SS West Elcajon
SS Golden Kauri (formerly West Elcajon) underway, date unknown
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History | |
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Name | SS West Elcajon |
Operator |
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Builder | Skinner & Eddy |
Yard number | 37 (USSB #1926) |
Launched | 7 December 1918 |
Christened | SS West Elcajon |
Completed | December 1918 |
Commissioned | 18 Jan 1919–26 May 1919 |
Renamed |
|
Fate | Scrapped 1954 |
General characteristics | |
Type | Design 1013 cargo ship |
Tonnage | 5,600 gross, 8,800 dwt |
Displacement | 12,225 tons |
Length |
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Beam | 54 ft (16 m) |
Draft | 24 ft 2 in (7.37 m) |
Depth of hold | 29 ft 9 in (9.07 m) |
Installed power | 1 × Curtis geared turbine |
Propulsion | Single propeller |
Speed | 11.5 kn (21.3 km/h) |
Complement |
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SS West Elcajon (often misspelled West El Cajon) was a steel-hulled cargo ship built in 1918 for the United States Shipping Board's World War I emergency wartime shipbuilding program.
Completed just too late to see service in the war, West Elcajon was nevertheless commissioned into the
After decommission, the ship was laid up for several years until resuming service in 1926 as the merchant ship SS West Elcajon, operating between the United States and the
In 1938, the ship was renamed SS Waipio, and in 1946 she was sold to Panamanian interests and renamed SS Paralos. Paralos was scrapped in Japan in 1954.
Construction and design
West Elcajon was built in
West Elcajon had a design deadweight tonnage of 8,800 tons and gross register tonnage of 5,600. She had an overall length of 423 feet 9 inches (129.16 m), a beam of 54 feet (16 m) and a mean draft of 24 feet 2 inches (7.37 m).[3] The ship was powered by a Curtis geared turbine,[4] driving a single screw propeller and delivering a speed of 11.5 knots.[3]
Service history
After completion of the vessel in December 1918, West Elcajon was delivered to the Navy for operation with the
USS West Elcajon commenced her first and only mission for the Navy by loading 7,282 tons of
Having unloaded her cargo, West Elcajon departed for New York on 26 May, arriving on the 15th. On 26 May, she was decommissioned and returned to control of the U.S. Shipping Board.[3]
Merchant service
West Elcajon's mercantile career began inauspiciously when, not long after her decommission from the Navy, she was laid up with no work for almost five years on the mud flats at
For the next two years, West Ejcajon operated from the
After Swayne & Hoyt ran into financial difficulties, its subsidiary the American and Australian Orient Line was purchased in early 1928 by the
Dog Collar strike
In August 1928, Golden Kauri set out on her first voyage to Australia since the change of ownership with a cargo of 1,700,000 feet (520,000 m) of timber, 5,000 barrels of asphalt, 3,000 cases and 500 drums of gasoline and other goods, arriving at Victoria Dock, Melbourne on 18 September.[9][10] At this point the ship became embroiled in a bitter local labor dispute over the so-called Dog Collar Act, a law which sought to license dockyard workers.
After union workers went on strike, some 1,700 strikebreakers were brought in to unload ships, about 80 of whom were assigned to unload Golden Kauri.[11][12] On 4 October, a strikebreaker was fatally injured by timber falling from a sling being used to unload Golden Kauri, and a second strikebreaker was killed in an industrial accident the same day. Unionists jeered at the ambulance transporting the two to hospital as it passed by.[13]
Golden Kauri departed
Golden Kauri departed Newcastle for the United States a few days later, arriving at San Francisco on or about 22 November.[16] Her owners appear to have been undeterred by the recent mayhem on the Australian docks however, as the ship was back in Melbourne on 20 February 1929, having sailed a few weeks earlier from the lumber town of Aberdeen, Washington.[17]
Later career
Through the 1930s, Golden Kauri appears to have been employed in coastal service around the United States, operating between ports such as Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New Orleans and New York. On 15 October 1935, the ship sustained about $50,000 damage after a collision with the
In 1938, the Oceanic and Oriental Line was wound up, and Golden Kauri came under the direct control of the parent company, Matson Lines. Shortly afterward, Golden Kauri was renamed SS Waipio. Waipio carried on in the freight and cargo trade through
References
- ^ Pacific Ports Annual, p. 64-65.
- ^ "General Cargo Ships Built in Pacific Coast Shipyards" Archived 2009-04-22 at the Wayback Machine, shipbuildinghistory.com.
- ^ a b c d e f "West Elcajon", Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Naval History and Heritage Command website.
- ^ a b Silverstone, p. 169.
- ^ "News of Ships and Sailings at Pacific Ports", Los Angeles Times, November 13, 1926 (subscription required).
- ^ "Shipping and Los Angeles Harbor News", Los Angeles Times, April 7, 1927 (subscription required).
- ^ "Shipping and Los Angeles Harbor News", Los Angeles Times, November 16, 1927 (subscription required).
- The Argus, 5 April 1928.
- ^ "Shipping Notes", The Argus, 15 September 1928.
- ^ "Golden Kauri Arrives", The Argus, 19 September 1928.
- ^ "Unions' New Move", The Argus, 28 September 1928.
- ^ "Wharf Licences To Operate From Today: Strike Crisis Expected", The Argus, 1 October 1928.
- ^ "Two Volunteers Killed - Mishaps at Victoria Dock", The Argus, 5 October 1928.
- ^ "Riots at Newcastle: Volunteers Attacked", The Argus, 17 October 1928, p. 8.
- ^ "Police Charge Rioting Mob", The Canberra Times, 17 October 1928, p. 1.
- ^ "Shipping - Overseas Arrivals", The Argus, 24 November 1928, p. 29.
- ^ "Shipping - Arrivals", The Argus, 21 February 1929, p. 15.
- ^ "Collision Rips Freighter Open", Los Angeles Times, 16 October 1935 (subscription required).
- ^ Pictorial essay, The Age, 2 October 1937, p. 28.
Bibliography
- Pacific Ports Inc. (1919): Pacific Ports Annual, Fifth Edition, 1919, pp. 64–65, 402-405, Pacific Ports Inc.
- Silverstone, Paul H. (2006): The New Navy, 1883-1922, Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-97871-2.
- This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.