SS Golden Kauri (formerly West Elcajon) underway, date unknown | |
History | |
---|---|
Name | SS West Elcajon |
Operator |
|
Builder | Skinner & Eddy |
Yard number | 37 (USSB #1926) |
Launched | 7 December 1918 |
Christened | SS West Elcajon |
Completed | December 1918 |
Commissioned | 18 Jan 1919–26 May 1919 |
Renamed |
|
Fate | Scrapped 1954 |
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 × Curtis geared turbine |
Propulsion | Single propeller |
Speed | 11.5 kn (21.3 km/h) |
Complement |
|
SS West Elcajon (often misspelled West El Cajon) was a steel-hulled cargo ship built in 1918 for the United States Shipping Board 's World War I emergency wartime shipbuilding program.
Completed just too late to see service in the war, West Elcajon was nevertheless commissioned into the U.S. Navy as USS West Elcajon (ID-3907), participating in one postwar famine relief mission to Eastern Europe before decommissioning in May 1919.
After decommission, the ship was laid up for several years until resuming service in 1926 as the merchant ship SS West Elcajon, operating between the United States and the Far East. In 1928, she was purchased by the Matson Line, renamed SS Golden Kauri, and employed in the timber trade between the U.S. and Australia. In late 1928, she became embroiled in a violent Australian industrial dispute.
In 1938, the ship was renamed SS Waipio, and in 1946 she was sold to Panamanian interests and renamed SS Paralos. Paralos was scrapped in Japan in 1954.
West Elcajon was built in Seattle, Washington in 1918 at the No. 2 Plant of the Skinner & Eddy Corporation [1] —the 22nd in a series of 24 Design 1013 cargo ships built by Skinner & Eddy for the USSB 's emergency wartime shipbuilding program. [2]
West Elcajon had a design deadweight tonnage of 8,800 tons and gross register tonnage of 5,600. She had an overall length of 423 feet 9 inches (129.16 m), a beam of 54 feet (16 m) and a mean draft of 24 feet 2 inches (7.37 m). [3] The ship was powered by a Curtis geared turbine, [4] driving a single screw propeller and delivering a speed of 11.5 knots. [3]
After completion of the vessel in December 1918, West Elcajon was delivered to the Navy for operation with the Naval Overseas Transportation Service (NOTS), and commissioned at the Puget Sound Navy Yard on 18 January 1919 as USS West Elcajon (ID-3907). [3]
USS West Elcajon commenced her first and only mission for the Navy by loading 7,282 tons of flour consigned to the United States Food Administration for the purpose of alleviating a postwar famine in Eastern Europe. Departing on 1 February for the east coast of the U.S. via the Panama Canal, the ship reached Hampton Roads, Virginia on 5 March, before continuing on to Baltimore the same day to refuel. On 12 March, she sailed for the Adriatic via Gibraltar. Arriving at Trieste on 8 April, West Elcajon unloaded part of her cargo before transferring to Palermo to deliver the remainder. [3]
Having unloaded her cargo, West Elcajon departed for New York on 26 May, arriving on the 15th. On 26 May, she was decommissioned and returned to control of the U.S. Shipping Board. [3]
West Elcajon's mercantile career began inauspiciously when, not long after her decommission from the Navy, she was laid up with no work for almost five years on the mud flats at Benicia, California. With the postwar oversupply of shipping easing by the late 1920s, the ship was taken out of mothballs, reconditioned, and placed into merchant service with the American and Australian Orient Line, a subsidiary of Swayne and Hoyt, in late 1926 as SS West Elcajon. [5]
For the next two years, West Ejcajon operated from the west coast ports of San Francisco and Los Angeles to a variety of destinations in the Pacific and Far East, including Hong Kong, China, Japan, the Philippines and New Zealand. On one voyage from Los Angeles to China and Japan commencing in April 1927, for example, West Elcajon sailed with almost 8,000 tons of cargo including 70,000 cases of kerosene, 5,500 drums of gasoline, 700 tons of old newspapers and copper wire and general cargo. [6] On another run in November the same year, the ship returned to Los Angeles Harbor with 800,000 board feet (1,900 m3) of Philippine mahogany and 2,000 cases of East Indian rubber. [7]
After Swayne & Hoyt ran into financial difficulties, its subsidiary the American and Australian Orient Line was purchased in early 1928 by the Matson Line, which created a new company, the Oceanic and Oriental Navigation Company, to manage the newly acquired ships. To mark the change of ownership, Matson gave the ships new names, with the common prefix "Golden". West Elcajon thus became SS Golden Kauri, [8] a name she would retain until 1939.
In August 1928, Golden Kauri set out on her first voyage to Australia since the change of ownership with a cargo of 1,700,000 feet (520,000 m) of timber, 5,000 barrels of asphalt, 3,000 cases and 500 drums of gasoline and other goods, arriving at Victoria Dock, Melbourne on 18 September. [9] [10] At this point the ship became embroiled in a bitter local labor dispute over the so-called Dog Collar Act, a law which sought to license dockyard workers.
After union workers went on strike, some 1,700 strikebreakers were brought in to unload ships, about 80 of whom were assigned to unload Golden Kauri. [11] [12] On 4 October, a strikebreaker was fatally injured by timber falling from a sling being used to unload Golden Kauri, and a second strikebreaker was killed in an industrial accident the same day. Unionists jeered at the ambulance transporting the two to hospital as it passed by. [13]
Golden Kauri departed Melbourne for Newcastle, NSW on 9 October, arriving on the 15th. On the 16th, a group of about 400 union members marched to King's Wharf to confront strikebreakers, who were ordered by police to board Golden Kauri for their safety. Unionists then charged the ship three times, attempting to get aboard, and on each occasion were driven back by baton-wielding police. The police finally dispersed the crowd with a baton charge. About 20 waterside workers were later treated in hospital for injuries sustained in the confrontation. [14] [15]
Golden Kauri departed Newcastle for the United States a few days later, arriving at San Francisco on or about 22 November. [16] Her owners appear to have been undeterred by the recent mayhem on the Australian docks however, as the ship was back in Melbourne on 20 February 1929, having sailed a few weeks earlier from the lumber town of Aberdeen, Washington. [17]
Through the 1930s, Golden Kauri appears to have been employed in coastal service around the United States, operating between ports such as Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New Orleans and New York. On 15 October 1935, the ship sustained about $50,000 damage after a collision with the Isthmian Line freighter Steel Mariner in the San Pedro, California main channel. [18] In September 1937, Golden Kauri was back in Australia with a "huge cargo" of 4500000 board feet of Canadian timber. [19]
In 1938, the Oceanic and Oriental Line was wound up, and Golden Kauri came under the direct control of the parent company, Matson Lines. Shortly afterward, Golden Kauri was renamed SS Waipio. Waipio carried on in the freight and cargo trade through World War II, still home-ported in San Francisco. In 1946, Waipio was sold to Campania Paralos de Vapores, S.A of Panama, and renamed SS Paralos. Paralos was scrapped in Osaka, Japan in 1954. [3] [4]
SSLurline was the third Matson Lines vessel to hold that name and the last of four fast and luxurious ocean liners that Matson built for the Hawaii and Australasia runs from the West Coast of the United States. Lurline's sister ships were SS Malolo, SS Mariposa and SS Monterey. Lurline served as a troopship in World War II operated by War Shipping Administration agents serving Army troop transport requirements. Bought by the Chandris Lines in 1963 as the RHMS Ellinis the ship became one of the most important luxury cruise ships on the Australian and New Zealand services. She operated in Australasia and Oceania until 1980. The sister ships of the SS Lurline were the SS Palo Alto and SS Oakland.
SS Minnesotan was a cargo ship built in 1912 for the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company. During World War I she was known as USAT Minnesotan in service for the United States Army and USS Minnesotan (ID-4545) in service for the United States Navy. She ended her career as the SS Maria Luisa R. under Italian ownership. She was built by the Maryland Steel Company as one of eight sister ships for American-Hawaiian, and was employed in inter-coastal service via the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and the Panama Canal after it opened.
USS West Carnifax (ID-3812) was a cargo ship in the United States Navy shortly after World War I. After she was decommissioned from the Navy, the ship was known as SS West Carnifax, SS Exford, and SS Pan Royal in civilian service under American registry.
MS West Honaker was a diesel-powered cargo ship of the United States Maritime Commission (USMC) that was part of the "Corncob Fleet" of old ships sunk as part of the "gooseberry" breakwater off Utah Beach during the Normandy invasion. The ship was originally built as SS West Honaker, a steam-powered cargo ship built for the United States Shipping Board (USSB), a predecessor of the USMC. At the time of her completion in 1920, the ship was inspected by the United States Navy for possible use as USS West Honaker (ID-4455) but was neither taken into the Navy nor ever commissioned under that name.
MS West Grama, sometimes spelled as West Gramma, was a diesel-powered cargo ship of the United States Maritime Commission (USMC) that was sunk as part of the "gooseberry" breakwater off Utah Beach during the Normandy invasion. Prior to her diesel conversion, she was known as SS West Grama. In 1919, she was briefly taken up by the United States Navy under the name USS West Grama (ID-3794).
SS Mauna Loa was a steam-powered cargo ship of the Matson Navigation Company that was sunk in the bombing of Darwin in February 1942. She was christened SS West Conob in 1919 and renamed SS Golden Eagle in 1928. At the time of her completion in 1919, the ship was inspected by the United States Navy for possible use as USS West Conob (ID-4033) but was neither taken into the Navy nor commissioned.
USS West Corum (ID-3982) was a cargo ship for the United States Navy in 1919. The ship was built as SS West Corum and reverted to that name at the end of her Navy service. During World War II, the ship was United States Army transport ship USAT West Corum, later renamed to Will H. Point.
USS West Lianga (ID-2758) was a cargo ship for the United States Navy during World War I. She was later known as SS Helen Whittier and SS Kalani in civilian service under American registry, as SS Empire Cheetah under British registry, and as SS Hobbema under Dutch registry.
USS West Ekonk (ID-3313) was a cargo ship for the United States Navy during World War I. She was later known as SS West Ekonk in civilian service under American registry, and as SS Empire Wildebeeste under British registry.
SS West Hosokie was a steel–hulled cargo ship built in 1918 as part of the World War I emergency wartime shipbuilding program organized by the United States Shipping Board.
SS Edenton was a steel-hulled cargo ship built in 1918 for the United States Shipping Board as part of the Board's World War I emergency shipbuilding program.
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.
SS West Loquassuck was a steel–hulled cargo ship built for the United States Shipping Board's Emergency Fleet Corporation in World War I. After completion on 15 October 1918, the ship was immediately commissioned into the U.S. Navy as USS West Loquassuck (ID-3638), just weeks before the end of the war.
USS West Haven (ID-2159) was a steel–hulled freighter that saw service with the U.S. Navy during World War I, and which later saw convoy service during the Battle of the Atlantic in World War II.
USS West Hobomac was a steel–hulled cargo ship which saw service with the U.S. Navy as an auxiliary during World War I, and which later operated under the British flag during World War II before being lost to enemy action.
Corvus was a steam cargo ship built in 1919 by Columbia River Shipbuilding Company of Portland for the United States Shipping Board as part of the wartime shipbuilding program of the Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) to restore the nation's Merchant Marine. The freighter was operated on international and domestic routes through 1944. Early in 1945 she was transferred to Soviet Union as part of lend-lease program and renamed Uzbekistan. After several months of operation, the freighter was rammed by another vessel on 31 May 1945 and was beached to avoid sinking. She was subsequently raised and towed to Portland where she was scrapped in 1946.
West Hika was a Design 1013 cargo ship built in 1919 by the Los Angeles Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co of Los Angeles. She was one of many ships built by the company for the United States Shipping Board.
West Cajoot was a Design 1013 cargo ship built in 1919 by the Los Angeles Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co of Los Angeles. She was one of many ships built by the company for the United States Shipping Board.
Cansumset was a steam cargo ship built in 1918-1919 by Pacific Coast Shipbuilding Company of Bay Point for the United States Shipping Board as part of the wartime shipbuilding program of the Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) to restore the nation's Merchant Marine. The vessel was largely employed on the Pacific Coast of the United States to Europe route until 1921 when it was laid up and eventually broken up for scrap in 1930. Due to frequent breakdowns during her short career the freighter was known as the "Hoodoo" ship of the USSB.
Milwaukee Bridge was a steam cargo ship built in 1918–1919 by Submarine Boat Company of Newark for the United States Shipping Board (USSB) as part of the wartime shipbuilding program of the Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) to restore the nation's Merchant Marine. The vessel was first briefly employed on the East Coast to United Kingdom route in the first two years of her career before being laid up at the end of 1921. In 1927 she was acquired by Matson Navigation Company to operate between California and Hawaii and renamed Malama. On New Year's day 1942 while en route to New Zealand under U.S. Army operation with cargo of military supplies she was discovered by Japanese merchant raiders and was scuttled by her crew to prevent capture.