SS West Cheswald

SS West Cheswald

SS West Cheswald was a cargo ship for the United States Shipping Board launched shortly after the end of World War I. The ship was inspected by the United States Navy for possible use as USS West Cheswald (ID-4199) but was neither taken into the Navy nor ever commissioned under that name. West Cheswald was built in 1919 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 32nd ship built at Northwest Steel in Portland, Oregon.

She operated for several years as a merchant ship, and was involved in a court case that eventually reached the Supreme Court of the United States in 1928. She was laid up in New Orleans, Louisiana, until late 1940 when she was reactivated and refitted to carry American defense-related cargos to Africa and chromium and manganese ore to the United States.

Continuing in African service after the United States entered World War II, she was diverted in March 1942 for one roundtrip to the Soviet Union, enduring German attacks that earned her U.S. Navy Armed Guard a battle star. After her return, she sailed mainly between the United States and African and Caribbean ports. In March 1944, she sailed from the United States for the final time, and was scuttled in June as part of the "gooseberry" breakwater off Utah Beach during the Normandy invasion, earning a second battle star in the process.