overall: 34 in x 17 1/2 in x 132 in; 86.36 cm x 44.45 cm x 335.28 cm
Object Name:
Freighter
Other Terms:
Freighter; Maritime
Associated Place:
United States: California
United States: Massachusetts
United States: New York
United States: Washington
Date made:
1919
Used date:
1919-1958
Description:
The Luckenbach Line donated this 1/4" scale model to the Smithsonian in 1967. A portion of the model's starboard hull is cut away, revealing the ship's cargo holds packed with barrels, sacks, lumber, boxes, and coal. The engine room, bridge, crew's quarters, and passenger accommodations are also visible. The deck of the model includes winches, derricks, masts and booms for cargo handling. The single stack is painted black and displays a white "L" on a red band, the insignia of the Luckenbach Steamship Company. On the port side of the hull the name "Luckenbach Line" appears in large white letters.
The steamship <i>Lewis Luckenbach</i> was built in 1919 by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp., in Quincy, Massachusetts. Its dimensions were 496.2 feet long, 68.2 feet beam, and 37.2 feet depth. This was the second steamship named for the founder of the Luckenbach Line, the first having been built in 1903. With its sister ship, the Andrea Luckenbach, the second Lewis Luckenbach joined the line's fleet of intercoastal freighters on runs between New York and California. The ship could carry over 700 carloads of freight in its massive holds. Accommodations were modest compared to passenger liners, but the rates for "travel by freighter" were affordable at between $215 and $255 for roundtrip passage between Seattle and Brooklyn, NY, in 1936. During World War II the ship was converted to an Army hospital ship and renamed Louis A. Milne, for the surgeon who served New York's Port of Embarkation from 1937 to 1943. The vessel was scrapped in 1958.
