LST-819 was a tank landing ship, and the hull number was her name. She was an LST-542-class ship. Missouri Valley Bridge and Iron, at Evansville, Indiana, laid her down on 12 September 1944 and launched her on 21 October 1944. The sponsor is not one name. The current Dictionary entry says Mrs. Georgia E. Gilmore. The older volume, and the accounts that follow it, say Mrs. William M. Gilmore. The Navy commissioned her on 14 November 1944, Lieutenant George W. Ryerson of the Naval Reserve in command. A few later summaries print 7 November. The Dictionary, NavSource, and the narrative of her career agree on 14 November, and that is the date followed here. NavSource's class figures for these ships are 1,625 tons light, 4,080 tons full with a 1,675-ton load, 328 feet overall, a 50-foot beam, and 11.6 knots on trial. The ultimate battery printed with those figures is a design, not a count verified for this hull.
Her war record is one battle star, the assault and occupation of Okinawa Gunto from 2 April to 30 June 1945. On 23 July 1945 she was the rightmost named hull in a Navy photograph of the landing ships at the Yonabaru pier. The caption then reads LST-879, LST-681, LST-926, LST-944, an unnamed hull, LST-715, LST-918, LST-871, and two more unnamed hulls. The older Dictionary volume sends her from a Florida shakedown to New Orleans on 18 December 1944 and then to Tulagi. One reprint dates that arrival 23 February 1946. That year cannot sit beside an Okinawa star in April 1945. The narrative that fits the star puts her at Tulagi on 23 February 1945. She was not sunk.
The man who had her for Okinawa is the second name on the command list. NavSource prints that name as Zern, Zach, Edward Henry. An obituary of Edward Henry Zernzach says he commanded this ship in the Pacific and was at Okinawa, and that he was promoted to lieutenant commander in October 1945. The list marks the same tour as lieutenant, later lieutenant commander, from 1 December 1944 to 27 November 1945. The surname used here is Zernzach.
The first decommissioning is three dates. The current Dictionary says 15 November 1946. NavSource says 1 December 1946 at Astoria, and Edmund Franklin Coombs's tour ends that day. A category attached to her photographs says January 1946 at Astoria. She went into the Pacific Reserve Fleet, Columbia River Group. The Navy recommissioned her at Astoria on 8 September 1950, Lieutenant Jack Harley Burch in command. NavSource credits four Korean battle stars. She was decommissioned at San Diego on 24 June 1955. On 1 July 1955, still in reserve, she was named Hampshire County, for the counties of that name in Massachusetts and West Virginia.
The 1966 recommissioning is two days. NavSource's narrative says 6 July. The Dictionary, and the gap in the command list, say 9 July, which is the day Ervin Eugene White takes her. NavSource describes her Vietnam service as continuous in Vietnamese waters, or the waters next to them, from late 1966 to mid-1970, apart from overhauls, and credits ten campaign stars, a Presidential Unit Citation, and a Navy Unit Commendation. The same page gives Combat Action Ribbon windows of 7 to 15 June 1967 and 23 May 1970. She was decommissioned for the last time on 19 December 1970. The strike is also more than one day. NavSource prints 1 April 1975. The Dictionary says April 1975. Another account prints 5 April 1975.
On 1 December 1975 the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service sold her to Max Rouse and Sons of Beverly Hills. Lake Union Drydock at Seattle converted her. In 1976 she became LST 2 for Landing System Technology of Singapore, a Lauritz Kloster concern of Norway. NavSource says she then arrived at Piraeus for Maritime and Commercial Company Argonaftis S.A. of Panama, under the Greek flag, and was renamed Petrola 142 on 30 June 1978. She went into service on 31 July 1980, laid up at Piraeus on 24 February 1983, and the name was shortened to Petrola. Sold to Seltas A.S., she arrived at Aliaga to be broken up on 22 December 1995. She was not lost in the war.
A note on sources. The Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, in the current short entry and in the older volume, and NavSource's Hampshire County page, last updated 22 March 2024, supply the dates. The conflicts kept above are the sponsor, the 7 November commissioning that is not followed, the Tulagi year, the first decommissioning, the 1966 recommissioning, and the strike. The command list is credited on NavSource to Wolfgang Hechler and Ron Reeves. The Zernzach reading is that list plus an obituary that names this ship. The Yonabaru photograph is Navy negative 204 of the 21st Naval Construction Battalion. The later names, the sale, and the arrival at Aliaga are the NavSource disposition.