West Lashaway, a 6087 gross ton (11,390 tons displacement) freighter, was built at Seattle, Washington, as part of the World War I shipbuilding effort. When completed at the end of September 1918 she was turned over to the Navy and immediately placed in commission as USS West Lashaway (ID # 3700). Operated by the Naval Overseas Transportation Service, she carried a cargo of flour from the U.S. West Coast to Trieste, Italy, between mid-October and December 1918. Her second voyage took her to France and back to the U.S. from mid-February to early April 1919. USS West Lashaway was decommissioned in mid-April and returned to the U.S. Shipping Board.
West Lashaway appears to have been employed commercially at least some of the time during the next two decades. In May 1942 she was turned over to the American West African Line for operation on behalf of the War Shipping Administration. On 30 October of that year she was torpedoed and sunk in the North Atlantic by the German submarine U-66.
This page features all the views we have concerning USS West Lashaway (ID # 3700) and the civilian freighter West Lashaway of 1918.
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.
Additional image: The Mariners Museum of Newport News, Virginia, owns a painting (presumably of 1920s or 1930s vintage) of S.S. West Lashaway, depicted in port broadside aspect (somewhat toward the bow) with a black hull, white superstructure and a funnel marking featuring the letter "M" in a diamond. For more information on this artwork, which is described as a tempera by an unknown artist, contact the Mariners Museum, whose Website can be readily found using standard Internet search engines. |
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 28 February 2006