Return to Naval Historical Center home page. Return to Online Library listing

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

Photo #  NH 65050-A:  SS West Elcasco just after launching, at Seattle, Washington, 21 September 1918


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

West Elcasco (American Freighter, 1918)
Served as USS West Elcasco (ID # 3661) in 1918-1919

West Elcasco, a 6087 gross ton cargo ship, was built at Seattle, Washington, as part of the World War I emergency merchant ship construction program. When completed in October 1918 she was taken over by the Navy and placed in commission as West Elcasco (ID # 3661). The steamer carried a cargo of flour to the U.S. East Coast on her maiden voyage. During December 1918 and January 1919 she transported food to Trieste and Turkey, returning to the U.S. in February and March. With another load of food for a war-torn and hungry Europe, she began her second trans-Atlantic voyage in April, this time to France. USS West Elcasco was decommissioned in mid-June 1919, soon after arriving back in the U.S., and transferred to the Shipping Board. The ship was sold in 1930 and began commercial operation. She became the U.S. Army's Major General Henry Gibbins in 1943 and retained that name until disposed of in the late 1940s.

This page features our only view of the freighter West Elcasco, which was USS West Elcasco (ID # 3661) in 1918-1919.


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 65050-A

West Elcasco
(American Freighter, 1918)

Just after launching, at the Skinner & Eddy Corporation shipyard, Seattle, Washington, 21 September 1918. Photographed by Frank H. Nowell, 1212 Fourth Avenue, Seattle.
This ship acquired by the Navy on 23 October 1918 and placed in commission as USS West Elcasco (ID # 3661). She was returned to the U.S. Shipping Board on 14 June 1919.

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

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 63KB; 740 x 615 pixels

 


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


Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

Page made 7 January 2004