USS LST-325

USS LST-325 as a museum ship on 28 August 2023 In La Crosse, Wisconsin
History
United States
Name	LST-325
Builder	Philadelphia Navy Yard
Laid down	10 August 1942
Launched	27 October 1942
Commissioned	1 February 1943
Decommissioned	2 July 1946
Stricken	1 September 1961
Honours and awards	2 battle stars (WWII)
Fate	Transferred to Greece 1964
Greece
Name	RHS Syros (L-144)
Acquired	1 September 1964
Decommissioned	1999
Reclassified	T-LST (1951)
Fate	Sold, 2000
United States
Name	M/V LST-325
Renamed	USS LST-325 (2004)
Identification	MMSI number: 338142833 Callsign: NWVC
Status	Operational museum ship at Evansville, Indiana
General characteristics
Class and type	LST-1-class tank landing ship
Displacement	1,625 long tons (1,651 t) light 4,080 long tons (4,145 t) full (sea-going draft with 1675 ton load)
Length	327 ft 9 in (99.90 m)
Beam	50 ft (15 m)
Draft	Light: 2 ft 4 in (0.71 m) forward 7 ft 6 in (2.29 m) aft Sea-going: 8 ft 3 in (2.51 m) forward 14 ft 1 in (4.29 m) aft Landing (with 500 ton load): 3 ft 11 in (1.19 m) forward 9 ft 10 in (3.00 m) aft
Propulsion	2 General Motors 12-567 900 hp (671 kW) diesel engines, two shafts, twin rudders
Speed	12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Range	24,000 nmi (44,000 km) at 9 kn (17 km/h; 10 mph)
Boats & landing craft carried	2 × LCVPs
Complement	7 officers, 104 enlisted
Armament	2 × twin 40 mm gun mounts 4 × single 40 mm gun mounts 12 × single 20 mm gun mounts
USS LST 325
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
At 2006 Tall Stacks Festival in Cincinnati, OH
Location	610 NW Riverside Dr. Evansville, Indiana
Coordinates	37.972879°N 87.580418°W / 37.972879; -87.580418
NRHP reference No.	09000434
Added to NRHP	24 June 2009

USS LST-325 is a decommissioned tank landing ship of the United States Navy, now docked in Evansville, Indiana, US. Like many of her class, she was not named and is properly referred to by her hull designation (LSTs in service after July 1955 were named after U.S. counties and parishes).

The ship was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 2009 and the listing was announced as the featured listing in the National Park Service's weekly list of 2 July 2009.

Service history

US Navy, 1942-1961

LST-325 was launched on 27 October 1942 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and commissioned on 1 February 1943 under Lt. Ira Ehrensall, USNR. The ship operated in the North Africa area and participated in the invasions at Gela, Sicily and Salerno, Italy. On 6 June 1944, LST-325 was part of the largest armada in history by participating in the Normandy Landings at Omaha Beach. She carried 59 vehicles, 30 officers and a total of 396 enlisted men on that first trip. On her first trip back to England from France, LST-325 transported 38 casualties back to a friendly port. Over the next nine months, Navy records show LST-325 made more than 40 trips across the English Channel, carrying thousands of men and pieces of equipment needed by troops to successfully complete the liberation of Europe. The ship continued to run supply trips between England and France before returning to the United States in May 1945. LST-325 was decommissioned on 2 July 1946, at Green Cove Springs, Florida, and laid up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet.

The ship was placed in service with the Military Sea Transportation Service in 1951 as USNS T-LST-325, and took part in "Operation SUNAC" (Support of North Atlantic Construction), venturing into the Labrador Sea, Davis Strait, and Baffin Bay to assist in the building of radar outposts along the eastern shore of Canada and western Greenland.

Struck from the Naval Vessel Register, on 1 September 1961, T-LST-325 was transferred to the Maritime Administration (MARAD) for lay up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet.

Hellenic Navy, 1964-1999

T-LST-325 was sent to Greece on 1 September 1964, as part of the grant-in-aid program. She served in the Hellenic Navy as RHS Syros (L-144) from 1964 to 1999.

USS LST Ship Memorial Museum

The USS LST Memorial, Inc., a group of retired military men, acquired Syros in 2000. They travelled to Greece, made the necessary repairs to the ship and sailed her back to the United States, arriving in Mobile Harbor on 10 January 2001. In 2003, LST-325 made a sentimental journey up the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. The 10-day stop in Evansville, Indiana, allowed more than 35,000 people to take a tour. In May and June 2005, she sailed up the east coast under her own power for a 60-day tour of several ports, visiting Alexandria, Virginia, and Buzzard's Bay, Boston, Gloucester, Massachusetts. LST-325 is one of only two navigable LSTs in operation in the U.S. The only other is USS LST-510 in daily use as a ferry between Orient, New York and New London, Connecticut. Formerly the list included the dredge MV Columbia which was scrapped in 2022. On 1 October 2005, Evansville, Indiana, became her home port (although she still visits other ports each year).

Evansville

During World War II, the Evansville, Indiana, riverfront was transformed into a 45-acre (18 ha) shipyard to produce LSTs. At its peak, the Evansville Shipyard employed a workforce of over 19,000 and completed two of these massive ships per week, becoming the largest inland producer of LSTs in the US. Although the Evansville Shipyard was originally contracted to build 24 ships, the city would eventually produce 167 LSTs and 35 other vessels. LST-325 is now home ported in Evansville as a memorial museum to LSTs and the city's war effort.

Relocation

In 2018, plans were announced to relocate LST-325 from her Marina Pointe location to Riverfront Park across from Bally’s Evansville, a spot previously occupied by the casino's riverboat, which retired in 2017 when the casino was allowed to move onshore. On 13 June 2020, LST-325 moved to her new port on Riverside Drive in Evansville.

• 
  LST-325 in Evansville
• 
  The ship's bridge
• 
  A restored M16 MGMC
• 
  A typical troop compartment
• 
  The ship's crew, c.1945
• 
  The engine room
• 
  The tank deck, looking forward
• 
  A graphic painted on the ship by the Greek crew
• 
  The ship's crew from trans-Atlantic crossing
• 
  A 40 mm AA gun tub
• 
  The LST's deck, from the wheelhouse deck
• 
  Ship's wheel and engine order telegraph
• 
  LST-325's ribbons: American Campaign Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with two service stars, World War II Victory Medal

See also

• Evansville Wartime Museum

References

Bibliography

•  This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
•  This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain. The entry can be found here.
• Photo gallery of USS LST-325 at NavSource Naval History

External links

• The USS LST Ship Memorial
• USS LST-325 at Historic Naval Ships Association
• Details of LST-325's journey home
• "Online Library of Selected Images: USS LST-325 (1943-1964)". Naval History & Heritage Command.