Military Career
USS West Alsek (ID-3119) was commissioned into the Naval Overseas Transportation Service on 4 June with Lieutenant Commander J. S. Gibson, USNRF, in command. West Alsek took on an initial load of 7,067 tons of flour and departed the Pacific Northwest on 15 June. After transiting the Panama Canal, she reached New York on 16 July. On 1 August, West Alsek joined Convoy HB-8 with West Bridge, United States Army cargo transport Montanan, and 13 other ships for France.
Escorted by armed yacht Noma, destroyers Burrows and Smith, and French cruiser Marseillaise, the convoy was some 500 nautical miles (900 km) west of its destination of Le Verdon-sur-Mer by the end of the day on 15 August. At sundown, shortly before 18:00, one of three torpedoes from German submarine U-90 struck Montanan, while another torpedo from U-107 hit West Bridge, which was already adrift with engine trouble. Meanwhile, West Alsek and the other surviving ships of the convoy continued on and arrived at Verdon-sur-mer on 18 August.
After unloading her cargo of flour and returning to the United States, West Alsek next sailed on 27 October in convoy to Quiberon and Nantes. West Alsek unloaded her cargo in Nantes from 15 November—four days after the Armistice—to 30 December. Sailing for New York on that date, West Alsek arrived there on 19 January 1919. She was decommissioning on 27 January and returned to the .
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