West Loquassuck (Id. No. 3638)
1918-1919
\The Navy retained the name carried by this vessel at the time of her acquisition.
(Id. No. 3638: displacement 12,225; length 423'9"; beam 54'; depth of hold 29'9"; draft 24'2" (mean); speed 11.5 knots; complement 70; armament none)
West Loquassuck, a single-screw, steel-hulled cargo ship constructed under a Shipping Board contract at Seattle, Wash., by the Skinner & Eddy Corp., was launched on 21 September 1918. Taken over by the Navy for duty with the Naval Overseas Transportation Service (NOTS) and assigned the identification number (Id. No.) 3638, West Loquassuck was placed in commission at the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Wash., on 15 October 1918, Lt. Benjamin I. Joyce, USNRF, in command.
West Loquassuck sailed for Chile soon after completing her sea trials to load guano for shipment to Charleston, S.C. Departing Iquique, Chile, on 4 December 1918, she steamed up the Pacific coast of South America, transited the Panama Canal, and put into Charleston two days before Christmas of 1918.
After discharging her cargo, she shifted to Savannah, Georgia., to fill her holds with cotton. Underway for the British Isles, West Loquassuck made port at Falmouth, England, on 17 February 1919 and departed on 25 March. Returning in ballast to Boston, Mass., the freighter was decommissioned, stricken from the Navy Register, and returned to the Shipping Board on 17 April 1919.
West Loquassuk remained under Shipping Board ownership until abandoned due to age and deterioration sometime in the latter half of 1933.
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
2 February 2024
