West View

West View

(Freighter: t. 6,508; 1. 428'; b. 64'; dr. 24'1/2"; dph.
29'9"; s. 10 k.; cpl. 82)

WestView—a steel-hulled, single-screw freighter completed in 1918 at Portland, Oreg., by the Northwest Steel Co., for the United States Shipping Board (USSB)—was acquired by the Navy for use by the Naval Overseas Transportation Service (NOTS). Taken over and commissioned at the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Wash., on 21 November 1918, West View conducted only one voyage for NOTS. She carried a cargo of 7,200 tons of flour from the west coast via the Panama Canal to New York City where she arrived on 12 January 1919. Decommissioned there on 20 January 1919, the ship was simultaneously returned to the USSB and struck from the Navy list. She remained in the hands of the USSB and its successor, the Maritime Commission, and lay in reserve in the James River into the late 1930's. Her name does not appear in any listing of American merchantmen after 1938, suggesting that she was probably broken up due to age and deterioration.