The U.S.S. LSM-45 was a young man’s ship, as are all U.S. Navy vessels, and it is traditionally the youth of our nation that serve in our Armed Forces. Somehow, there is still a youthful presence aboard the old ‘45’, a warm feeling of nostalgia that fills the air whenever one of it’s own visits and walks the decks on board this almost forgotten, one time home to so many of our country’s young servicemen. These are the young men of our greatest generation of American patriots.
Sneads Ferry, NC – Waterborne travelers transiting the Atlantic Intra-coastal Waterway (A.I.W.W.) along our eastern seaboard have seen and wondered just exactly what the strange looking, haze gray ship is, the ship that’s been moored at Mile Hammock Bay on North Carolina’s Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base for the past 6 years or so.
At first, the ship strikes you as being some long forgotten ancient warship from another place and time. Medieval looking it is; at least that’s how some folks describe the oddball vessel. Just about anyone who ever got a good look at this old war-horse would have to say that they’d never seen anything like it ever before.
Mile Hammock Bay is considered a safe anchorage for weary boat travelers looking for a quiet place to spend the night or maybe two. There are no facilities offered to boaters there. You can travel a few miles south to the picturesque fishing village of Sneads Ferry near the confluence of the A.I.W.W. and the New River. The bay does offer, however, a quiet and peaceful haven with plenty of deepwater anchoring spaces.
Occasionally, one may come upon a U.S. Coast Guard Buoy Tender, or perhaps an Army Corps of Engineers Dredging Vessel making repairs or going about their business. If a traveler is lucky, he might even get a glimpse of one of our Navy’s LCACs roaring across Onslow Bay and right up onto the beach, through the marsh grass where no other boat can go.
That’s because an LCAC is actually a Landing Craft Air Cushioned high-speed vessel that can run far offshore to its mother ship, then back to the beach loaded with Marines and Sailors out for a day of liberty or a pleasant week in the field!
However, the addition of the U.S.S. LSM-45 to Mile Hammock Bay’s obscure wilderness setting has raised much curiosity and has been a topic of conversation since 2004, when the oddball ship entered the bay and dropped anchor in her newest surroundings. The LSM ( Landing Ship Medium), with the hull number 45 painted on her bows, had traveled halfway around the world over the past several years, and had finally found her new home; her temporary berthing site in this small harbor nestled among the tidal marshes and maritime forest of southeastern North Carolina.
There were more than 500 LSM ships built during the second World War; and most found duty and plenty of action in the Pacific Theater of Operations. The majority of them were eventually moth balled, then either scrapped, sold, or given to foreign navies following the war. These ships had been built in a hurry and had also been deemed expendable, by those who deem such things during wartime.
The U.S.S. LSM-45 had been laid up in a nest with a few dozen sister ships in the reserve fleet at Green Cove Springs Florida shortly after wars end, and had then been turned over to the Hellenic Navy in 1958. It was rechristened the Ipopliarkhos Grigoropoulos (L-161) by its Greek owners. The ship then began her second seafaring career, having been named in honor of a Lieutenant in the Greek Navy who had been a war hero during World War II. The vessel operated as a Landing Ship of the Greek Navy for over twenty five years until it was retired from service and relocated to an obscure port in the Greek Archipelago.
It’s been said that time and tide wait for no man, and an unmanned steel ship will decay rapidly in any salt water environment.
In 1993, the ship was discovered by a group of Americans who took great interest in the rusting, listing former U.S. warship. Over a period of time, a group of World War II LSM veterans, known as the Landing Ship Medium Association, pooled their resources and eventually had the ship made seaworthy and watertight, then arranged for a Russian seagoing tug to tow it to the Gulf of Mexico on the first leg of its long, eventful voyage.
After arriving unscathed in New Orleans, a series of Mississippi River towboats maneuvered the vessel upstream, northbound up the Mississippi and Missouri River system all the way to Omaha Nebraska where its new berth awaited. The ship was moored at Freedom Park in Omaha, and became a popular maritime display there, along with two other WWII warships, the Minesweeper U.S.S. HAZARD and the Submarine U.S.S. MARLIN.
The U.S.S. LSM-45 is a powerful, haunting image of a ghost ship from another era
In 2004, the ship again changed hands, this time ownership going to the Marine Corps Museum of the Carolinas which was in the planning stages at Jacksonville, North Carolina. Again, much to-do and fanfare welcomed the old ship to its newest berth aboard Camp Lejeune.
The Marine Base is the largest amphibious military installation in the United States. Established in 1940, the base honors the first Commandant of the Marine Corps, General John Archer Lejeune (1867-1942).
The LSM Association and the Marine Corps Museum of the Carolinas worked in unison to make all this happen, and the ship was warmly welcomed by the members of the new museum which had not been constructed yet. Once again, there were volunteers ready to help with the tasks of keeping the old vessel squared away, plus the museum also made the ship readily available to LSM Association members, and other WWII veterans who wanted to visit southeastern North Carolina and tour the old ship.
For many of these people, it was a sentimental journey back through time and their nostalgia was sensed by everyone concerned with the vessel, which is the very last intact vessel of its class afloat in the world.
A few other former LSMs had found a second productive life after being converted by their farsighted owners to new roles in the maritime industry, re-designed as lumber barges, coal hoppers, car ferries or as sunken reefs that would enable marine fishes to spawn and reproduce. A lot of those converted ships saw service in Asia, Europe, South America and the Arctic, but for all good purpose, the ‘45’ is the only vessel of its class that has survived in its original configuration for over 65 years.
Now, it looks like the ship-breakers may finally get their hands on the old ‘45’, as the museum simply does not have the resources to finance the extensive shipyard repairs and much needed modernization required.
The recently renamed Museum Of The Marine does have plans, however, to remove the superstructure, (known as the tower), along with the twin 40 mm gun mount turret from the forecastle. Eventually, these monuments along with a vast array of other artifacts will someday be on display when the long- planned museum opens their doors to the public.
It’s only a matter of time, though, before the 203’ ship may be towed from it’s berth on it’s final mission- either towed to some deep water spot to be sunk as a fishing reef, or perhaps to a graving dock somewhere that will cut the vessel into little pieces of metal that will no longer be recognizable as being a part of this once proud, once mighty warship that took part in the Battle of the Philippines and the Battle for Okinawa during the final stages of the war.
Only a miracle could save this lonely wartime artifact from the torches, and miracles have been in short supply for this ship and its sister ships, as they have all but disappeared off the face of the earth forever. The once mighty, once rowdy and hell-bent ship from our past may soon be just a quiet memory for those who care, those men that served in one of these living, pulsating, fighting Landing Ships Medium during the most important war in modern history.
Those men of the ‘Gator Freighters’, the Naval Amphibians that plied the oceans of the world; and the sailors, marines, soldiers and airmen who fought and won the most devastating conflict in modern history; the global war for world domination called World War II.
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