 SS West Cressey in the Manchester Ship Canal, date unknown | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Name: | SS West Cressey |
| Owner: | U.S. Shipping Board |
| Builder: | Skinner & Eddy |
| Yard number: | 36 (USSB #1925) |
| Launched: | 21 Sep 1918 [1] |
| Acquired: | 17 Dec 1918 |
| Commissioned: | 17 Dec 1918–13 May 1919 |
| In service: |
|
| Renamed: |
|
| Fate: | Stranded off Kamchatsky Cape, 4 September 1946 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Design 1013 cargo ship |
| Tonnage: | 5,600 gross, 8,800 dwt |
| Displacement: | 12,225 tons |
| Length: |
|
| Beam: | 54 ft (16 m) |
| Draft: | 24 ft 2 in (7.37 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 29 ft 9 in (9.07 m) |
| Installed power: | 1 × vertical triple expansion |
| Propulsion: | Single propeller |
| Speed: | 11 kn (20 km/h) |
| Complement: |
|
| Armament: | None |
SS West Cressey was a steel-hulled cargo ship that saw a brief period of service as an auxiliary with the U.S. Navy in the aftermath of World War I.
Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon, and sometimes other elements. Because of its high tensile strength and low cost, it is a major component used in buildings, infrastructure, tools, ships, automobiles, machines, appliances, and weapons.
The hull is the watertight body of a ship or boat. Atop the hull may be a deckhouse or some other form of superstructure, like a mast. The line where the hull meets the water surface is called the waterline.
A cargo ship or freighter ship is a merchant ship that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year, handling the bulk of international trade. Cargo ships are usually specially designed for the task, often being equipped with cranes and other mechanisms to load and unload, and come in all sizes. Today, they are almost always built by welded steel, and with some exceptions generally have a life expectancy of 25 to 30 years before being scrapped.
Contents
- Construction and design
- Service history
- U.S. Navy service, 1918-1919
- Merchant service
- References
- Bibliography
- External links
West Cressey was built in 1918 for the United States Shipping Board 's emergency wartime shipbuilding program. Delivered just too late to see service in the war, the ship was quickly commissioned into the Navy regardless, as USS West Cressey (ID-3813), but completed only two Navy missions—including a famine relief mission to Romania—before decommissioning a few months later.
The United States Shipping Board (USSB) was established as an emergency agency by the Shipping Act, September 7, 1916.
A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including war, inflation, crop failure, population imbalance, or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompanied or followed by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality. Every inhabited continent in the world has experienced a period of famine throughout history. In the 19th and 20th century, it was generally Southeast and South Asia, as well as Eastern and Central Europe that suffered the most deaths from famine. The numbers dying from famine began to fall sharply from the 2000s.
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the southeast, Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, and Moldova to the east. It has a predominantly temperate-continental climate. With a total area of 238,397 square kilometres (92,046 sq mi), Romania is the 12th largest country and also the 7th most populous member state of the European Union, having almost 20 million inhabitants. Its capital and largest city is Bucharest, and other major urban areas include Cluj-Napoca, Timișoara, Iași, Constanța, Craiova, and Brașov.
Through the 1920s, the ship operated in a commercial capacity as SS West Cressey. She was laid up for much of the 1930s through lack of work, but eventually re-entered service in 1941 as mounting losses to German U-boats in the Battle of the Atlantic had increased the demand for shipping.
The Kriegsmarine was the navy of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war Reichsmarine (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches, along with the Heer (Army) and the Luftwaffe of the Wehrmacht, the German armed forces from 1933 to 1945.
The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest continuous military campaign in World War II, running from 1939 to the defeat of Germany in 1945, and was a major part of the Naval history of World War II. At its core was the Allied naval blockade of Germany, announced the day after the declaration of war, and Germany's subsequent counter-blockade. It was at its height from mid-1940 through to the end of 1943.
Sold in 1943 to the Soviet Union under lend-lease, West Cressey was renamed SS Briansk I and later SS Tallin. The ship survived the war, but was lost in a storm off Cape Kamchatsky in 1946.
The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 30 December 1922 to 26 December 1991. Nominally a union of multiple national Soviet republics, its government and economy were highly centralized. The country was a one-party state, governed by the Communist Party with Moscow as its capital in its largest republic, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. Other major urban centres were Leningrad, Kiev, Minsk, Alma-Ata, and Novosibirsk.
The Kamchatka Peninsula is a 1,250-kilometre-long (780 mi) peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about 270,000 km2. The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula's eastern and western coastlines, respectively. Immediately offshore along the Pacific coast of the peninsula runs the 10,500-metre (34,400-ft) deep Kuril–Kamchatka Trench.
