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

Western Light (Id. No. 3300)

1918-1919

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

(Id. No. 3300: displacement 12,185; length 423'9"; beam 54'0"; depth of hold 29'9"; draft 24'1" (mean); speed 10.5 knots; complement 116; armament 1 4-inch, 1 3-inch)

Western Light, a steel-hulled, single-screw cargo ship, was laid down on 5 March 1918  at Portland, Oregon, by the Northwest Steel Co., for the United States Shipping Board (USSB); launched on 27 May 1918; and sponsored by Miss Mollie Green. Western Light was taken over by the Navy at Portland on 30 July 1918, assigned the identification number (Id. No.) 3300, and commissioned the same day, Lt. Cmdr. Claude Smith, USNRF, in command.

Western Light set course for for Chile in August 1918, took on a cargo of nitrate at Arica, and got underway on 17 September. Proceeding through the Panama Canal, she arrived at Philadelphia, Pa., on 7 October and discharged her cargo. She then shifted to New York to join an east-bound convoy on 4 November for the first of her three transatlantic voyages, carrying cargo to European ports for U.S. forces in France.

Her ports of call included Verdon-sur-Mer, France; Falmouth, England; and Rotterdam, Holland-carrying a total of 17,540 tons of hay, oats, flour, and lard, in addition to other varied U. S. Army supplies. Returning to New York from Rotterdam on 8 May 1919, Western Light was simultaneously placed out of commission, stricken from the Navy Register, and returned to the USSB on 14 May 1919..

Western Light remained in the custody of the USSB until abandoned in 1933; she was ultimately broken up in England in 1938, as war clouds for a second global conflict were gathering over the European continent.

Updated, Robert J. Cressman

21 February 2024

Published: Wed Feb 21 19:09:15 EST 2024