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UNITED STATES NAVY
TEMPORARY AUXILIARY SHIPS
WORLD WAR I

Photo # NH 65054-A: SS West Cressy afloat just after launching, at Seattle, Washington, 14 November 1918


Online Library of Selected Images:
-- CIVILIAN SHIPS --

West Cressy (American Freighter, 1918)
Served as USS West Cressy (ID # 3813) in 1918-1919

West Cressy, a 6091.51 gross ton cargo ship, was built at Seattle, Washington, as part of the huge World War I emergency merchant fleet program. She was taken over by the Navy upon completion in mid-December 1918 and placed in commission as West Cressy (ID # 3813). Leaving the West Coast in January 1919, the ship carried a cargo of flour to Constantinople, Turkey, via the Panama Canal, Norfolk, Virginia, and Gibraltar. In March and April she returned home with a load of medicinal opium and tobacco. USS West Cressy was decommissioned in May 1919 and returned to the U.S. Shipping Board, in whose custody she remained until abandoned in 1933.

This page features all available views of the freighter West Cressy, which was USS West Cressy (ID # 3813) in 1918-1919.


Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 65054-A

West Cressy (American Freighter, 1918)

Just after launching, at the Skinner & Eddy Corporation shipyard, Seattle, Washington, 14 November 1918. Photographed by Frank H. Nowell, 1212 Fourth Avenue, Seattle.
This ship was delivered by the builder on 17 December 1918 and placed in commission as USS West Cressy (ID # 3813). She was returned to the U.S. Shipping Board on 13 May 1919.

The original print is in National Archives' Record Group 19-LCM.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 54KB; 740 x 600 pixels

 


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Page made 21 December 2003