USS West Bridge ( ID - 2888 ) USS " West Bridge " ( ID - 2888 ) was a cargo ship in the United States Navy during World War I . She was begun as SS " War Topaz but was completed as SS " West Bridge , though she was referred to in some publications under the spelling Westbridge . After the ship was decommissioned from the Navy , the ship returned to civilian service as SS " West Bridge " , but was renamed SS " Barbara Cates , and SS " Pan Gulf over the course of her civilian career under American registry . Near the end of World War II , the ship was renamed SS " Lermontov " ( ) when she sailed under the Soviet flag . " West Bridge " was one of the " West " ships , a series of steel - hulled cargo ships built for the on the West Coast of the United States . The ship was launched in April 1918 and delivered to the U . S . Navy upon completion in May . After commissioning , USS " West Bridge " sailed from the Pacific Northwest to the East Coast of the United States and joined a convoy of cargo ships headed to France in August . After " West Bridge " suffered an engine breakdown at sea , the convoy was attacked by two German submarines and " West Bridge " was torpedoed and abandoned . A salvage crew from American destroyer boarded the ship the following day , and , working with four tugs dispatched from France , successfully brought the ship into port . Four men received the Navy Cross for their efforts in saving " West Bridge " . After seven months of repair , " West Bridge " resumed Navy service until her December 1919 decommissioning and return to the . " West Bridge " was laid up for nearly seven years from 1922 to 1929 , when she was sold for service on an intercoastal cargo service under the name SS " Barbara Cates " . By 1938 , the ship had been renamed " Pan Gulf " for service with a subsidiary of the Waterman Steamship Company . During World War II , " Pan Gulf " made nine roundtrips between the United States and the United Kingdom without incident in wartime convoys . She also sailed between New York and ports on the Gulf Coast and in the Caribbean . In May 1945 , the ship was transferred to the Soviet Union under Lend - Lease . Renamed SS " Lermontov " , the ship sailed in support of the war and continued in civilian service for the Soviets until 1966 , when she was scrapped at Split . Design and construction . To replace shipping tonnage lost to German submarines during World War I , the British Shipping Controller sought newly built ships from American shipyards . As part of of shipping which had been ordered by March 1917 , an order for nine vessels of was placed with J . F . Duthie & Company of Seattle . Because the United States had not yet entered World War I , the Shipping Controller , to skirt neutrality laws , placed orders through various British shipping companies . Although the specific company that placed the order with Duthie is not reported in secondary sources , the company most often used for these orders was the Cunard Steamship Company . As one of the nine ships ordered , J . F . Duthie & Company laid down the keel of " War Topaz " as the eleventh ship begun at their shipyard . On 6 August 1917 , the Emergency Fleet Corporation — an entity created by the shortly after the United States entered the war on 6 April and tasked with overseeing U . S . shipbuilding — requisitioned most ships under construction in the United States ; included among those was " War Topaz " . By the time of her 24 April 1918 launch , the ship had been renamed " West Bridge " , becoming one of the " West " ships , cargo ship s of similar size and design built by several shipyards on the West Coast of the United States . Just a bit over one month later , on 26 May , the finished " West Bridge " was delivered to the United States Navy . As completed , the steel - hulled ship was long ( between perpendiculars ) , abeam , and drew . " West Bridge " had a displacement of , and her - deep hold allowed the ship to be rated at . The ship was powered by a single triple - expansion steam engine built by the Hooven , Owens , & Rentschler Company of Hamilton , Ohio . The engine , with cylinders of , , and 72 inches ( 62 , 105 , and 180 cm ) diameter with a stroke , was capable of generating up to , allowing the single screw propeller to move the ship at up . For her U . S . Navy service in World War I , " West Bridge " was equipped with one and one gun . Military career . USS " West Bridge " ( ID - 2888 ) was commissioned into the at the Puget Sound Navy Yard on 26 May with Lieutenant Commander Mortimer Hawkins , , in command . " West Bridge " took on an initial load of flour and departed 10 June for the East Coast . Along the way , the ship developed troubles with her engine , which required her to put in at Balboa in the Panama Canal Zone for repairs . Getting under way again on 4 July , " West Bridge " sailed for New York , arriving on 16 July . After refueling at New York , " West Bridge " joined Convoy HB - 8 bound for France , sailing on 1 August in company with Navy cargo ship , United States Army transport , and 13 others . Escorted by armed yacht , destroyers and , and French cruiser " Marseillaise " , the convoy was some west of its destination of Le Verdon - sur - Mer by the end of the day on 15 August . Torpedo attack . At 17 : 40 , " West Bridge " s engine broke down once again and her crew was unable to repair it . " West Bridge " , falling off the back of the convoy and adrift , signaled " Marseillaise " to request a tow . At sundown , shortly before 18 : 00 , " Montanan " — still in the convoy , which was by now some ahead of " West Bridge " — was hit by one of three torpedoes launched by German submarine . " Montanan " began to settle and was quickly abandoned . On " West Bridge " , Lieutenant Commander Hawkins realized the potential for another submarine attack and ordered his crew to general quarters and reduced the number of men in the mechanical spaces below decks . " Noma " sailed back to " West Bridge " , ordered the freighter to extinguish her lights , and stood by . At nearly the same time , approached and launched two torpedoes at the stationary cargo ship , scoring hits with both . The first struck near the No . 3 cargo hold in the front of the ship , while the second hit amidships near the engine room . " West Bridge " immediately began listing to starboard , and Hawkins ordered the crew to abandon the vessel . He and two crewmen remained behind until they felt sure that everyone else had departed . By the time they left the stricken ship , water was up to the gunwale s and lapping at the well deck . Immediately after the attack , " Noma " sped off to depth charge the submarine while sending an SOS for " West Bridge " , since the initial explosion destroyed the cargo ship ' s wireless . Destroyer " Burrows " arrived to take on " West Bridge " s survivors , who had situated themselves about a mile ( 2 km ) from the still - floating " West Bridge " . After boarding the destroyer , a head count revealed that four men were missing , but it also turned up two female stowaway s . By the morning of 16 August , both " Montanan " and " West Bridge " were still afloat , albeit with decks awash . Despite attempts to get " Montanan " under tow , she foundered later in the morning . Meanwhile , Hawkins and his executive officer were taken by boat to " West Bridge " to assess her situation . After boarding the ship and finding three cargo holds and her engineering spaces completely flooded , Hawkins advised " Burrows " captain that the situation was hopeless and he would only be endangering his ship , crew , and the " West Bridge " survivors by remaining alongside . Consequently , " Burrows " departed for Brest , France , leaving destroyer " Smith " to stand by " West Bridge " . A volunteer work and salvage party from " Smith " , led by Lieutenant Richard L . Conolly , and which included Chief Boatswain ' s Mate John Henry Caudell , and Construction Mechanic , 3rd class Walter Homer Todd , boarded " West Bridge " and awaited four tugs which had been dispatched from Brest : the U . S . Navy tug , two French tugs , and one British tug . Over the course of the next five days , the tugs , joined by patrol yacht , slowly made their way to the French coast , eventually arriving at Brest . " West Bridge " was towed over with only 1 % buoyancy remaining . Conolly , Caudell , and Todd were each awarded the Navy Cross for their efforts in saving " West Bridge " ; W . W . Wotherspoon , the fleet salvage officer on " Favorite " was also honored with a Navy Cross , in part for his salvage efforts for " West Bridge " . The extent of the damage and the condition of " West Bridge " led to some erroneous reports of her loss . News articles on 24 August in both " The New York Times " and the " Chicago Daily Tribune " reported the loss of " West Bridge " , and the mistaken information also made it into book form . Authors Benedict Crowell and Robert Forrest Wilson , in their work " The Road to France : The Transportation of Troops and Military Supplies , 1917 – 1918 " , repeat the misinformation about the loss of " West Bridge " . After " West Bridge " underwent seven months of repairs , the ship resumed service with the through 1 December 1919 , at which time she was decommissioned and handed over to the . Interwar years . Little is known about " West Bridge " s activities after her return to the in 1919 , but in June 1922 she was laid up in Philadelphia , where she would remain for almost seven years . In March 1929 , the approved the sale of " West Bridge " for $ 57 , 000 to the Sudden and Christenson Steamship Company of San Francisco . By May , the ship had been renamed " Barbara Cates " and was slated for service on the intercoastal freight service of their Arrow Line , which sailed to the Pacific coast from Baltimore ; Norfolk , Virginia ; Savannah , Georgia ; and Jacksonville , Florida . The addition of " Barbara Cates " and other ships purchased around the same time allowed the Arrow Line to increase its sailings from fortnightly to once every ten days . " Barbara Cates " nine years with the Arrow Line were uneventful . By October 1938 , the ship had been renamed " Pan Gulf " to reflect the naming style of her new owners , the Pan - Atlantic Steamship Company , a subsidiary of Waterman Steamship Company . The Pan - Atlantic Line sailed in coastal service along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts , and it is likely that " Pan Gulf " called at typical Pan - Atlantic ports such as Baltimore , Miami , Tampa , New Orleans , Philadelphia , New York , and Boston during this time . In October 1941 , " The Christian Science Monitor " reported that " Pan Gulf " had become stuck in the mud off Governors Island after her crew misjudged how far to back out of her berth at the Army base there . The first , unsuccessful attempt to free " Pan Gulf " from her predicament involved eight tugs , but the ship did not budge . The newspaper , which had also reported that there was no apparent damage to " Pan Gulf " in the grounding , carried no further reports on the ship . World War II and later career . After the United States entered World War II , " Pan Gulf " frequently sailed in convoys on the North Atlantic , as well as some in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico . Between April and September 1942 , " Pan Gulf " made two roundtrips from the U . S . to Liverpool . In September , the cargo ship sailed from New York to the Caribbean to take on a load of bauxite in early November , and then sailed on to Galveston , Texas , before returning to New York in mid - February 1943 . In late February , " Pan Gulf " began the first of a further seven roundtrips to the United Kingdom over the next 21 months , when she sailed from New York in Convoy HX 228 for Halifax . In July , the purchased " Pan Gulf " from the Pan - Atlantic Line , overpaying her value by some 16 times , according to Senator George Aiken ( R - VT ) . On 5 May 1945 , the turned over " Pan Gulf " to the Far East Shipping Company ( ) of the Soviet Union under Lend - Lease ; renamed the ship SS " Lermontov " ( , ) after the poet Mikhail Lermontov . The Soviets armed the ship with a gun and other weapons and employed the ship in cargo duties in support of the war . At war ' s end , " Lermontov " remained with through 1950 . At that time she was transferred to the Black Sea Shipping Company , with which she remained into the 1960s . " Lermontov " was delivered to shipbreaker s in Split on 26 June 1966 .