 2.7 LST-325s end-to-end to equal Olympic’s length and almost two side by side to get her width. It’s mind-boggling how large these ships are.
A Short History of LST-325
The Landing Ship, Tank was not designed for beauty or speed. It was designed to carry war directly onto a beach. The ship’s broad bow opened into two doors, and a heavy ramp allowed tanks, trucks, troops, and supplies to drive straight onto shore. Officially, LST meant Landing Ship, Tank. Sailors sometimes joked that it meant Large Slow Target.
LST-325 was laid down at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on August 10, 1942. She was launched on October 27 and commissioned on February 1, 1943. Her flat bottom and shallow draft allowed her to approach beaches that ordinary cargo ships could not reach. Ballast tanks helped change her trim for an ocean crossing or a landing, while a stern anchor could help pull her away from the beach after unloading.
During World War II, LST-325 served in the European theater. She participated in the invasion of Sicily in July 1943 and the landings at Salerno that September. In June 1944, she took part in the Normandy invasion at Omaha Beach. During the months that followed, she made more than forty trips across the English Channel. She carried soldiers, vehicles, equipment, and supplies into France, then returned with wounded men and prisoners. She earned two battle stars for her wartime service.
After the war, she was decommissioned in 1946. She returned to service during the 1950s as USNS LST-325, supporting the construction of early-warning radar stations in the Arctic. In 1964, she was transferred to the Greek Navy and renamed Syros. She continued serving Greece for more than three decades.
In 2000, the USS LST Ship Memorial acquired the aging vessel. A volunteer crew, many of them veterans, brought her approximately 6,500 miles from Crete to Mobile, Alabama. After an extensive restoration, she opened to the public in 2001. Evansville, Indiana, became her permanent home in 2005.
Today, LST-325 remains operational and still travels under her own power. She is the only operational LST preserved in its World War II configuration afloat in American waters. The ship was originally built to bring soldiers and machines onto distant shores. More than eighty years later, she travels to American river towns and brings that history directly to us. If she comes to your town, take a tour!
