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EFC Design 1080 (Ames type): Notes & Illustrations


EFC Design 1080

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Notes: During 1916-1917 British and French interests placed orders for ten 8800-ton cargo ships (eight of them for the British) with the Ames Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. of Seattle, Wash. One more ship was added on the yard's account. These were requisitioned by the Shipping Board on 3 August 1917 while under construction or on order. On 10 June 1918 the EFC issued a contract to Duthie for fourteen more ships (EFC Hulls 2050-2063) to follow the requisitioned ones. These were to be of a "design prepared by the Ames Shipbuilding Co. and numbered by us No. 1080" according to EFC files. The last two ships in this contract were cancelled in October 1919. Ames built no more ships after the war.

Requisitioned Sisters: The first eight requisitioned ships built by Ames (Yard nos. 1-3 and 6-10) were considered by the EFC to be of Design 1013 and the last three (Yard nos. 11-13) were considered to be of Design 1080 when they were offered for sale in 1925. Compared to Design 1013 (including Ames nos. 9-10), Design 1080 (nos. 11-13) was listed in 1925 with a greater depth of hull (1.5' to 2' more) and a similar increase in summer draft. They are covered in the Requisitioned Ships portion of the McKellar list.

Specifications: Design 1080 (S.S. West Isleta, EFC Hull 2050): Steel Cargo. Deadweight tons: 8800 designed, 8742 actual. Dimensions: 426' length oa, 410.5' pp x 54' beam mld. x 31.9' depth mld., 25.7' draft loaded. Propulsion: 1 screw, 1 triple expansion engine, 3 Scotch boilers, 2800 IHP, 9.7 avg. kts. Configuration: 3-island, 2 decks, 5 holds, 5 hatches.

S.S. West Jena (Design 1080)
S.S. West Jena (Design 1080, EFC Hull 2058) on a trial run on 19 December 1919. One of the later ships built by the Ames Shipbuilding Co. under its EFC contract of June 1918, this ship was sold by the Shipping Board in 1925 and lost in 1940. (NARA: RG-19-A-27) (Click photo to enlarge)

S.S. Western Knight (As Design 1080, Yard no. 12)

On a trial trip on 12 April 1919. This requisitioned ship was one of a final trio built to the design that the EFC later designed Design 1080. Note the wartime rig of two cargo masts without topmasts and a single topmast amidships.

Photo No. None
Source: NARA: RG-32-UB Box 34
S.S. West Ison (Design 1080)
S.S. West Ison (Design 1080, EFC Hull 2054)

Her after deck photographed looking towards the poop on 22 September 1919 by the Cress-Dale Photo Co. of Seattle for her builder and the Shipping Board's Division of Operations. Some of the wooden battens that closed the hatches are in place on their metal frames.

Photo No. None
Source: Shipscribe
S.S. West Ison (Design 1080)
S.S. Western Knight (As Design 1080, Yard no. 12)

In American merchant service during the 1920s. Note that she has been refitted with a standard postwar rig. She was wrecked in 1929.

Photo No. None
Source: Shipscribe
S.S. West Ison (Design 1080)
Unidentified vessel (Design 1080)

This uncaptioned photograph, probably taken on a trial run, was used in a 1925 EFC sales catalog to represent Design 1080.

Photo No. None
Source: U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command, S-528-A
Unidentified vessel (Design 1080)
S.S. West Ison (Design 1080, EFC Hull 2054)

Operating between 1919 and 1927 with a deck load of lumber. She was renamed in 1927 and 1936, became Dynastic in 1942, and was broken up in 1946.

Photo No. None
Source: Shipscribe
S.S. West Ison (Design 1080)
S.S. Golden Rod, ex West Islip (Design 1080, EFC Hull 2053)

In American merchant service between 1928 and 1935 with lumber on deck. She ended up as a breakwater off Normandy in August 1944.

Photo No. None
Source: Shipscribe
S.S. West Ison (Design 1080)
S.S. West Ivis (Design 1080, EFC Hull 2057)

Being operated by the McCormick S.S. Line in the Pacific-to-Atlantic lumber trade via the Panama Canal. The photo, dated 22 May 1931, is by the San Francisco bureau of Acme Newspictures Inc.

Photo No. None
Source: Shipscribe
S.S. West Ivis (Design 1080)
S.S. West Isleta (Design 1080, EFC Hull 2052)

In commercial service between the wars. She became the British Empire Merlin in 1940 and was lost by torpedo in the same year.

Photo No. None
Source: Shipscribe
S.S. West Ison (Design 1080)
S.S. Cathlamet (Design 1080, EFC Hull 2056)

Entering a U.S. port on 14 April 1943.

Photo No. Cathlamet_7222_009
Source: vesselhistory.marad.dot.gov/ShipHistory/Detail/7222
S.S. Cathlamet (Design 1080)
S.S. Dynastic, ex West Ison (Design 1080, EFC Hull 2054)

Departing a U.S. port on 16 July 1943.

Photo No. Dynastic_1308_004
Source: vesselhistory.marad.dot.gov/ShipHistory/Detail/1308
S.S. Dynastic, ex West Ison (Design 1080)
S.S. Cathlamet (Design 1080, EFC Hull 2056)

Entering a U.S. port on 7 November 1943.

Photo No. Cathlamet_7222_010
Source: vesselhistory.marad.dot.gov/ShipHistory/Detail/7222
S.S. Cathlamet (Design 1080)