West Gotomska, a 6087 gross ton cargo ship built at Seattle, Washington, was taken over by the Navy upon completion in August 1918 and placed in commission as USS West Gotomska (ID # 3322). Her maiden voyage as a unit of the Naval Overseas Transportation Service (NOTS) was made to Arica, Chile, where she picked up a cargo of nitrate-rich guano to be taken to New Orleans. On 10 November 1918, the day before the Armistice stopped World War I's fighting, she left New Orleans on her initial trip to France, carrying U.S. Army cargo and service personnel. The ship made two more trans-Atlantic round-trip passages during the first five months of 1919. USS West Gotomska was decommissioned in early June and turned over to the U.S. Shipping Board. Her subsequent career as a commercial freighter entended into World War II. In April 1943 she was renamed Andalien and operated under the Chilean flag until after the end of the war. Following return to the U.S. Maritime Commission, she was laid up in June 1947 and sold for scrapping in November of that year.
This page features our only view of the freighter West Gotomska, which was USS West Gotomska (ID # 3322) 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.
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 25 January 2004