West Humhaw (Id. No. 3718)
1918-1919
The Navy retained the name carried by this vessel at the time of her acquisition.
(Id. No. 3718: displacement 12,225; length 423'9"; beam 54'0"; depth of hold 29'9"; draft 24'2" (mean); speed 11.5 knots; complement 94; armament 1 5-inch, 1 3-inch)
West Humhaw , a steel-hulled, single-screw cargo ship built under a United States Shipping Board contract at Seattle, Wash., by Skinner & Eddy Corp., was launched on 28 August 1918 and was taken over by the Navy for use by the Naval Overseas Transportation Service (NOTS) at the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Wash., on 13 September. Assigned identification number (Id. No.) 3718, West Humhaw was commissioned on 16 September 1918 at Seattle, Lt. Cmdr. Arthur Ravens, USNRF, in command.
Loading a full cargo of flour, West Humhaw departed Seattle on 5 October 1918, bound for the east coast. Proceeding via the Panama Canal, she arrived at New York City on the 31st and got underway for France on 12 November 1918. Reaching La Pallice two weeks later, she shifted to Bordeaux soon thereafter for unloading and sailed for home on 21 December.
Arriving at New York on 12 January 1919, West Humhaw was decommissioned on 27 January and stricken from the Navy Register and returned to the Shipping Board the same day.
Operating out of Seattle under the Shipping Board from 1919 and into late 1928 or early 1929, the freighter was then acquired by the American-West African Line. She carried freight for this New York-based firm through the 1930's and into World War II. While in company with Convoy ST-40, West Humhaw (Torlief Christian Selness, Master) was torpedoed and sunk by U-161 (Kapitanleutnant Albrecht Achilles, ciommanding) on 8 November 1942 in the South Atlantic, approximately 60 miles southwest of Takoradi. The entire crew and U.S. Navy armed guard detachment , 59 souls all told, survived, taking to four lifeboats, whence they were rescued by a Fairmile motor launch, HMS ML-281.
Updated and corrected, Robert J. Cressman
5 February 2024
