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UNITED STATES NAVY
TEMPORARY AUXILIARY SHIPS
WORLD WAR I

Photo # NH 65077-A: Freighter Westerner fitting out at Seattle, Washington, 26 January 1918


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

Westerner (American Freighter, 1918).
Served as USS Westerner (ID # 2890) in 1918-1919

Westchester, a 12,200-ton (displacement) freighter built at Seattle, Washington, as part of the World War I merchant ship construction effort, was completed in early 1918. As a civilian vessel she steamed from the West to the East Coast, where in June 1918 she was taken over by the Navy and placed in commission as USS Westerner (SP-2890). During the last four months of the "Great War" and the first ten months of the post-war era, the ship made four round-trip voyages to France and Italy as a unit of the Naval Overseas Transportation Service. She was decommissioned in August 1919, after the completion of her last trans-Atlantic trip, and returned to the U.S. Shipping Board. SS Westerner was laid up in the late 1920s and abandoned in 1932 or 1933.

This page features all available views concerning the freighter Westerner, which served as USS Westerner (ID # 2890) in 1918-1919.


Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 65077-A

Westerner (American Freighter, 1918)

Fitting out at the J.F. Duthie & Company shipyard, Seattle, Washington, on 26 January 1918.
This steamer was taken over by the Navy and placed in commission on 20 June 1918 as USS Westerner (ID # 2890). She was returned to the U.S. Shipping Board on 21 August 1919.

The original print is in National Archives' Record Group 19-LCM.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 86KB; 740 x 610 pixels

 


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Page made 14 March 2004