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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Photo #  NH 65046-A:  Launching of SS West Cohas, at Seattle, Washington, 6 June 1918


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

S.S. West Cohas (American Freighter, 1918)
Served as USS West Cohas (ID # 3253) in 1918-1919

West Cohas, a 6087 gross ton cargo ship, was built at Seattle, Washington, in 1918 as the civilian steamship of the same name. She was taken over by the Navy upon completion in June 1918 and placed in commission as West Cohas (ID # 3253) for service with the Naval Overseas Transportation Service. For her maiden operational voyage, between July and September 1918, West Cohas steamed to Chile where she loaded nitrates and carried them to the U.S. East Coast. During October the ship crossed the Atlantic to France with Army cargo. After the 11 November 1918 Armistice ended World War I's fighting she made two more trips to France. USS West Cohas was decommissioned in May 1919 and returned to the U.S. Shipping Board. She was employed commercially between the early 1930s and 1940, and disappeared from merchant vessel registers in the latter year.

This page features the only views we have concerning the freighter West Cohas and USS West Cohas (ID # 3253).


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.

Photo #: NH 65046-A

West Cohas
(American Freighter, 1918)

Enters the water during her launching at the Skinner & Eddy Corporation shipyard, Seattle, Washington, on 6 June 1918, after being on the building ways for 54 days.
This ship was delivered by the builder on 29 June 1918 and placed in commission as USS West Cohas (ID # 3253). She was returned to the U.S. Shipping Board on 9 May 1919.

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

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 106KB; 590 x 765 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 104944

USS West Cohas
(ID # 3253)

Panoramic photograph of the ship's Officers and Crew, posed on the after end of her midships superstructure, 1919. Taken by the Norfolk Studio, Norfolk, Virginia.
Note that the ship is wearing pattern camouflage.

Donation of Louise Pace, 2007, from the collection of her father, Leigh S. Grant, who served in the Navy during and after World War I.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 128KB; 1200 x 435 pixels

 


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


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Page made 7 December 2003
New image added 11 September 2007