West Hobomac, a 6086 gross ton freighter, was built during World War I at Seattle, Washington. She was taken over by the Navy upon completion in mid-August 1918 and placed in commission as USS West Hobomac (ID # 3335). She soon left on her maiden voyage, carrying coal from Portland, Oregon, to Iquique, Chile, where she loaded a shipment of nitrates and took it, via the Panama Canal, to New York City. She arrived there a few days before the 11 November 1918 Armistice ended the fighting. Late in the month West Hobomac began her initial voyage across the Atlantic, taking U.S. Army supplies to Brest, France. She returned to New York early in February 1919 and made a second trans-Atlantic round-trip, this time to Rotterdam, starting in late February. The ship's third trip to and from Europe, carrying a cargo of food to Antwerp, Belgium, took place in April-June.
USS West Hobomac was decommissioned upon her return from that voyage and turned over to the U.S. Shipping Board. She subsequently had a long commercial career. She was renamed Ile De Batz in 1940 and thereafter operated as part of the British shipping fleet. The ship was sunk off the west coast of Africa by the German submarine U-68 on 17 March 1942.
This page features our only view of the freighter West Hobomac , which was USS West Hobomac (ID # 3335) 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 8 February 2004