Western Sea (Id. No. 3153)
1918-1919
The Navy retained the name carried by this vessel at the time she wa acquired.
(Id. No. 3153: displacement 12,200; length 423'9"; beam 54'0"; depth of hold 29'9"; draft 24'1" (mean); speed 10.5 knots; complement 92)
The single-screw, streel-hulled cargo ship War Emerald , built under a United States Shipping Board (USSB) contract at Seattle, Wash., by J. F. Duthie & Co., was launched on 25 May 1918; taken over by the Navy for service with the Naval Overseas Transportation Service; and, havimg been given the identification number (Id. No.) 3153, was commissioned on 29 June 1918, Lt. Cmdr. Charles E. Stewart, USNRF, in command.
Laden with a cargo of 6,812 tons of flour, Western Sea sailed for the east coast of the U.S. on 7 July 1918; transited the Panama Canal; and arrived at New York, N.Y., on 11 August. She off-loaded her consignment of flour and took on board general cargo, including 14 trucks, for the American Expeditionary Force in France and got underway for Europe.
After reaching Brest, France, the ship shifted to Bordeaux where she speedily unloaded her cargo and took on 1,000 tons of pyrites for her voyage home. Proceeding via Halifax, Nova Scotia, she reached New York on 24 November 1918. She remained there only long enough to deliver the pyrites and pick up 7,516 tons of general Army stores.
Following a stop at Falmouth, England, she reached Rotterdam, Holland, on 25 January 1919 and unloaded her cargo. On 7 Feburary, Western Sea headed for home and arrived at New York on 1 March, where she was simultaneously placed out of commission two months later, on 9 May 1919, and returned to the USSB the same day.
Western Sea remained in the custody of the USSB through the end of the 1920s, being broken up at Baltimore, Md., in 1931.
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
26 February 2024
