USS West Bridge (ID-2888) - World War II and Later Career

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. In September, the cargo ship sailed from New York to the Caribbean to take on a load of bauxite in early November, 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 United States Maritime Commission purchased Pan Gulf from the Pan-Atlantic Line, overpaying her value by some 16 times, according to Senator George Aiken (R-VT).

On 5 May 1945, the turned over Pan Gulf to the Far East Shipping Company of the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease; renamed the ship SS Lermontov (Russian: Лермонтов, ) after the poet Mikhail Lermontov. The Soviets armed the ship with a 4-inch (100 mm) gun and other weapons and employed the ship in cargo duties in support of the war.

At war's end, Lermontov remained with through 1950. At that time she was transferred to the Black Sea Shipping Company, with which she remained into the 1960s. Lermontov was delivered to shipbreakers in Split on 26 June 1966.