Civilian Career
Little is known about West Alsek's subsequent civilian career until early 1929. In February of that year, West Alsek, still under ownership, was selected for the addition of pulverized coal-fired boilers for testing purposes. Coal pulverizers would take coal—often cheaper, inferior grades normally unsuitable for marine use—and grind them into coal dust. This dust would then be mixed with air and automatically injected into the boilers without the need for hand-feeding. West Alsek entered the Todd Brooklyn shipyard to undergo the conversion in late February.
Upon completion of the conversion work, West Alsek was taken out for trials over two passes on a 16-nautical-mile (30 km) course on 19 June. Representatives from the, the Navy Department, the United States Coast Guard, the Cunard Line, and Todd and other shipbuilders were on board—some 125 guests in all. The ship cruised at an average of 12.7 knots (23.5 km/h), some 1.5 knots (2.8 km/h) faster than she had ever steamed.
After returning her guests to New York, West Alsek sailed to Baltimore, Maryland, for operation by the Oriole Line. She sailed for Cardiff, becoming the first ship depending only on pulverized coal to cross the Atlantic, and back to Baltimore on 18 August. Early results showed that in addition to making the transatlantic crossings about 10% faster than she had before, West Alsek used about 30% less coal during the voyage. West Alsek continued to be a test platform for assessing the pulverized coal system during a voyage to Glasgow, her second for the Oriole Line.
No information on West Alsek's career after the coal pulverizing tests is available, but it is known that she was abandoned by the, and scrapped in the fourth quarter of 1933.
Read more about this topic: USS West Alsek (ID-3119)
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