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

Photo #  NH 65078:  S.S. West Humhaw immediately after launching, at Seattle, Washington, 26 August 1918


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

S.S. West Humhaw (American Freighter, 1918).
Served as USS West Humhaw (ID # 3718) in 1918-1919

West Humhaw, a 6087 gross ton (12,225-tons displacement) freighter, was built in 1918 at Seattle, Washington, as part of the First World War ship construction program. Transferred to the Navy when completed, she was placed in commission as USS West Humhaw (ID # 3718) in mid-September 1918. The ship steamed to the East Coast with a cargo of flour during October and in November crossed the Atlantic to France. West Humhaw returned to the United States in January 1919 and late in that month was decommissioned and returned to the U.S. Shipping Board.

For more than two decades thereafter West Humhaw operated commercially, based on both the Pacific and Atlantic Coasts. While serving with the American-West African Line on 8 November 1943, she was torpedoed and sunk in the Gulf of Guinea by the German submarine U-161. Everyone on board West Humhaw survived her loss.

This page features the only view we have concerning the freighter West Humhaw, which was USS West Humhaw (ID # 3718) 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 65078

S.S. West Humhaw
(American Freighter, 1918)

Afloat immediately after launching at the Skinner & Eddy Corporation shipyard, Seattle, Washington, on 26 August 1918.
This ship served as USS West Humhaw (ID # 3718) from September 1918 to January 1919.
Note text on the original print, stating that she was built in 51 working days.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 74KB; 740 x 475 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 29 October 2005