SS West Cajoot

History
United States
Name:
  • West Cajoot (1919-1928)
  • Golden Bear (1928-1937)
  • Kailua (1937-1943)
  • Viborg (1943-1947)
Owner:
  • USSB (1920-March 1926)
  • USSR Far East Shipping Corporation (December 1942-1947)
Builder: Los Angeles Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co
Yard number: 13[1]
Laid down: July 4, 1918
Launched: November 3, 1918
Christened: West Cajoot
Commissioned: May 1, 1919
Homeport:
Identification:
Fate: exploded and sank December 19, 1947
General characteristics
Tonnage:
Length: 410 ft 0 in (124.97 m)
Beam: 54 ft 4 in (16.56 m)
Depth: 27 ft 2 in (8.28 m)
Installed power: 3500 Ihp[3], 422 Nhp[2]
Propulsion: Los Angeles Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co 3-cylinder triple expansion
Speed: 9.2 knots
Crew: 40

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.

Design and Construction

The West ships were cargo ships of similar size and design built by several shipyards on the West Coast of the United States for the United States Shipping Board (USSB) for emergency use during World War I. Most were given names that began with the word West. The ship was laid down at Los Angeles Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co shipyard (yard number 13, USSB hull number 767)[1][4], and launched on 3 November 1918. Due to her yard number being 13, she was launched as "12-A" to escape the sailors' hoodoo.[5] She was named allegedly after a Native American woman, Cajoot, some relative of Pocahontas.[6] As built, the ship was 410 feet 0 inches (124.97 m) long (between perpendiculars) and 54 feet 0 inches (16.46 m) abeam, a mean draft of 23 feet 11 1⁄4 inches (7.296 m).[3] West Cajoot was assessed at 5,899 GRT, 3,711 NRT and 8,350 DWT. [3] The vessel had a steel hull, and a single 422 nhp triple-expansion steam engine that drove a single screw propeller, and moved the ship at up to 10.5 knots (12.1 mph; 19.4 km/h).[3]

Operational history

West Cajoot was launched on November 3, 1918 and delivered to the United States Shipping Board on May 1, 1919.[4] Upon delivery, she became the first vessel allocated to Los Angeles Pacific Navigation Company.

Los Angeles Pacific Navigation Company (1919-1920)

On May 16, 1919 she left Los Angeles loaded full for the Orient with a general cargo consisting among other things of steel rails, automobile supplies, roofing paper, and old newspapers.[6] After touching off at Honolulu on May 26,[7] she arrived in Manila on July 1.[8], then proceeded to Hong Kong arriving there on August 17,[9] and finally returned to San Francisco on September 11 1919. Among other cargo she brought back, there were approximately 8,000 tonnes of graphite ore, representing by far the largest amount shipped to the Pacific US thus far.[10]

West Cajoot departed on her next voyage on November 24, 1919 sailing from San Francisco with a variety of cargo including 1,275 bales of cotton bound for Japan.[11] She arrived in Yokohama on December 25, 1919.[12] On January 12, 1920 she arrived in Shanghai,[13], stopped in Manila on January 22[14], touched off at Hong Kong on January 27[15] before heading back. West Cajoot left Hong Kong on February 4[16] and arrived in Honolulu on February 23, 1920.[17]

Cosmopolitan Steamship Company (1920-1921)

At about the same time West Cajoot was allocated to Cosmopolitan Steamship Company to operate on their routes. On May 10, 1920 West Cajoot was reallocated to Struthers & Dixon to operate on Pacific routes[18] following an affiliation of Cosmopolitan Steamship Company and Struthers & Dixon.[19] This reassignment turned her journey into a round-the-world trip, as her destination was changed to New York City. After leaving Honolulu on February 24, she passed through Panama Canal on March 16, 1920 with a load of rice bound for Santiago de Cuba[20], arriving there on March 20. From Cuba she proceeded north and arrived in Philadelphia on April 29.[21] She left Philadelphia on May 5 after loading 2,712 tonnes of bituminous coal, arrived in New York City on May 7[22], and from there proceeded to St. Nazaire and reached it on June 23, 1920.[23] Continuing on her voyage, West Cajoot left France on June 29, and reached New York City on July 15.[24] At the end of July she sailed for Norfolk where she arrived on August 2 and was hired to transport coal for the US Naval base of Pearl Harbor. West Cajoot departed Norfolk on August 10, 1920, arriving in Panama Canal zone on August 31.[25] She stayed here for 11 days while undergoing repairs to her engines, eventually leaving for Hawaii on September 10.[26][25] She arrived in Honolulu in early October. On October 10, 1920 while being towed due to a broken propeller blade, West Cajoot collided with steamer Claudine.[27] Fortunately, the damage to either vessel was minimal. After undergoing repairs, West Cajoot departed Honolulu on October 24, and arrived in San Francisco on November 1.[28][29]

In December 1920 West Cajoot was chartered to transport among other things about 1,000 tonnes of various equipment for an oil exploration project in the Philippines. She left San Francisco on December 15, 1920 arrived in Manila on January 14, 1921, and unloaded all the equipment in the mouth of Pagsanghan River a few days after.[30] From there she proceeded to Hong Kong and Shanghai loading cargo, and departing on February 28 for a return trip.[31] She returned to San Francisco on March 29, 1921 bringing among other things almost 13,000 bales of camel wool (3,450 tonnes) from China.[32] The wool was shipped via railroads to New York and Boston.

On April 22, 1921 West Cajoot was returned to the USSB due to the overabundance of cargo space and laid up.[33]

Struthers & Barry

In October 1923 West Cajoot was put for maintenance at Crawley Shipyards of Oakland in preparation of her return to active service. After the maintenance was finished, she was allocated to Struthers & Barry to serve on their Pacific route from Los Angeles and San Francisco to Yokohama, Kobe, Shanghai, Manila, Hong Kong and Singapore as part of their American Far East Line. On her first trip she sailed out from San Francisco on January 8, 1924, stopped at Kobe on February 14[34], Manila on March 10[35], and after completing her oriental trip, she discharged about 1,100 tonnes of cargo in Los Angeles before dropping anchor in San Francisco on May 12, 1924. Among the cargo she brought back, there were 130,000 feet of Philippine mahogany, copra and furniture.[36]

For her next trip she loaded up, among other things, with cases of oil and gasoline and departed from San Francisco in mid-September 1924. She arrived in Yokohama on October 5, 1924,[37] and proceed through Chinese ports to Singapore where she arrived on November 8, 1924.[38] Leaving Singapore on November 13, West Cajoot returned to San Francisco on January 5, 1925.

She again left for the Orient in mid-January 1925, through Yokohama (February 17), Shanghai (February 26), Haiphong (March 6)[39] arriving in Singapore on March 21, 1925.[40] She left from Singapore on March 26, arriving in Zamboanga on April 1, and after visiting a handful of small ports in the Philippines[41], West Cajoot departed Manila on March 15, heading to Hong Kong and from there to San Francisco. She dropped the anchor on May 16, bringing among other things, 449 tonnes of wild animal collection of noted hunter Frank Buck. The animals came from India and were loaded on board in Singapore and included cobra collection destined for New York City Zoo, snakes, elephants, leopards, tigers etc. Most of the cargo was consigned to Al G. Barnes, a circus owner.[42]

On June 6, 1925 West Cajoot departed San Francisco for another trip to the Orient, arriving in Yokohama at the end of June. Leaving from Yokohama on June 30, she touched off at Yokaichi (July 1), Kobe (July 2)[43], Dairen (July 8)[44], Taku Bar, Tsingtao (July 13)[45] arriving in Shanghai on July 17.[46] From there she headed to Hong Kong on July 20[47] where she arrived on July 24.[48] From Hong Kong she traveled to the Philippines and arrived in Manila on July 30.[49] From Manila West Cajoot proceeded to visit a variety of small Philippine ports, such as Cebu, Zamboanga, Davao and so on, eventually returning to Manila at the end of August. She sailed out on September 1 for Hong Kong[50], and from there continued on to San Francisco. She returned to San Francisco on October 2, 1925, and from there proceeded to Los Angeles where she arrived on October 8.

She immediately sailed out for her next trip to the Orient, departing from San Francisco on October 23, arriving in Yokohama on November 19.[51]. From there she proceeded to Kobe, and then on to Korea, touching off at Busan on November 26, and Chemulpo 4 days later.[52] West Cajoot continued on her trip touching off at several Chinese ports such as Dairen and Tsingtao before a stop in Shanghai on December 15.[53] From there she touched off in Hong Kong and continued on to the Philippines arriving in Manila on Christmas Day.[54] She then stopped off at various small ports around the Philippines before departing for San Francisco where she arrived on February 13, 1926 bringing back coconut meal, copra and by-products.[55] After unloading West Cajoot proceeded to Los Angeles where she arrived on February 21, 1926. She was immediately put into dry-dock to undergo installation of deep tanks to allow transportation of vegetable and coconut oil from the Philippines.

The work was finished in mid-March and on March 19 West Cajoot sailed from Los Angeles with a cargo of case oil and took course to the Orient.[56] After stopping off in San Francisco on March 20, and taking on more case oil, West Cajoot sailed next day to Shanghai. She arrived in China in mid-April, visiting ports like Hong Kong and Foochow before heading to the Philippines. After stopping off at a variety of small ports West Cajoot departed from Manila on June 8, arriving in San Francisco on July 8, 1926.

On June 17, 1926 it was reported that USSB decided to consolidate the American Far East Line and the Pacific Australian Line and put the consolidated line under Swayne & Holt management. [57]

Notes

  1. 1 2 Colton, Tim. "Los Angeles Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company, Los Angeles, CA". Shipbuildinghistory.com. The Colton Company. Retrieved 2017-07-19.
  2. 1 2 3 "Lloyd's Register, Steamships and Motorships" (PDF). London: Lloyd's Register. 1930.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Register of Ships Owned by United States Shipping Board, August 1, 1920". Retrieved 2017-07-19.
  4. 1 2 Marine Review, v.50, p.112
  5. ↑ The Los Angeles Herald, November 4, 1918, p. 15
  6. 1 2 The Golden West, v.1, No.4, p.18
  7. ↑ The Maui News, May 30, 1919, p.8
  8. ↑ New York Tribune, July 08, 1919, p.18
  9. ↑ New York Tribune, August 22, 1919, p.16
  10. ↑ Morning Oregonian, September 13, 1919, p.22
  11. ↑ The Commercial and Financial Chronicle, v. 109, p.2185
  12. ↑ Weekly Commercial News, v.60, No.1, p.11
  13. ↑ Weekly Commercial News, v.60, No.4, p.11
  14. ↑ Weekly Commercial News, v.60, No.5, p.11
  15. ↑ New York Tribune, February 3, 1920, p.15
  16. ↑ Weekly Commercial News, v.60, No.7, p.11
  17. ↑ Weekly Commercial News, v.60, No.9, p.11
  18. ↑ Nauticus, v.4, No.51, p.31
  19. ↑ Railway and Marine News, v. 18, No.4, p.38
  20. ↑ The Panama Canal Record, v.13, p.455
  21. ↑ The Sun and The NY Herald, April 30, 1920, p.15
  22. ↑ New York Tribune, May 08, 1920, p.17
  23. ↑ New York Tribune, June 23, 1920, p.20
  24. ↑ New York Tribune, July 16, 1920, p.18
  25. 1 2 Panama Canal Record, v.14, pp.48,53,61
  26. ↑ Weekly Commercial News, v.61, No.7, p.11
  27. ↑ The Maui News, October 15, 1920, p.1
  28. ↑ The New York Herald, October 31, 1920, 2nd News Section, p.9,
  29. ↑ The New York Herald, November 03, 1920, p.12
  30. ↑ The Oil Weekly, v.26, September 1922, p.69
  31. ↑ The New York Herald, March 04, 1921, p.18
  32. ↑ Morning Oregonian, March 30, 1921, p.18
  33. ↑ Morning Oregonian, April 22, 1921, p.20
  34. ↑ Vancouver Daily World, February 18, 1924, p.11
  35. ↑ Vancouver Daily World, March 11, 1924, p.11
  36. ↑ Oakland Tribune, May 12, 1924, p.16
  37. ↑ The Daily Colonist, October 9, 1924, p.19
  38. ↑ Malaya Tribune, November 10, 1924, p.5
  39. ↑ Oakland Tribune, March 10, 1925, p.32
  40. ↑ Oakland Tribune, March 25, 1925, p.29
  41. ↑ Oakland Tribune, April 10, 1925, p.41
  42. ↑ Daily Colonist, May 23, 1925, p.14
  43. ↑ Oakland Tribune, July 10, 1925, p.45
  44. ↑ The Daily Colonist, July 10, 1925, p.17
  45. ↑ Oakland Tribune, July 19, 1925, p.38
  46. ↑ Oakland Tribune, July 17, 1925, p.39
  47. ↑ Oakland Tribune, July 24, 1925, p.51
  48. ↑ Oakland Tribune, July 31, 1925, p.39
  49. ↑ Oakland Tribune, August 2, 1925, p.46
  50. ↑ Oakland Tribune, September 3, 1925, p.24
  51. ↑ Oakland Tribune, November 24, 1925, p.38
  52. ↑ Oakland Tribune, December 3, 1925, p.34
  53. ↑ The Daily Colonist, December 18, 1925, p.19
  54. ↑ Oakland Tribune, December 29, 1925, p.25
  55. ↑ Oakland Tribune, February 19, 1926, p.41
  56. ↑ Oakland Tribune, March 18, 1926, p.33
  57. ↑ Oakland Tribune, June 17, 1926, p.24

References

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