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West Corum (Id. No. 3982)

1919

The Navy retained the name carried by this vessel at the time of her acquisition.

(Id. No. 3982: displacement 12,424; length 424'0"; beam 54'0"; draft 24'0" (mean); speed 10.0 knots; complement 82; armament none)

West Corum, a steel-hulled, single-screw freighter built under a United States Shipping Board contract at Portland, Oregon, by the Columbia River Shipbuilding Corp., was taken over by the Navy on 10 February 1919; and, given the identification number (Id. No.) 3982, was commissioned the same day, Lt. Cmdr. Alfred G. Thompson, USNRF, in command.

West Corum departed the Pacific Northwest on 24 February 1919 bound for the east coast with a cargo of flour. She transited the Panama Canal and arrived in Hampton Roads on 19 March. The cargo ship then proceeded on to the Near East; arrived at Constantinople, Turkey, on 18 April; and unloaded her cargo.

She got underway again on 1 May 1919 and headed home via Gibraltar. Arriving at Norfolk on 6 June, the ship was placed out of commission on 9 June 1919 and simultaneously stricken from the Navy Register, and returned to the Shipping Board the same day. 

West Corum's ports of call included Bordeaux, France (October 1919), and ANtwerp (May and August 1920), as well as seaports in Argentina ((November 1920). Her cargo included 107,000 animal hides (believed to be enough for making 1,000,000 pairs of shoes!) as well as linseed ooil and wool. The ship touched at the Argentine ports of Buenos Aires and Santa Fe into the late 1920s. Laid up at New Orleans, Louisiana, during 1939, West Corum was selected to be reconditioned late the following year, along with nine other vessels. 

Taken over for U.S. Army service, USAT West Corum conducted a voyage from Puerto Rico to New York in January 1941, then was renamed USAT Will H. Point , after which she steamed to Alaska, inaugurating use of the port facilities at Anchorage, Territory of Alaska, on 15 June 1941. Later, from September 1943 to January 1944, Will H. Point frequented ports in Australia and New Guinea, traveling in convoy to such destinations as Gladstone, Brisbane, Caloundra, Townsville, and Milne Bay. Among her last voyages as a USAT was transporting 11 soldiers from Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, to San Francisco, Calif., in July 1946.

On 6 January 1947, Will H. Point entered the Maritime Commission's Reserve Fleet, arriving at Astoria, Oregon, and was placed in Unit 1-10,  at 2:00 p.m. Stripping ensued, reported as complete by 28 February. On 22 July 1947, the ship that had voyaged to alleviate suffering in the wake of war, then had participated in the war effort in the Pacific in another global conflict, was sold "for complete scrapping" to Franklin Shipwrecking Company. A month later, at 3:30 p.m. on 22 August 1947, agents of the Foss Launch & Tug Co. took delivery of the vessel and she was towed away to be broken up. 

Updated, Robert J. Cressman

1 February 2024

Published: Thu Feb 01 17:49:39 EST 2024