Lydia II (Str)
A former name retained.
II
Lydia, a cargo ship, was built in 1902 by Wigham Richardson & Co., Newcastle, England; operated as SS Szell Kalman prior to World War I by Royal Hungarian Sea Navigation Co. of Austria; taken over by the Navy 23 October 1918; and commissioned 26 October 1918 at Baltimore, Md., Lt. Comdr. Frederick W. Taylor, USNRF, in command.
Assigned to NOTS, Lydia departed Baltimore 7 November for Norfolk where she joined a convoy 15 November for Europe. Loaded with aviation steel and general supplies, she arrived Nantes, France, the first week in December before departing for Baltimore 14 December. She reached Baltimore 4 January 1919, loaded a cargo of food for the U.S. Food Administration, and departed for the Mediterranean 7 February. She arrived Constantinople, Turkey, 16 March, exchanged her cargo for water ballast, and departed 2 weeks later for the United States. Steaming via Gibraltar, she arrived Norfolk 9 May, decommissioned 15 May. and was returned to USSB the same day.
In 1925 she was sold to Adria Societa Anonima di Nav Marittima of Fiume, Italy, renamed Manzoni, and operated out of Fiume until after World War II.
