SS West Mahomet
bow .
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History | |
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Name | USS West Mahomet (ID-3681) |
Owner | U.S. Shipping Board |
Builder | Skinner & Eddy |
Yard number | 34 (USSB #1187) |
Laid down | 21 August 1918 |
Launched | 19 October 1918 |
Completed | 13 November 1918 |
Commissioned | 13 November 1918–3 June 1919 |
In service | 13 November 1918–about 1930 |
Out of service | ~1930–1938 |
Stricken | 3 June 1919 |
Fate | Scrapped at Rosyth, Scotland , 1938 |
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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Armament | None |
SS West Mahomet was a
West Mahomet was built as part of the United States Shipping Board's World War I emergency wartime shipbuilding program. Completed just too late to see service in the war, the ship was nevertheless commissioned into the Navy as USS West Mahomet (ID-3681), but saw only a handful of voyages on the Navy's behalf—including a postwar famine relief mission to Romania—before being decommissioned in June 1919.
The ship was subsequently placed into merchant service as SS West Mahomet, but with the onset of the
Construction and design
West Mahomet was built in
West Mahomet 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, a beam of 54 feet and a draft of 24 feet 2 inches.[4] The ship was powered by a Curtis geared turbine,[5] driving a single screw propeller and delivering a speed of 11.5 knots.[4] Since the ship was completed too late to see wartime service—having been delivered just two days after Armistice Day—she was not provided with any armament.[4]
Service history
Upon her delivery to the Navy on 13 November 1918, West Mahomet was commissioned the same day as USS West Mahomet (ID-3681) for operation with the
On 29 November, West Mahomet departed Seattle with a cargo of 7,886 tons of flour on a postwar Eastern European famine relief mission.[6] After proceeding via the Panama Canal, the ship reached New York on 28 December and sailed for the Near East on New Year's Day 1919. On 5 February, the freighter reached Constantinople where she discharged her cargo. She then loaded a return cargo of 970 bales of tobacco and 1,470 tons of water ballast and departed for New York on 5 March.[4]
After unloading her cargo at New York, West Mahomet loaded 5,513 tons of general Army cargo and departed for Belgium on 26 April, arriving at Antwerp on 12 May. Having unloaded her cargo once again, the ship departed for the United States on 16 May, arriving at Newport News, Virginia on 2 June. The following day, she was simultaneously decommissioned, struck from the Navy List, and returned to control of the U.S. Shipping Board.[4]
Merchant service
Following her decommission, the USSB placed West Mahomet into commercial service as SS West Mahomet. Subsequent records of the ship's movements are scarce, but it appears she remained active through the 1920s, operating from various ports in the United States to destinations as diverse as
By 1930, the
References
- ^ a b Pacific Ports Annual, pp. 64-65.
- ^ a b "General Cargo Ships Built in Pacific Coast Shipyards" Archived 2009-04-22 at the Wayback Machine, shipbuildinghistory.com.
- ^ Hurley, p. 93. Note that Hurley does not specifically mention West Mahomet in his list of fastest-built ships, but at 82 calendar days the vessel would, according to Hurley's list, have been the sixth fastest-built ship of the war.
- ^ a b c d e f g West Mahomet, Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Naval History and Heritage Command website.
- ^ Silverstone, p. 169.
- ^ Bane, pp. 343-344.
- ^ The Ellis Island Ship Database - West Mahomet, ellisislandrecords.org.
- ^ Item details BT 26/897/65, nationalarchives.gov.uk.
- ^ "Shipping and Mails", The New York Times, July 7, 1920.
- ^ "Shipping and Mails", The New York Times, March 9, 1922.
- ^ "Finger Nail Traces Victim of Murder", The New York Times, January 14, 1924.
- ^ "777,245 Offered For Fifteen Cargo Ships: Maritime Commission Gets Bids on 125,754 Tons of Obsolete Wartime Vessels", The New York Times, September 1, 1937.
- ^ Silverstone, p. 170.
Bibliography
- Bane, Suda Lorena (1943): Organization of American relief in Europe, 1918-1919, pp. 343–344, Stanford University Press.
- Hurley, Edward N. (1920): The New Merchant Marine, p. 93, The Century Co., New York.
- Pacific Ports Inc. (1919): Pacific Ports Annual, Fifth Edition, 1919, pp. 64–65, Pacific Ports Inc.
- Silverstone, Paul H. (2006): The New Navy, 1883-1922, pp. 169–170, Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-97871-2.