SS West Cheswald SS " West Cheswald " was a cargo ship for the launched shortly after the end of World War I . The ship was inspected by the United States Navy for possible use as USS " West Cheswald " ( ID - 4199 ) but was neither taken into the Navy nor ever commissioned under that name . " West Cheswald " was built in 1919 for the , as a part of the " West " boats , a series of steel - hulled cargo ships built on the West Coast of the United States for the World War I war effort , and was the 32nd ship built at Northwest Steel in Portland , Oregon . She operated for several years as a merchant ship , and was involved in a court case that eventually reached the Supreme Court of the United States in 1928 . She was laid up in New Orleans , Louisiana , until late 1940 when she was reactivated and refitted to carry American defense - related cargos to Africa and chromium and manganese ore to the United States . Continuing in African service after the United States entered World War II , she was diverted in March 1942 for one round trip to the Soviet Union , enduring German attacks that earned her U . S . Navy Armed Guard a battle star . After her return , she sailed mainly between the United States and African and Caribbean ports . In March 1944 , she sailed from the United States for the final time , and was scuttle d in June as part of the " gooseberry " breakwater off Utah Beach during the Normandy invasion , earning a second battle star in the process . Design and construction . The " West " ships were cargo ship s of similar size and design built by several shipyards on the West Coast of the United States for the for emergency use during World War I . All were given names that began with the word " West " , like " West Cheswald " , the one of some 40 " West " ships built by the Northwest Steel of Portland , Oregon . " West Cheswald " ( Northwest Steel yard number 32 , hull number 1421 ) was completed in September 1919 . " West Cheswald " was , and was long ( between perpendiculars ) and abeam . She had a steel hull with a hold that was deep . She had a displacement of 12 , 200 t with a mean draft of . The ship had a single steam turbine that drove a single screw propeller , and moved the ship at up to . Early career . " West Cheswald " was inspected by the 13th Naval District of the United States Navy after completion for possible use as a service collier and was assigned the identification number of 4199 . Had she been commissioned , she would have been known as USS " West Cheswald " ( ID - 4199 ) , but the Navy neither took over the ship nor commissioned her . Information on " West Cheswald " s early career is lacking , but records of some of her movements and cargo are available . On 30 September 1920 , " West Cheswald " took on a load of white sugar at Java and headed for the United States via the Suez Canal . While she was near Bermuda , " West Cheswald " was diverted from her original destination of New York to Philadelphia , to deliver her cargo in fulfillment of an order . Because the cargo had not been originally headed to Philadelphia , the purchasers refused to pay for it , believing that the voyage took too long . After litigation and various appeals , the case ended up before the Supreme Court of the United States in 1928 as " Lamborn v . National Bank of Commerce " , 276 U . S . 469 ( 1928 ) . The court found that under the contract signed , the purchasers were obligated for the sugar regardless of whether or not the ship had originally been destined for Philadelphia . " West Cheswald " was also reported in Hawaiian service during 1920 . The report of the Governor of Hawaii in the annual report of the United States Department of the Interior for the 1920 – 21 fiscal year , listed " West Cheswald " among the four - owned ships sailed to Hawaii by the Pacific Steamship Company . From 1922 , " West Cheswald " operated to South America , often bringing coffee to the United States . In October 1922 , for example , she delivered of coffee from Rio de Janeiro to New Orleans , Louisiana , and in March 1923 , she delivered 105 , 400 bags to New Orleans and another 4 , 100 bags to Galveston , Texas . From 1923 to 1940 , little is known about " West Cheswald " s activities . At some point during this period , she was laid up in New Orleans as part of the reserve fleet located there . World War II . In June 1940 , as World War II raged in Europe , the ( a successor to the ) announced bidding for the reconditioning of " West Cheswald " and nine other ships that were in the reserve fleet . The low bid for " West Cheswald " was by the Maryland Drydock Company of Baltimore , which priced the repairs at $ 169 , 961 . In February 1941 , the announced another round of bidding , this time for the operation of " West Cheswald " and three other ships on defense routes to southern and eastern Africa . The ships would carry defense cargo to African ports and return loads of chromium and manganese ore — both needed for the production of steel for armaments — to the United States . The American South African Line had the low bid for " West Cheswald " , offering to operate her for $ 17 , 174 monthly . With her reconditioning complete , " West Cheswald " arrived in New York from Baltimore on 23 March . Although she may have been scheduled to begin her African service as early as 29 March , she sailed from New York on 11 April for the Cape Verde Islands , and from there , to Cape Town , where she arrived on 15 May . Beginning the next day , " West Cheswald " visited Port Elizabeth , East London , Durban , Mombasa , Tanga , and Zanzibar through 11 June . She returned to Tanga , then sailed from Dar es Salaam to Zanzibar and back on 23 and 24 June . She next made her way to Lourenço Marques , where she arrived on 3 July . From Lourenço Marques , she sailed back to Durban and Cape Town , before she began her transatlantic journey to Trinidad on 18 July . After calling at that Caribbean port , she returned to New York to complete her first circuit on 18 August . On 6 September , " West Cheswald " began another , similar voyage to Africa . In addition to calling at many of the same ports she visited on her first trip , she visited the port of Beira , Mozambique for the first time in early November . The ship was in transit from Cape Town to Trinidad on 7 December during the Attack on Pearl Harbor , and by the time she arrived at Boston on 27 December , the United States had joined the Allies of World War II in declaring war against the Axis powers . Arctic convoy . " West Cheswald " sailed from Boston for New York on 30 December , and spent nearly eight weeks at New York . Outfitted with armament and a Naval Armed Guard detachment , she sailed from Boston for Halifax with a load of tank s on 23 February 1942 . After spending five days at Halifax , she sailed as part of Convoy SC 72 to Clyde on 28 February . After arriving at Clyde on 17 March , " West Cheswald " made her way to Oban on 22 March and sailed four days later for Murmansk as part of Convoy PQ 14 . The convoy consisted of approximately 25 merchant ships , ten of which were American , and of the American ships , only two — " West Cheswald " and " Yaka " — possessed defensive weaponry manned by Naval Armed Guardsmen . Many ships turned back because of heavy fog and snow ; " West Cheswald " , " Yaka " and several other ships from the convoy remained at Reykjavík from 31 March to 8 April . On 15 April , the convoy was tracked by a German aircraft , and convoy escort ships made contact with three German destroyer s . The following day , the convoy commodore ' s ship was sunk by a submarine ; at least two other torpedoes traveled through the convoy without hitting any ships . The convoy came under air attack on 17 April , but suffered no losses . As the convoy neared Murmansk , two Soviet destroyers with air cover joined the escort , and the convoy arrived without further incident on 19 April . Though the convoy had arrived at its destination , the danger of attack was still present . The nearest German airfield was away — about 7 to 10 minutes flying time — which gave almost no advance warning of air raids . German dive bombers would silently glide in below Soviet anti - aircraft fire , drop their bombs , and fly away . " West Cheswald " was luckier than some . Her closest call occurred when a bomb fell away from the ship during an air raid on 23 April , destroying a 50 - ton crane that had earlier finished unloading the ship ; " West Cheswald " suffered no major damage in any of the attacks . Despite the fact that Murmansk had limited port facilities and typically slow unloading of cargo , " West Cheswald " was ready to sail in the next departing convoy , Convoy QP 11 , on 28 April . " West Cheswald " s armed guardsmen received a battle star for their participation in Convoy PQ 14 . Later voyages . After returning to New York on 31 May by way of Reykjavík and Halifax , " West Cheswald " made a brief trip to Philadelphia and back before she worked her way down the East Coast to Norfolk , Virginia , where she arrived on 17 June . Sailing the next day , the cargo ship began the first of two African trips , during which she made many of the same ports as in her two 1941 voyages . On the homeward leg of her second voyage , she called at Takoradi and Freetown on the western coast of Africa in March 1943 . After returning to the Americas , " West Cheswald " visited Saint Thomas , San Juan , and Mayagüez in the Caribbean before returning to Philadelphia on 28 April . " West Cheswald " s next sailing began on 6 June , when she left Boston for Halifax , sailing from the latter port on 16 June in Convoy SC - 134 bound for Liverpool . Breaking off from the convoy for Loch Ewe , " West Cheswald " also visited Methil , Southend , and Oban , before returning to New York on 11 August . Sailing from there on 6 September , she began her final trip to Africa , in which she visited the West African ports of Bathurst , Freetown , Monrovia , and Takoradi before returning to Philadelphia via Trinidad on 27 January 1944 . She sailed from Philadelphia ten days later , ending up in Boston . Final voyage . " West Cheswald " had been selected to become one of the blockship s for the Allied invasion of France , then in the planning stages . Though the specific modifications performed on " West Cheswald " are not revealed in sources , modifications for other ships do appear . In November 1944 , " The Christian Science Monitor " reported that blockships dispatched from Boston , like " West Cheswald " , had been loaded with " tons of sand and cement " and had been rigged with explosive charges before departing the port . Further , existing antiaircraft weapons had been moved higher up on the ship and supplemented by additional guns . An account by Cesar Poropat , chief engineer aboard , another blockship dispatched from Boston , mentions that transverse bulkheads aboard that ship were cut open to facilitate sinking . " West Cheswald " departed Boston on 10 March and arrived at Halifax two days later . Departing from that port on 29 March , she sailed in Convoy SC - 156 and arrived at Swansea on 14 April . She departed there on 30 April for Oban , where she joined the assembling " Corncob Fleet . " The Corncob Fleet was the group of ships to be sunk to form the " gooseberries " , shallow - water artificial harbors for landing craft . Poropat reports that once the ship crews were told of their mission while anchored at Oban , they were not permitted to leave the ships . After five weeks of isolation at anchor , " West Cheswald " headed south for Poole , to join the first corncob convoy . " West Cheswald " sailed from Poole on 7 June in a convoy , consisting of what one author called the " dregs of the North Atlantic shipping pool " , and reached the Normandy beachhead the next day , two days after the D - Day landings . Poropat reports that the corncob ships traveled under cover of darkness and , stripped of all unnecessary equipment , carried no radios , having only a signal lamp ( with a spare bulb ) for communication . Once at the designated location , the ships were put into position and scuttled over the next days , under heavy German artillery fire . Naval Armed Guardsmen manned the guns on all the gooseberry ships to protect against frequent German air attacks ; " West Cheswald " s gunners were credited with downing one plane on 10 June . All the while , harbor pilots — about half of the New York Bar Pilots Association , according to one source — carefully positioned the ships . " West Cheswald " and were the last two ships sunk off Utah Beach when they went down on 11 June . Even though she had been sunk , " West Cheswald " continued to serve as an antiaircraft platform manned by Navy gun crews until 19 June , and by Army crews after that date . " West Cheswald " s naval gunners were awarded a second battle star for participation in the Normandy Landings .