Western Hope (Id. No. 3771)
1918-1919
The Navy retained the name carried by this vessel at the time of her acquisition.
(Id. No. 3771: displacement 12,170; length 423'9"; beam 54'0"; draft 24'2"; depth of hold 29'9"; speed 9.5 knots; complement 102; armament none)
War Ruby, built for the British Cunard Steamship Line, was a single-screw, steel-hulled cargo ship launched on 29 July 1918 at Seattle, Wash., by the shipbuilding firm of J. F. Duthie & Co. Renamed Western Hope prior to completion, the ship was acquired by the Navy from the United States Shipping Board (USSB) for use by the Naval Overseas Transportation Service (NOTS), Western Hope was commissioned at Seattle on 25 September 1918, Lt. Cmdr. Andrew G. King, USNRF, in command.
After loading a cargo of flour, Western Hope sailed for the east coast on 8 October 1918. She transited the Panama Canal en route and arrived at New York City on 7 November 1918, four days before the Armistice stilled the guns of the Great war [World War I]. The ship departed New York on the 17th, bound for Europe, and, after reaching Gibraltar, received onward routing to Italy on 7 December.
Repairing an engine casualty at Taranto en route, Western Hope eventually arrived at Trieste and discharged her cargo of flour there. After departing that Adriatic port on 16 March 1919, she retransited the Straits of Gibraltar and arrived at Newport News, Va., on 21 April, ending her sole voyage for NOTS.
Decommissioned on 5 May 1919 at Newport News, Western Hope was simultaneously stricken from the Navy Register and returned to the USSB. The cargo ship was laid up in 1923.
Western Hope was broken up nine years later, in 1932, by the Boston Iron & Metal Works Co. of Baltimore, Maryland.
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
21 February 2024
