Return to Naval Historical Center home page. Return to Online Library listing

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Photo # NH 65092:  S.S. West Lashaway afloat immediately after launching, at Seattle, Washington, 12 September 1918

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS West Lashaway (ID # 3700), 1918-1919.
Originally, and later, S.S. West Lashaway (1918)

West Lashaway, a 6087 gross ton (11,390 tons displacement) freighter, was built at Seattle, Washington, as part of the World War I shipbuilding effort. When completed at the end of September 1918 she was turned over to the Navy and immediately placed in commission as USS West Lashaway (ID # 3700). Operated by the Naval Overseas Transportation Service, she carried a cargo of flour from the U.S. West Coast to Trieste, Italy, between mid-October and December 1918. Her second voyage took her to France and back to the U.S. from mid-February to early April 1919. USS West Lashaway was decommissioned in mid-April and returned to the U.S. Shipping Board.

West Lashaway appears to have been employed commercially at least some of the time during the next two decades. In May 1942 she was turned over to the American West African Line for operation on behalf of the War Shipping Administration. On 30 October of that year she was torpedoed and sunk in the North Atlantic by the German submarine U-66.

This page features all the views we have concerning USS West Lashaway (ID # 3700) and the civilian freighter West Lashaway of 1918.


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 65092

S.S. West Lashaway
(American Freighter, 1918)

Afloat immediately after launching, at the Skinner and Eddy shipyard, Seattle, Washington, 12 September 1918.
Completed a few weeks later, this steamship was turned over to the Navy on 30 September 1918 and placed in commission as USS West Lashaway (ID # 3700) on 1 October 1918. Following operation by the Naval Overseas Transportation Service, she was decommissioned and returned to the U.S. Shipping Board on 12 April 1919.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 66KB; 740 x 485 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 103553

USS West Lashaway
(ID # 3700)

In port, probably in the New York City area on 20 November 1918, when she was inspected by the Third Naval District.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 55KB; 740 x 395 pixels

 


Additional image: The Mariners Museum of Newport News, Virginia, owns a painting (presumably of 1920s or 1930s vintage) of S.S. West Lashaway, depicted in port broadside aspect (somewhat toward the bow) with a black hull, white superstructure and a funnel marking featuring the letter "M" in a diamond. For more information on this artwork, which is described as a tempera by an unknown artist, contact the Mariners Museum, whose Website can be readily found using standard Internet search engines.


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

Page made 28 February 2006