Western Front (Id. No. 1787)
1918-1919
The Navy retained the name carried by this ship at the time she was acquired.
(Id. No. 1787: displacement 11,500; length 423'0"; beam 54'0"; depth of hold 29'9"; draft 24'0" (mean); speed 12.0 knots; complement 98; armament 1 4-inch 1 6-pounder)
Western Front, a steel-hulled, single-screw cargio ship, formerly named Nikkosan Maru and Indiana and built under a United States Shipping Board contract, was launched on 15 September 1917 at Seattle, Wash., by the Skinner & Eddy Corp. The ship subsequently proceeded to New York, where she was inspected by the Navy on 16 January 1918 and acquired soon thereafter for duty with the Naval Overseas Transportation Service (NOTS). Given the identification number (Id. No.) 1787, Western Front was commissioned on 11 May 1918, Lt. Cmdr. John Burns, USNRF, in command.
The cargo vessel soon took on board a cargo of steel rails, ordnance equipment, and 10 locomotives, and got underway for France on 17 May 1918 with Convoy HH-69, which was escorted by Galveston (Cruiser No. 17). Six days out, Western Front collided with and sank British merchantman Clan Matheson, circumstances that required her to turn homeward for repairs at New York.
Western Front got underway again on 6 June 1918 and arrived at her original destination, St. Nazaire, on the 22nd. She discharged her cargo and returned to New York, this time for drydocking and permanent repairs at the Robins Dry Dock & Repair Co.,, Brooklyn, N.Y. The cargo vessel subsequently made four more voyages carrying cargoes for NOTS to the French ports of Bordeaux, La Pallice, Quiberon, and Brest. On one run, she carried 26 Army tanks and delivered these armored vehicles to New York in the spring of 1919. Returning from her last voyage on 2 August 1919, Western Front was decommissioned on 15 August at Newport News, Va., and returned to the Shipping Board on the same day. She was stricken froim the Navy Register on 16 August 1919.
Western Front remained in the custody of the Shipping Board until she disappeared from merchant vessel registers in 1922.
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
20 February 2024
