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 she was decommissioned from the Navy, the ship was known as SS "West Bridge", SS "Barbara Cates", and SS "Pan Gulf" in civilian service under American registry. Near the end of World War II, the ship was renamed SS "Lermontov" ("Лермонтов" in Cyrillic) when she sailed under the Soviet flag.

"West Bridge" was one of the "West" boats, a series of steel-hulled cargo ships built for the , destroyers USS|Burrows|DD-29|2 and USS|Smith|DD-17|2, and French cruiser "Marseillaise",cite DANFS | last = Mann | title = Burrows | url = http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/b11/burrows-ii.htm | short = on ] the convoy was some convert|500|nmi|km|-2 west of its destination of Le Verdon-sur-Mer by the end of the day on 15 August. cite web | url = http://www.miramarshipindex.org.nz/ship/show/164264 | title = Montanan | work = Miramar Ship Index | publisher = R.B.Haworth | accessdaymonth = 4 September | accessyear = 2008 ]

Torpedo attack

At 17:40, "West Bridge"'s turbine 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 convert|4|nmi|km ahead of "West Bridge"—was hit by one of three torpedoes launched by German submarine "U-90". "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, "U-107" 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 gunwales and lapping at the well deck.

Immediately after the attack, "Noma" had sped off to depth charge the submarine, while sending an SOS for "West Bridge", since the initial explosion had destroyed the cargo ship's wireless. Destroyer "Burrows" arrived to take on "West Bridge"'s survivors, who had situated themselves about a mile (2,000 m) from the still-floating "West Bridge". After boarding the destroyer, a head count was conducted that revealed four men missing, but also turned up two female stowaways among the survivors.

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"'s captain that the situation was hopeless and that 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 Claudell, [Stringer, p. 54.] and Construction Mechanic, 3rd class Walter Homer Todd, [Stringer, p. 137.] boarded "West Bridge" and awaited four tugs—the U.S. Navy's tug USS|Favorite|SP-1385|2,Stringer, p. 147.] along with two French, and one British tug—which had been dispatched from Brest. Over the course of the next five days, the tugs, joined by patrol yacht USS|Isabel|PY-10|2, slowly made their way to the French coast, eventually arriving at Brest. "West Bridge" had been towed over convert|400|nmi|km with only 1% buoyancy remaining. Conolly, Claudell, and Todd were all 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".In addition to his salvage work on "West Bridge", Wotherspoon was honored for his efforts for USS|Westward Ho|ID-3098|2, USS|Mount Vernon|ID-4508|2, "Conner", and "Murray". See: Stringer, p. 147.]

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", [cite news | title = Three of our ships torpedoed; 19 missing from the crews | work = The New York Times | date = 24 August 1918 | page = 1 cite news | title = 3 U. S. ships in foreign waters sunk by U-boats | work = Chicago Daily Tribune | date = 24 August 1918 | page = 2 ] and the mistaken information also made it into book form. In their work "The Road to France: The Transportation of Troops and Military Supplies, 1917–1918", Benedict Crowell and Robert Forrest Wilson repeat the misinformation about the loss of "West Bridge". [Crowell and Wilson, p. 530.]

After "West Bridge" underwent seven months of extensive repairs, the ship resumed service with the NOTS through 1 December, at which time she was decommissioned and handed over to the USSB.

Interwar years

Little is known about "West Bridge"'s activities after her return to the USSB in 1919, but in June 1922 she was laid up in Philadelphia, where she would remain for almost seven years. In March 1929, the USSB 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. [cite news | last = Drake | first = Waldo | title = Shipping news and activities at los angeles harbor | work = Los Angeles Times | date = 13 May 1929 | page = 14 ] "Barbara Cates"'s nine years with the Arrow Line were uneventful.

By October 1938, [cite news | last = Lafourche | first = J. B. | title = Longshoreman injured | work = The Pittsburgh Courier | date = 8 October 1938 | page = 23 ] 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. cite web | last = Finch | first = Ted | coauthors = Gilbert Provost | url = http://www.mariners-l.co.uk/WWIStandardShipsWarT.htm | title = WWI Standard Ships: T | work = WWI Standard Built Ships | publisher = Mariners | accessdaymonth = 4 September | accessyear = 2008 ] 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. [de la Pedraja Tomán, p. 564.]

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 had not budged. 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. [cite news | title = Stuck in mud craft awaits high tide aid | work = The Christian Science Monitor | date = 13 October 1941 | page = 2 ]

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.cite web | title = Port Arrivals/Departures: Pan Gulf | url = http://convoyweb.org.uk/ports/index.html?search.php?vessel=PAN+GULF~armain | work = Arnold Hague's Ports Database | publisher = Convoy Web | date = | accessdaymonth = 4 September | accessyear = 2008 ] In September, the cargo ship sailed from New York to the Caribbean to take on a load of bauxite in early November, [cite AHCD | convoytype = TAG | convoynumber = 18 | accessdaymonth = 4 September | accessyear = 2008 ] 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 USMC|first=long purchased "Pan Gulf" from the Pan-Atlantic Line, overpaying her value by some sixteen times, according to Senator George Aiken (R-VT). [cite news | author = Associated Press | title = Aiken scores ship deal | work = The New York Times | date = 24 October 1943 | page = 38 ]

On 5 May 1945, the USMC turned over "Pan Gulf" to the Far East Shipping Company (FESCO) of the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease, who renamed the ship SS "Lermontov" ("Лермонтов" IPA-ru|ˈlʲɛrməntəf) after the poet Mikhail Lermontov. The Soviets armed the ship with a convert|4|in|mm|adj=on gun and other weapons and employed the ship in cargo duties in support of the war.

At war's end, "Lermontov" remained with FESCO through 1950. At that time she was transferred to the Black Sea Shipping Company, with whom she remained into the 1960s. On 1 December 1966, "Lermontov" was delivered to shipbreakers in Split where she was scrapped later in the month.

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