SS West Lashaway
SS West Lashaway shortly after launch and before the completion of her superstructure, 12 September 1918
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History | |
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Name | SS West Lashaway |
Operator |
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Builder | Skinner & Eddy |
Laid down | 8 July 1918 |
Launched | 12 September 1918 |
Completed | 30 September 1918 |
Commissioned | 30 September 1918–12 April 1919 |
In service | 30 September 1918–30 August 1942 |
Stricken | 12 Apr 1919 |
Fate | Torpedoed by U-66, 30 August 1942 |
General characteristics | |
Type | Design 1013 cargo ship |
Tonnage | 5,600 gross, 8,800 dwt |
Displacement | 11,390 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 × steam turbine |
Propulsion | Single screw |
Speed | 11.5 kn (21.3 km/h) |
Complement |
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Armament |
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SS West Lashaway was a
West Lashaway was commissioned into the Navy immediately upon completion in September 1918, but only had time to complete one voyage before the end of the war. In the months that followed, the ship made several more voyages with the Navy, including a children's relief mission to Eastern Europe, before decommissioning in 1919. West Lashaway was subsequently placed in commercial service, operating between the United States and various ports in Europe. Later, the ship was employed in trade between the U.S. and Africa.
In August 1942, West Lashaway was torpedoed and sunk by U-66 in the Caribbean. The handful of survivors, including four children, endured a three-week ordeal in an open boat with minimal supplies before being rescued. One of them would later write a book about the experience.
Construction and design
West Lashaway was built in
West Lashaway had a design deadweight tonnage of 8,800 tons and gross register tonnage of 5,600. The ship had an overall length of 423 feet 9 inches, a beam of 54 feet and a draft of about 24 feet.[4] She was powered by a Curtis geared turbine[5] driving a single screw propeller, delivering a service speed of 11 to 11.5 knots.[6]
Service history
West Lashaway was delivered to the Navy on 30 September 1918 and commissioned the same day at the
Assigned to the
After simultaneously bunkering and loading 5,144 tons of Quartermaster's and YMCA supplies, the freighter departed for France, arriving at Nantes on 19 February. Having discharged her cargo, West Lashaway loaded a return cargo—which included 300 tons of Army ordnance materials—and sailed for New York City on 20 March. After unloading and undergoing general repairs at New York following her arrival on 4 April, West Lashaway was simultaneously decommissioned, struck from the Navy List and returned to control of the USSB on 12 April 1919.[4]
Merchant service
Following her decommission, West Lashaway was placed in mercantile service by the USSB as SS West Lashaway. From 1919 through the mid-1920s West Lashaway was active in
By the early 1930s, West Lashaway had been chartered to the
.West Lashaway appears to have had quite an eventful history through this part of her career. In 1931, the freighter was used to bring five
Sinking
After the United States entered World War II in December 1941, West Lashaway continued to operate in the Africa trade. On the night of 30 August 1942, while returning to the United States from
Survivors' ordeal
Shortly after the sinking, U-66 surfaced and briefly opened fire with small arms, but soon departed, leaving a total of 42 survivors on four rafts from the ship's original complement of 56. The rafts stayed together for the first few days, but then two became separated and were never seen again. The remaining two, which had been lashed together, later decided to separate in hopes of increasing their chances of being found. One of these rafts contained 19 people, including the ship's captain, 11 crew, two armed guards, and five of the ship's original nine passengers including a missionary's wife, Mrs Bell, and her two children aged 13 and 11, and two children from another family. The captain and one of the armed guards died within the first few days, leaving a total of seventeen.[15][16]
The occupants of this raft initially assumed they would be rescued quickly, but two weeks went by until even with strict rationing they were running low on food and water.[15][17] They were eventually sighted by aircraft and some supplies dropped. After nineteen days on the open sea, they were rescued by the destroyer HMS Vimy (D33), but not before the rescuers had fired 16 rounds at the raft in the mistaken impression it was a German submarine. After transfer to the Dutch merchant steamship Prins William Van Oranje, the survivors were landed at Barbados.[15][17] One of the children, Robert Bell, would later write a book, In Peril on the Sea: A Personal Remembrance, about the ordeal.
25 days after the sinking of West Lashaway, the raft which had been cut loose washed up on the island of
References
- ^ "General Cargo Ships Built in Pacific Coast Shipyards" Archived 2009-04-22 at the Wayback Machine, shipbuildinghistory.com.
- ^ Pacific Ports Annual, pp. 64-65.
- ^ Hurley, p. 93. Note that Hurley does not specifically mention West Lashaway in his list of fastest-built ships, but at 84 calendar days the vessel would, according to Hurley's list, have been the equal-sixth fastest-built ship of the war.
- ^ a b c d e West Lashaway Archived 2012-11-03 at the Wayback Machine, Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Naval History and Heritage Command website.
- ^ Silverstone, p. 169.
- ^ "West Lashaway", ellisisland.org.
- ^ Ellis Island Ship Database - West Lashaway[permanent dead link], ellisislandrecords.org.
- New York Times, March 2, 1931 (subscription required).
- New York Times, July 28, 1935 (subscription required).
- ^ "Seaman Accused of Attempt to Kill Captain Faces Unusual Boston Trial" Archived 2012-10-22 at the Wayback Machine, Hartford Courant, July 7, 1937 (subscription required).
- Milwaukee Journal, April 22, 1938.
- ^ "Pay Rise Ends Ship Strike: Nine Vessels Tied Up by War Wage Demands Prepare for Sailings" Archived 2012-10-22 at the Wayback Machine, Los Angeles Times, September 22, 1939 (subscription required).
- ^ "Barkless Dog Ship's Stowaway". Boston Post. April 9, 1941.
- ISBN 978-0948955976.
- ^ a b c d e Helgason, Guðmundur. "Allied Ships Hit by U-boats - West Lashaway". German U-boats of WWII - uboat.net.
- ^ a b Whitbeck, Part 1.
- ^ a b c Whitbeck, Part 2.
Bibliography
- Books
- Hurley, Edward N. (1920): The New Merchant Marine, p. 39, The Century Co., New York.
- Jordan, Roger H. (2006): The World's Merchant Fleets, 1939: The Particulars And Wartime Fates of 6,000 Ships, Naval Institute Press, ISBN 978-1-59114-959-0.
- 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.
- Websites
- Whitbeck, Mary (2006): "A Rainbow Every Day: A woman, four kids and 12 sailors adrift in the Atlantic", alliancelife.org, Part 1, Part 2.
- This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
Further reading
- Bell, Robert and Lockerbie, D. Bruce (1984): In Peril on the Sea: A Personal Remembrance, Doubleday, ISBN 978-0-87509-642-1.