Skip to main content
Naval History and Heritage Command

Naval History and Heritage Command

Tags
Related Content
Topic
Document Type
  • Ship History
Wars & Conflicts
  • World War I 1917-1918
File Formats
Location of Archival Materials

West Indian (Id. No. 3120)

1918-1919

The Navy retained the name carried by this vessel at the time she was acquired.

(Id. No. 3120: displacement 12,100; length 423'9"; beam 54'0"; depth of hold 29'9"; draft 24' (mean); speed 10.5 knots; complement 74; armament none)

West Indian, formerly War Diamond, a single-screw, steel-hulled cargo ship built at Portland, Oregon, by the Columbia River Shipbuilding Corp., for the Cunard Steamship Line, and launched on 27 February 1918, was renamed West Indian prior to completion; taken over by the Navy for duty with the Naval Overseas Transportation Service; assigned identification number (Id. No.) 3120; and commissioned at Portland on 22 May 1918, Lt. Cmdr. Oliver P. Rankin, USNRF, in command.

Decommissioned on 5 September 1918 after defective propulsion machinery frustrated two attempts to sail for the east coast, West Indian underwent enough repairs to convince the Shipping Board that the ship was again seaworthy, and she was recommissioned at New York City on 7 November. Taking on cargo, West Indian sailed for England on 14 November and reached the River Clyde on 12 December. Discharging her cargo and loading a return cargo of 510 tons of Navy stores (as well as 530 tons of gravel ballast), West Indian headed for the United States on 28 January 1919.

Making port on 11 February 1919, the cargo ship was decommissioned, stricken from the Navy Register, and returned to the Shipping Board on 1 March 1919. She operated in the freight trade under the aegis of the Shipping Board until she was scrapped at Briton Ferry, United Kingdom, in 1938.

Updated, Robert J. Cressman

5 February 2024

Published: Mon Feb 05 15:37:58 EST 2024