West Gambo (Id. No. 3220)
1918-1919
The Navy retained the name carried by this vessel at the time of her acquisition.
(Id. No. 3220: displacement 12,225; length 423'9"; beam 54'0"; depth of holdph. 29'9"; draft 24'2" (mean) ; speed 10.5 knots; complement 103; armament none)
West Gambo, a steel-hulled, single-screw freighter built under a United States Shipping Board contract at Seattle, Wash., by Skinner & Eddy Corp., was launched on 4 July 1918; acquired by the Navy on 20 July 1918 for use with the Naval Overseas Transportation Service (NOTS); given the identification number (Id. No.) 3220; and commissioned the same day at Seattle, Lt. Cmdr. Hiram E. Knight, USNRF, in command.
West Gambo departed Seattle on 30 July 1918 bound for Port Costa, where she loaded a full cargo of flour consigned to the Red Cross. After transiting the Panama Canal, she arrived at New York on 31 August. The ship sailed in convoy for Russian waters on 18 September and reached Archangel on 12 October. The cargo vessel was unloaded by 2 November and, on that day, headed via Glasgow, Scotland, for the United States.
She made port at New York on 13 December 1918 and was soon placed in line for demobilization. Decommissioned and returned to the Shipping Board on 17 January 1919, the freighter remained in the custody of that agency until sold to the Lykes Brothers Steamship Co. in late 1936. She retained her original name while operating under the Lykes house flag into 1941.
Sometime in 1941, the British government (Ministry of War Transport) acquired the ship and renamed her Empire Hartlebeest, in response to the island nation's need for merchantmen to replace ships sunk in the Battle of the Atlantic. On 20 September 1942, while steaming in Convoy SC-100, Empire Hartlebeest (James Fawcett Travis, Master), carrying a cargo of steel, canned goods, timber, and trucks, was torpedoed and sunk by U-596 (Kapitanleutnant Gunter Jahn, commanding). Fortunately, there were no casualties among the people on board Empire Hartlebeeste, their being rescued by Norwegian merchantmen Rio Verde (master and 20 survivors), and Norhauk (chief officer and 24 survivors). The British cargo ship's master had survived the loss of a previous ship exactly one year before to a German U-boat.
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
1 February 2024
