West Zeda (Id. No. 3801)
1918-1919
The Navy retained the name carried by this vessel at the time of her acquisition.
(Id. No. 3801: tonnage 8,800 (gross register); length 423'9"; beam 54'0"; draft 24'0" (mean); speed 9 knots; complement 90; armament none)
West Zeda, a steel-hulled, single-screw cargo ship built under a United States Shipping Board (USSB) contract at Portland, Oregon, by the Northwest Steel Co., was completed late in 1918 and taken over by the Navy for operation by the Naval Overseas Transportation Service (NOTS); assigned the identification number (Id. No.) 3801; and commissioned on 23 December 1918, two days before Christmas, at the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Wash., Lt. Richard Willowden, USNRF, in command.
After trials, West Zeda loaded 7,444 tons of flour earmarked for shipment to the Near East and departed the west coast on 4 January 1919. She transited the Panama Canal and touched briefly at New York and Gibraltar before arriving at Constantinople, Turkey, on 6 March. After discharging her cargo and taking on 1,998 tons of water ballast and a small cargo of medicinal opium, West Zeda sailed for home on 13 April. She proceeded through the Strait of Gibraltar and reached New York on 17 May. Decommissioned at New York on 26 May and simultaneously stricken from the Navy Register, she was returned to the USSB the following day.
West Zeda operated under the aegis of the United States Shipping Board into the late 1920's when she was placed in reserve and laid up on the west coast. With the onset of World War II, the ship operated under government ownership, the United States Maritime Commission, then operated under the house flag of the Isthmian Steamship Co., New York, N.Y.; she was bombed and damaged at Suez, then ran aground while proceeding via the Red Sea on her homeward voyage. A two-week repair periods at Aden and four months at Mombasa enabled her to begin a voyage to Philadephia , Pa., for more complete repairs. She then touched at Capetown and Trinidad.
On 23 February 1944, West Zeda, Ivar J. H. Rosenquist, Master, en route from Mombasa to Phildelphia, was steaming unescorted and unarmed, when she was sighted by the German submarine U-129 (Kapitanleutnant Asmus Nicolai Clausen, commanding) less than an hour into the morning watch (0443), some 129 miles southeast of Trinidad. British West Indies. U-129 fired a single torpedo ; West Zeda's third officer sighted the oncoming G7a but too late to give the ship a chance to maneuver. The torpedo punched into the hull at her number two hold, and within ten minutes, West Zeda's nine officers and 26 men clambered into the two port lifeboats and lowered away, four distress signals having gone unanswered.
At 0457, U-129 then fired a second torpedo, a G7e, that hit amidships, after which time West Zeda broke in half and inside of 10 minutes' time, plunged to the bottom. A patrolling U.S. Navy plane subsequently sighted the survivors, and the schooner Emeralda, out of St. Vincent, rescued them at noon and transported them to safety at Georgetown, British Guiiana, soon thereafter.
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
8 February 2024
