USS West Lianga (ID-2758) - Interwar Career

Interwar Career

After her return to the United States Shipping Board in June 1919, West Lianga returned to Seattle and was based out of there for several years of operation. The United States Official Number 216274 was allocated. On 7 September 1921, the ship was laid up in the reserve fleet at Norfolk. On 19 February 1929, the sold West Lianga to the Los Angeles Steamship Company for $100,000 on the basis of unrestricted operation., which announced plans for a $50,000 overhaul and reconditioning of the ship for operation on its Arrow Line intercoastal cargo service, paid ten percent in cash and signed a note for the balance to be paid over the next ten years.

On 12 March, changed West Lianga's port of registry from Seattle to Los Angeles, and on 26 March, announced that the ship had been renamed Helen Whittier after the daughter of California oil pioneer Max Whittier. The Code Letters LKQR were allocated. also announced that Helen Whittier, to be operated by Sudden and Christenson Steamship Company for, was scheduled to sail from Baltimore on 25 April to begin her intercoastal service.

Helen Whittier's activities over the next two years were not recorded in contemporary newspaper accounts, but she was affected by the absorption of into its former competitor, Matson Navigation Company, on 1 January 1931. In late August 1931, Helen Whittier was added to Matson's Hawaiian sugar service to Gulf Coast and North Atlantic ports.

Helen Whittier had returned to intercoastal service by early 1934 when The New York Times reported that she had sailed from San Francisco on 23 March and arrived at New York on 25 April. In June that same year, Helen Whittier was one of the Matson ships added to carry food cargo to Hawaii. Shipments of food from the mainland—which accounted for up to 90% of Hawaii's needs—had been curtailed as a coastwise strike had affected all ports except Los Angeles. Helen Whittier sailed on her first food delivery on 23 June with 2,500 tons of food from Los Angeles to Honolulu.

Duringh 1935, her Code Letters were change to LKAO. In February 1935, Helen Whittier was returned to the Hawaiian sugar service full-time. During her time on this service, Helen Whittier often called at New York. One typical voyage, as tracked in The New York Times, began when she departed New York on 23 November for Honolulu, passed through the Panama Canal on 4 December, and arrived at Honolulu. Helen Whittier departed there on 11 January 1936 and arrived at New York again on 16 February. Occasionally, Helen Whittier would make side trips to Baltimore for voyage repairs between her arrival at New York and her next departure for Hawaii. The cargo ship continued her Honolulu – New York service through September 1936.

In 1938, Matson renamed the ship Kalani, and continued using her in Hawaiian service through 1940. On 15 July 1940, Matson received the permission of the United States Maritime Commission, a successor to the, to sell Kalani to Sir R. Ropner & Co., Ltd., of West Hartlepool. Six days after the approval, Kalani, now under British registry, departed from Los Angeles for New York.