USS West Mead ( ID - 3550 ) USS " West Mead " ( ID - 3548 ) , also spelled Westmead , was a United States Navy cargo ship in commission from 1918 to 1919 . Construction , acquisition , and commissioning . " West Mead " was laid down as the commercial steel - hulled , single - screw , coal - burning steam cargo ship SS " War Dido " for the United States Shipping Board by the Ames Shipbuilding and Drydock Company at Seattle , Washington ; her name later was changed to SS " West Mead " or " Westmead " and she was completed in 1918 . On 26 October 1918 , the 13th Naval District inspected " West Mead " for possible U . S . Navy service during World War I . The Shipping Board transferred her to the U . S . Navy , the Navy assigned her the naval registry identification number 3550 , and she was commissioned on 29 October 1918 as USS " West Mead " or " Westmead " ( ID - 3548 ) with Lieutenant Commander N . A . Nelson , USNRF , in command . Operational history . Assigned to the Naval Overseas Transportation Service , " West Mead " loaded 6 , 865 tons of flour , departed the Pacific Northwest on 15 November 1918 ( four days after the Armistice with Germany had brought World War I to an end on 11 November 1918 ) , transited the Panama Canal , and stopped at Balboa in the Panama Canal Zone . She then proceeded from Balboa to New York City , where she arrived on 14 December 1918 . She bunkered and underwent repairs at New York . " West Mead " departed New York on 24 December 1918 in convoy for the United Kingdom and arrived at Falmouth , England , on 9 January 1919 . She moved to Rotterdam in the Netherlands on 24 January 1919 and unloaded her cargo of flour there . She returned to the United States in ballast , arriving at New York City on 3 March 1919 . " West Mead " next proceeded from New York City to Savannah , Georgia , where she took on board a cargo of cotton and lumber . She departed Savannah on 2 April 1919 bound for the United Kingdom , and reached Liverpool , England , on 21 April 1919 . She discharged her cargo there , then returned to Savannah , where she arrived on 7 June 1919 . Decommissioning and later career . " West Mead " was both decommissioned and stricken from the Navy List on 9 June 1919 , and the Navy transferred her back to the U . S . Shipping Board the same day . She then operated commercially as SS " Westmead " under the ownership of the Shipping Board until she was laid up in the late 1920s . In 1927 , the Shipping Board sold " Westmead " to the Babcock Steamship Company of New York City , which returned her to service and renamed her SS " Willanglo " . In 1929 , the Pacific - Atlantic Steamship Company of Portland , Oregon , purchased her and renamed her SS " San Angela " . In response to the need caused by German submarine activity in the North Atlantic Ocean against Allied convoy routes early in World War II , the British government acquired a number of former U . S . Shipping Board ships under both American private and government ownership ; " San Angela " was among them . She was sold to the British Ministry of War Transport in 1940 and renamed SS " Empire Springbuck " , and operated under the management of W . A . Souter and Company of Newcastle - upon - Tyne , England . " Empire Springbuck " was on the second leg of a voyage from Cuba to Leith , Scotland , via Sydney , Nova Scotia , Canada , when the German submarine " U - 81 " torpedo ed and sank her off Cape Farewell , Greenland , on 9 September 1941 .