MS West Honaker MS " West Honaker was a diesel - powered cargo ship of the 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 , a predecessor of the . 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 . " West Honaker " was built in 1920 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 28th ship built at Los Angeles Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company in San Pedro , California . In 1926 , " West Honaker " was outfitted with diesel engines that replaced her original steam engines as part of a pilot program by the . After her conversion , she sailed on a New York – Australia route . On her second trip to Australia , from August 1927 to March 1928 , she became the first diesel ship to circumnavigate the globe . In 1929 , she began sailing for an around - the - world cargo service from the Pacific coast to South Africa By the late 1930s , she had been laid up , but was reactivated for merchant service prior to World War II . She sailed to Australia and New Zealand until after the United States ' entry into World War II , and in transatlantic service to the United Kingdom for most of the time after that . In March 1944 , she sailed from the United States for the final time , and was incorporated into the Corncob Fleet of old ships scuttle d in June to make the " gooseberry " breakwater off Utah Beach during the Normandy invasion . This last voyage earned the West Honaker a battle star . 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 Honaker " , the one of some 40 " West " ships built by the Los Angeles Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company of Los Angeles . " West Honaker " ( Los Angeles Shipbuilding yard number 28 ) was completed in December 1920 . " West Honaker " was , and was long ( between perpendiculars ) and abeam . She had a steel hull and a deadweight tonnage of . Sources do not give " West Honaker " s other hull characteristics , but , a sister ship also built at Los Angeles Shipbuilding had a displacement of 12 , 225 t with a mean draft of , and a hold deep . " West Honaker " s power plant was a single triple - expansion steam engine that drove a single screw propeller , which moved the ship at up to . Early career . " West Honaker " was inspected by the United States Navy after completion for possible use as service collier and was assigned the identification number of 4455 . Had she been commissioned , she would have been known as USS " West Honaker " ( ID - 4455 ) , but the Navy neither took over the ship nor commissioned her . Destinations and cargo during " West Honaker " s first six years of service are largely unreported in sources . In 1926 , however , she was the first ship in a pilot program to replace steam engines of seven - owned ships with diesel engines . " West Honaker " s engine , reported by " The Washington Post " as the largest American - made diesel equipment to that time , was built by McIntosh & Seymour and installed at the Fore River Shipyard near Boston . An Associated Press news item reported that the ship ' s $ 1 , 000 , 000 conversion , which extended the ship ' s cruising radius from to , would lower her cost of operation by 15 % annually . After her sea trials were complete , " West Honaker " sailed to Savannah , Georgia , where she began carrying cotton from that port to Bremen . In January 1927 , the established the Atlantic Australian Line , an all - diesel New York – Australia service , and assigned " West Honaker " to the company . The eight ships in the service — operated by the Roosevelt Steamship Company in conjunction with another - line , the American India Line — sailed east from New York via the Suez Canal through the Indian Ocean and on to Australia and back via the same route . On 15 February , " West Honaker " sailed on her maiden voyage for the new service for Sydney , where she arrived on 5 April . On 26 August , she began her second voyage to Sydney , but instead of retracing her route on the return , she continued eastward around the world , becoming — according to " The New York Times " — the first diesel ship to circumnavigate the globe . Upon her return to New York on 2 March 1928 , a reception was held at the Tompkinsville , Staten Island , pier where she had docked . The Roosevelt Steamship Company announced plans for " West Honaker " to continue in around - the - world service , making two voyages per year . South African service . In February 1929 , " West Honaker " was bareboat chartered by the for the new Pacific – South Africa Line , an around - the - world venture under the management of J . J . Moore & Company . The Pacific – South Africa Line service — the world ' s only all - diesel around - the - world service , as described by the " Los Angeles Times " — sailed from Los Angeles to South Africa via the Straits of Magellan , across the Indian Ocean to Japan and China , across the Pacific to San Francisco , and back to Los Angeles . " West Honaker " s first voyage in the South African service was planned for November , but upon her arrival from New York to begin the service , it was discovered that she had cracks in her engine mountings and her cylinder head . " West Honaker " made her way to San Francisco , where parts were fabricated for the $ 100 , 000 repair . This kept her out of service until March 1930 . " West Honaker " departed on her long - delayed maiden voyage for the Pacific – South Africa Line in mid March , and began a second voyage for the line in late October . " West Honaker " s service continued uneventfully until early 1932 . On 2 March of that year , " West Honaker " collided with steamer " Ernest H . Meyer " in a snowstorm on the lower Columbia River , near Astoria , Oregon . Both ships suffered damage , but neither needed assistance to reach Portland . " West Honaker " had just finished undergoing general repairs in drydock in Portland prior to the collision , which caused about $ 30 , 000 in damages . The filed suit against the Portland Steamship Company for the cost of repairs , which were completed by mid March . In mid - June , the bareboat charters of the three vessels still sailing for Pacific – South Africa — " West Honaker " , " West Cusseta " , and " Crown City " — were cancelled . At the end of each ship ' s voyage in progress , the ships were returned to the . At the time of the announcement , " West Honaker " was in South African waters . The " Los Angeles Times " reported that preferential tariffs for British - flagged ships for lumber from British Columbia — a major cargo carried by the line — were responsible for the termination . It ' s not known when " West Honaker " completed her final trip , but in late June she was still shown in South Africa by a notice in " The New York Times " . After this mention , " West Honaker " disappears from contemporary news accounts . By 1939 , " West Honaker " had been laid up in a reserve fleet in the James River . World War II . In June 1940 , the opened bidding for the reconditioning of ten laid up cargo ships , which included " West Honaker " . According to the " Los Angeles Times " , the , a successor to the , was forced to act because of a " critical shortage " of U . S . Navy auxiliary ship s . The Maryland Drydock Company of Baltimore was the low bidder for " West Honaker " , offering to recondition her for $ 77 , 777 . On 3 November , with her reconditioning complete , " West Honaker " sailed from New York . After transiting the Panama Canal a week after her departure , she headed for Brisbane , Australia , where she arrived on 13 December . After then calling at Sydney , Melbourne , Port Pirie , and Adelaide through 8 January 1941 , " West Honaker " called at Melbourne and Sydney before departing for the United States on 18 January . Loaded with a cargo of wool intended for uniforms , blankets , and overcoats for the military , " West Honaker " arrived at New Bedford , Massachusetts , on 3 March . From late March to mid August , " West Honaker " made another , almost identical Australian circuit , adding a stop in Fremantle to her Australian itinerary . Almost immediately after her return to Boston , she began a third trip to Australia . After she arrived in Brisbane on 29 October , she made stops in Sydney and Melbourne . From Sydney she made a round trip to Nouméa , New Caledonia , and sailed from there to Wellington , New Zealand , where she arrived on 11 December , four days after the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor that propelled the United States into World War II . " West Honaker " departed Wellington on 13 December and arrived at Boston on 28 February 1942 . From Boston , she sailed to New York via Philadelphia . After sailing from New York on 29 April , " West Honaker " experienced some unspecified trouble , and was towed into Baltimore on 4 June . After spending almost three weeks in that port , she headed for Cape Town via Trinidad . She departed Cape Town on 24 August and sailed to Bushire , Abadan , Bandar Abbas , and Colombo over the next three months . After making a round trip to Calcutta from late November to late December , " West Honaker " arrived at Wellington on 26 January , sailing for New York via the Panama Canal three days later . " West Honaker " took on a load of grain and then proceeded in convoy from Boston to Halifax in early May , and on to Belfast Lough . After making a circuit to Avonmouth and Milford Haven , " West Honaker " sailed from Belfast Lough for New York on 25 June . She made one additional transatlantic roundtrip beginning in late August , carrying a cargo of explosives on her outbound trip , and returning in late October . " West Honaker " sailed 28 November from New York for Nuevitas , Cuba , and returned via Key West , Florida , in late December . Sailing again for the Caribbean on 6 February , she visited Guantánamo Bay and Antilla before her 28 February 1944 return to New York . At some point within the next month , " West Honaker " arrived at Boston . Final voyage . Though her crew did not know it at the time , " West Honaker " had been selected to be one of the blockship s for the Allied invasion of France , then in the planning stages . Blockships dispatched from Boston , like " West Honaker " , were loaded with " tons of sand and cement " before their final U . S . departures . " West Honaker " sailed from Boston on 25 March 1944 as a part of Convoy BX - 101 to Halifax and , from there , Convoy SC - 156 to Cardiff . In his book " Beyond the Palisades " , Cesar Poropat , " West Honaker " s chief engineer , reports that after the ship ' s cargo was discharged , the ship was suddenly boarded by shipyard workers who cut holes in " strategic places " and positioned " mysterious packs " around the hull . The crew suspected , correctly , that these packs were explosives and that the ship was being prepared for sinking . Though there is no specific mention of this occurring on " West Honaker " , other blockships selected for the Normandy beachhead had their existing antiaircraft weapons moved higher on the ship and supplemented by additional guns . Poropat recounts that after the shipyard workers departed , the crew were told to pack all their personal belongings — except for toiletries and one change of clothes — to be sent ashore . Each crewman was issued a backpack with K - ration s , a special life preserver , and survival equipment . " West Honaker " departed Cardiff on 24 April for Oban where she arrived on 5 May . She was now a part of the " Corncob Fleet , " the group of ships to be sunk to form the " gooseberries , " shallow - water artificial harbors for landing craft . Once at Oban , Poropat reports that the ship ' s crew was told of their mission , but to preserve secrecy , they were not permitted to leave the ships . After spending five weeks at Oban — Poropat called it " the longest and most tedious five weeks " of his life — " West Honaker " finally moved out , sailing south through the Irish Sea to Poole . " West Honaker " was a part of the third " Corncob " convoy , which sailed from Poole on the night on 7 June , the day after the D - Day landings , and consisted of what one author called the " dregs of the North Atlantic shipping pool . " Poropat relates that the Corncob ships crossed the English Channel under cover of darkness and , stripped of all unnecessary equipment , carried no radios , having only a signal lamp ( with a spare bulb ) for communication . Around midnight 7 / 8 June , during the slow voyage across the Channel , a German airplane hit " West Honaker " with two skip bombs . Because the ship , already prepared for a fast sinking for the blockship duties , began taking on water , a large portion of the crew , including Chief Engineer Poropat , abandoned ship . After drifting in the Channel for most of the rest of the moonless night , they were picked up in the morning by a British trawler and returned to the UK . In the meantime , the master of the ship was able to keep " West Honaker " in the convoy headed to Utah beach . Once at the designated location , the ships were positioned and scuttle d 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 . All the while , harbor pilots — about half of the New York Bar Pilots Association , according to one source — carefully positioned the ships . " West Honaker " was sunk on 10 June about off the beach , but continued to serve as an antiaircraft platform manned by Navy gun crews until 14 June , and by Army crews after that date . " West Honaker " s naval gunners were awarded a battle star for participation in the Normandy Landings .