West Grama (Id. No. 3794)
1919
The Navy retained the name carried by this vessel at the time of her acquisition.
(Id. No. 3794: displacement 12,225; length 423'9"; beam 54'; depth of hold 29'9"; draft 24'2" (mean); speed 10.5 knots; complement 70; armament none)
West Grama, a steel-hulled, single-screw cargo vessel built at Los Angeles, Calif., under a United States Shipping Board (USSB) contract by the Los Angeles Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co., was launched on 4 July 1918; was taken over by the Navy on 9 January 1919 at San Pedro, Calif., for operation by the Naval Overseas Transportation Service (NOTS); and was commissioned there on the same day, Lt. Cmdr. Eugene McCarthy, USNRF, in command.
After boiler repairs at the Union Iron Works, San Francisco, Calif., West Grama loaded a cargo of flour and departed San Francisco on 28 January 1919, bound for Norfolk, Va. She transited the Panama Canal on 14 February and, after a four-day layover in the Canal Zone, resumed her voyage on the 19th. Six days later, on the 25th, she sighted a waterlogged vessel, altered course to investigate, and soon found the half-sunken U.S. schooner Nettie Shipman; West Grama passed close aboard, saw no signs of life, and continued her voyage, eventually reaching Hampton Roads, Va., three days later.
After undergoing general repairs and replenishing her fuel, West Grama got underway on 13 March 1919 and headed for the Mediterranean. She paused at Gibraltar before moving on to the Near East. She discharged part of her cargo of flour at Constantinople, Turkey, and unloaded the remainder at Varna, Bulgaria, before returning via Gibraltar to the United States. On the return passage, she carried a mixed cargo of 13 depth charges and 218 tons of miscellaneous items which she delivered after her arrival at Norfolk on 11 June.
Decommissioned at Norfolk on 16 June 1919, West Grama was returned to the USSB that same day, and her name was simultaneously stricken from the Navy Register. After brief active service under the auspices of the USSB, West Grama was acquired by the American Republics Line in 1926, and was converted to burn oil fuel instead of coal. On 25 August 1941, the ship was transferred to the Grace Line, Inc., under a general agency agreement at 12:01 a.m. at Mobile, Alabama. Armed and given a Navy guard detachment during World War II, West Grama received a battle star for her service during the Normandy landings (8--25 June 1944).
West Grama was delivered to the War Shipping Administration under a general agency agreement, the transfer taking place at sea at midnight on 8 June 1944. After having apparently lived out her usefulness, the erstwhile NOTS cargo vessel and merchantman was sunk as a block ship at San Lorenzo, France, on 16 July 1944 to form part of a breakwater.
Robert J. Cressman
24 March 2022
