S.S. El Occidente, a 6008 gross ton (10,300 tons displacement) freighter built at Newport News, Virginia, was completed in 1910. Owned by the Southern Pacific Steamship Company, she operated under U.S. Army contract during much of World War I. In late August 1918 she was turned over to the Navy and placed in commission as USS El Occidente (ID # 3307). Assigned to the Naval Overseas Transportation Service, the ship was converted to an animal transport. In that role she completed two round-trip voyages to France between mid-September 1918 and the end of that year. In January 1919 El Occidente made a final trip to France with general cargo. In mid-March, after returning to the U.S., she was decommissioned and transferred to the U.S. Shipping Board.
El Occidente was also employed during World War II under the ownership of the War Shipping Administration. Operated under Panamanian registry by United States Lines, she was sunk north of Norway by the German submarine U-435 on 13 April 1942, while en route from Murmansk, Russia, to Iceland with convoy QP-10. Nearly half of her crew members were lost with her.
This page features the only views we have concerning the steamship El Occidente and USS El Occidente (ID # 3307).
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.
The following photograph is of a ship that is probably USS El Occidente, though it may well be one of her sisters, USS El Oriente (ID # 4504) or USS El Sol (ID # 4505):
NOTES:
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 11 September 2006
New image added 3 January 2009