Built as a wooden hulled net-tender ship by Pollack Stockton Shipbuilding Co, Stockton, California. for the USA Navy.
15 October 1942 laid down as IRONWOOD (YN-67).
03 April 1943 renamed in LANCEWOOD (YN-67) one of the Ailanthus class.
02 May 1943 launched.
Displacement 1.100 tons light, 1.275 tons loaded. Dim. 194.7 x 37 x 13.6ft. (draught).
Powered: diesel electric by two diesels, 2.500 shp, speed 12 knots.
Armament 1 – 3 inch gun and 4 – 20mm guns.
Crew 56.
18 October 1943 commissioned under command of Lt. Tyler Kaune.
After a shakedown trip off the Californian coast, she was assigned to the 12th Naval District, San Francisco.
20 January 1944 reclassified Net Laying Ship (AN-48).
She tended nets and repaired net lines until departing San Francisco on 1 December 1944.
Loaded with fleet moorings, she steamed via San Pedro to Pearl Harbour where she arrived the 16 December.
24 January 1945 she sailed for the western Pacific. After making calls at Eniwetok and Guam, she reached a holding area off Iwo Jima on 20 February.
23 February she began pulling damaged landing crafts off the beaches to facilitate unloading operations.
She placed moorings, laid nets, and salvaged landing craft off Iwo Jima until 12 April, when she departed for the Marianas.
From 19 April till 10 June the LANCEWOOD served at Guam, then she proceeded to Ulithi, where she arrived on 12 June for duty as a net repair ship.
30 August she began removing net defences, then she moved to Yap Island 2 September for the surrender of Japanese forces there the following day.
She remained at Yap until 7 September, and returning to Ulithi the 8th, and resumed net removal operations.
14 October, loaded with net panels, LANCEWOOD sailed to Saipan where she arrived on17 October and unloaded her cargo.
26 October she departed from Saipan and steamed via Midway and Pearl Harbour for the west coast arriving 25 November in San Francisco.
Remaining at San Francisco till she was decommissioned on 11 February 1946, berthed at Suisun Bay, California.
28 April 1947 sold to Robert A. Martinolich, San Francisco.
03 May transferred to the Maritime Commission (so it looks that the sale to Martinolich fell through) for simultaneous delivery to her purchaser, the French Government, where after she was first renamed in ATIETTE later renamed in COMMANDANT CHARCOT.
In France in the meantime was by three young French polar explorers J.A. Martin, Robert Pommier and Yves Valetta an Antarctic French polar expedition (EPF) planned to explore the French Antarctic territories, and to build a base there.
From the USA navy was bought the net-layer LANGWOOD which was renamed in COMMANDANT CHARCOT.
After arrival in Le Havre was she fitted out for the expedition.
14 September 1948 she left St Malo under command of Max Douguet and after a stopover in Brest from where she sailed on 26 November1948 she headed for the Antarctic.
During the voyage she made calls at Casablanca, Durban and Hobart, Tasmania before heading to the Antarctic and reaches the pack-ice on 12 February 1949, due to the heavy pack-ice which she could not break, she could not make a landing on the coast of Terre Adelie and had to return to France.
Having learned from the first expedition which was to late in the season, the second expedition sailed on 20 September 1949 from Brest.
Took also a water-plane on board to help to navigate through the ice.
Via Madeira and Tenerife made a call at Dakar, Cape Town where J.A. Martin was buried after he got a hart attack on board, the she headed for Australia but by malfunction of the two engines she arrived under tow at Durban after repair she sailed on.
17 November she passed the island St Paul and arrived 1 November at Melbourne.
8 December arrived at Hobart and took on board the cargo left behind nine months earlier.
21 December sailed from Hobart and reached the pack-ice 28 December.
With the help of the aircraft they found a passage through the ice, and on 17 January 1950 she reaches the coast of Terre Adelie.
20 January the location for the new bases was chosen on a small bay just west of Cape Decouverte, the base was named Port Martin to honour the lost expedition member J.A. Martin.
08 February the COMMANDANT CHARCOT left Port Martin, leaving behind a team of 11 men to over-winter in the new founded base-camp.
Made first a stopover in Hobart and then via Heart Island, Kergeulen (5 April), St Paul and Amsterdam Island, Reunion, Tamatave, Madagascar, Diego Suarez, Djibouti, Suez Canal, Bizerte, Algiers, and arrived back in Brest on 10 June 1950.
She made also a third voyage to the Antarctic for re-supplying Port Martin base camp, and again under command of Douguet with on board 50 persons she sailed from Brest on 03 October 1950 and via Algiers, Suez Canal, Djibouti, Diego Suarez she arrived in Fremantle on 29 November.
28 December she sailed from Hobart Town bound for Port Martin where she arrived on 09 January 1951.
05 February sailed again from Port Martin for the last time leaving behind a new team for over-wintering.
20 February arrived at Hobart and then via Melbourne, Noumea, Aitutaki, Bora Bora, Papeete, Clipperton, and Panama Canal in May, Fort the France, and arrived at Brest on 01 June 1951.
The COMMANDANT CHARCOT was not again used for the Antarctic voyages.
1963 out of service and scrapped.
(Port Martin was destroyed by fire on 24 January 1952 and not rebuild., the men on the base returned to France on board the Norwegian sealer TOTTAN.)
French Southern and Antarctic Territories 1976 2f70 sg105, scottC42. 1982 5f sg168, scottC71
Source: http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/18/18048.htm Watercraft Philately 1978/24.
http://www.historycentral.com/navy/yacht/lancewood.html http://philadelie.free.fr/47-53.htm