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70-532: The Guy West Bridge is named after the first president of Sacramento State, Guy West. At the time of its opening in 1967, the Guy West Bridge was hailed as the longest pedestrian suspension bridge in the United States. The bridge cost approximately US$ 636,000 (equivalent to $ 5,810,000 in 2023) to construct, and it was named a special prize winner in the 1968 AISC steel bridges contest. Steel for

140-572: A landlocked country, has a civilian high seas fleet of merchant vessels, whose home port is Basel , on the Rhine . The first ships were purchased and operated by the government in order to ensure the supply of critical resources during World War II. After the war, a privately owned merchant fleet emerged, spurred in part by government subsidies that paid for the fleet's operation up until 1953. As of 2006, 26 ships (mostly container carriers) totalling 479,624 tons, operated by five shipping companies, flew

210-424: A $ 10 million contract was signed. Along with the contract came a government grant of $ 400,000 to help restore the company's old World War I California shipyard. Three months later, the first C1 keel - that of American Manufacturer - was laid on 5 February 1940. After the initial 1939 order for the five C1s was completed, more Maritime Commission contracts followed, but the company was to build no more C1s. Instead,

280-430: A crew of 39 to 45. Because of the shortage of water frontage, the company dredged a large rectangular launching basin, and four shipping ways - two per side - were built, which launched ships sideways into the basin. The side launching method was not ideal for ships of this size and some of the vessels suffered hull damage on launch which then had to be repaired. The company was however, to persevere with side launching for

350-850: A major role in the Battle of the Atlantic bolstering the Allies' merchant fleet due to high losses in the British Merchant Navy. Eventually thousands of Canadians served in the merchant navy aboard hundreds of Canadian merchant ships, notably the " Park Ship ", the Canadian equivalent of the American " Liberty Ship ". A school at St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia , trained Canadian merchant mariners. "Manning pools", merchant navy barracks, were built in Canadian ports. The Greek maritime fleet

420-474: A modest role in the Second World War as troopships or transports and subsequently settled down to mundane postwar careers as cargo vessels. Others however had more unusual, more distinguished, or sometimes more tragic destinies. The following list includes a selection of these latter groups. The WPS vessel with the shortest service history was West Aleta (WPS Hull No. 8). One of the vessels built by

490-426: A naval auxiliary and merchant marine fleet. With the purchase of Schaw Batcher, Western Pipe & Steel inherited these contracts, thus gaining its first foothold into the shipbuilding industry. The Shipping Board's contract with WPS called for the building of eighteen vessels of about 5,650 tons each and four larger vessels of 8,800 gross tons. The larger vessels were eventually cancelled in 1918 but all eighteen of

560-787: A number of the destroyer escorts were cancelled by the Navy in favor of the LSM's, which were a much-needed type at the time. The cutters by contrast were a low priority and most were only completed after the war. As the war progressed and the Allies began to achieve dominance, the need for new ships diminished and shipbuilding contracts began to wane. However, existing ships were suffering damage in combat and needed repair. Some required only minor repairs while others were badly damaged and needed extensive work. Western Pipe & Steel received its first contract for ship repair work in October 1944. By August 1945

630-559: A pipeline for Everett, Washington . In the late 1930s, the U.S. government set up the Maritime Commission, tasked with developing a scheme for replacing America's ageing merchant fleet with more modern vessels suitable for use as naval auxiliaries in the event of war. The commission introduced the Long Range Shipbuilding Program in 1937 which set a goal of producing 500 new merchant ships over

700-811: A result they had a common flag. Among these companies were the Muhammadi Steamship Company Limited and the East & West Steamship Company . In the Indo-Pak war of 1971 Pakistan suffered a great loss, and most of Pakistani vessels were left in Bangladesh, because of having Bengali speaking crew on them. On 1 January 1974, President of Pakistan Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto nationalized the National Shipping Corporation and Pakistan Shipping Corporation, and formed

770-473: A standard Type C3 cargo ship when word came through that she was to be converted into one of the newly designed Bogue class escort aircraft carriers. The conversion was subsequently carried out and Steel Artisan briefly became USS  Barnes before being transferred under lend lease to the Royal Navy who dubbed her HMS  Attacker . Merchant marine A merchant navy or merchant marine

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840-609: A ten-year period. When the commission began to offer public contracts for its shipbuilding program, the Western Pipe & Steel Company found itself in an advantageous position. To begin with, the company's President, H. G. Tallerday, served on the National Labor Relations Board and thus had contacts in the Roosevelt administration. Moreover, the company's years of experience with heavy welding in

910-705: Is according to the annual maritime shipping statistics provided by the British government and the Department for Transport . British shipping is represented nationally and globally by the UK Chamber of Shipping . Canada , like several other Commonwealth nations, created its own merchant navy in a large-scale effort in World War II. Established in 1939, the Canadian Merchant Navy played

980-581: Is available concerning the fate of the San Pedro shipyard, except that it no longer exists. In the years following the end of the war, various proposals for the revamping of the San Francisco shipyard came and went. In 1949, the Navy Bureau of Ships proposed the building of sixteen attack cargo ships (AKA) at the shipyard, but by 1952 it was decided these vessels would not be required. Instead

1050-486: Is the fleet of merchant vessels that are registered in a specific country . On merchant vessels, seafarers of various ranks and sometimes members of maritime trade unions are required by the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW) to carry Merchant Mariner's Documents . King George V bestowed the title of the "Merchant Navy" on

1120-608: Is today engaged in commerce and transportation of goods and services universally. It consists of the merchant vessels owned by Greek civilians, flying either the Greek flag or a flag of convenience . Greece is a maritime nation by tradition, as shipping is arguably the oldest form of occupation of the Greeks and a key element of Greek economic activity since ancient times. In 2015, the Greek Merchant Marine controlled

1190-503: The Consolidated Wilmington shipyard . As at the San Francisco yard, these ways were all of the side-launching type. The most notable ships built at the San Pedro yard were the seven Wind class icebreakers , whose specifications were so imposing that Western Pipe & Steel was the only bidder. The yard also built a number of small warships including destroyer escorts , LSM 's and Coast Guard cutters . In 1943,

1260-684: The German auxiliary cruiser Michel off the Cape of Good Hope in September 1942. Eleven crew members were killed in the engagement but the remaining 47 were rescued by Michel , who turned them over to the Japanese as prisoners of war. In April 1944 eighteen survivors of American Leader were being transported on the Japanese hell ship Tamahoko Maru when the vessel was torpedoed and sunk by

1330-593: The Pacific campaign . Since 2008, 3 September has been officially commemorated as Merchant Navy Day , on the same day as the pre-existing Australian National Flag Day, which allows the Australian Red Ensign to be flown on land for the occasion as a matter of protocol, as an official recognition of the merchant navy's contribution in wartime. The Australian Merchant Navy Memorial in Canberra ,

1400-1213: The Pakistan National Shipping Corporation (PNSC) with the intent of reestablishing the Pakistan Merchant Navy. Later, the company was incorporated under the provisions of the Pakistan National Shipping Corporation Ordinance of 1979 and the Companies Ordinance of 1984. Today, the Pakistan National Shipping Corporation is the national flag carrier. The corporation's head office is located in Karachi. A regional office based in Lahore caters for upcountry shipping requirements. The corporation also has an extensive overseas network of agents looking after its worldwide shipping business. The Pakistan National Shipping Corporation also has several subsidiary companies. The Polish Merchant Navy ( Polish : Polska Marynarka Handlowa , PMH)

1470-676: The Richmond District of San Francisco, and moved the Francis Smith plant to the new location. In 1917 Western Pipe & Steel bought out another local San Francisco company, the Schaw Batcher Pipe Works. Schaw Batcher had frontage on San Francisco Bay and had just received a contract from the U.S. Shipping Board for the building of 22 merchant ships in accordance with the Board's strategic goal of developing

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1540-453: The Swiss flag . The United States Merchant Marine is made up of the nation's civilian-owner merchant ships and government owned ships ( Military Sealift Command , NOAA , Army Corps of Engineers , Department of Homeland Security ), and the men and women who crew them. The merchant marine transports cargo and passengers during peacetime. In time of war, the merchant marine is an auxiliary to

1610-550: The U.S. Shipping Board in World War I and took part in the construction of the giant Grand Coulee Dam project in the 1930s. The origins of the company are somewhat obscure. It appears it was organized in Los Angeles, California around 1907 by two brothers named Talbot and possibly a partner named T. A. Hays. Hays, a businessman with 21 years experience in the steel industry, was at some stage appointed Vice President of

1680-517: The US Navy joined the Maritime Commission in contracting work from Western Pipe & Steel. A Navy grant of $ 7 million enabled the company to establish a second shipyard ( 33°46′02″N 118°16′43″W  /  33.76728°N 118.27859°W  / 33.76728; -118.27859 ) with three building ways (later expanded to five) in the Port of Los Angeles West Basin , within spitting distance of

1750-491: The navy and can be called upon to deliver troops and supplies for the military . The people of the merchant marine are called "merchant mariners", and are civilians except in times of war, when, in accordance with the Merchant Marine Act of 1936 , they are considered military personnel. As of 2009, the U.S. merchant fleet numbered 422 ships and approximately 69,000 people. Not included in these numbers are

1820-596: The oil industry . Another factory was opened in Fresno in 1913. In 1915 a third new factory was established in Phoenix, Arizona to serve the agricultural and oil industries in that state. The company made its first move into San Francisco in 1910 with the purchase of a local riveted pipe manufacturer, the Francis Smith Company, whose own origins dated back to 1854. Shortly thereafter, WPS purchased land in

1890-428: The 1930s now put it in the enviable position of being one of only three companies on the west coast with sufficient expertise to immediately begin building ships with all-welded hulls. The company ranked 89th among United States corporations in the value of World War II military production contracts. The company's first bid - for the production of five C1 type cargo vessels - proved successful, and in October 1939

1960-611: The Atlantic and North Pacific trade, mostly this involved domestic and South Pacific cargos. New Zealand-owned ships were involved in trade with the United Kingdom (84% of all New Zealand exports in 1939) and the majority of New Zealand seamen had served with the British Merchant Navy. Over the course of the war, 64 ships were sunk by enemy action on the New Zealand–UK route, and 140 merchant seafarers died (a similar number were also taken prisoner). The Pakistan Merchant Navy

2030-516: The British merchant shipping fleets following their service in World War I ; since then a number of other nations have also adopted use of that title or the similar "Merchant Marine". In most jurisdictions, the concept can be equated with a road haulage company. Ships are the equivalent of the truck, and the crew the equivalent of the truck driver, tasked with ensuring the safe and timely delivery of

2100-417: The British were subsequently compelled to totally revise their convoy strategy. A number of warships built by Western Pipe & Steel distinguished themselves in wartime service. Perhaps the most notable of these was the escort carrier HMS  Fencer . One of the four escort carriers built by the company for service with the Royal Navy, Fencer was credited with the sinking of four German U-boats during

2170-645: The Korean War and two in the Vietnam War, and HMS  Stalker which received six battle honours for service with the Royal Navy in World War II. One WPS ship with a particularly interesting and varied history was Steel Artisan (WPS Hull No. 62). The first Type C3 ship to be built by the company, she was destined to undergo two major conversions and serve in three different roles during her service life. Launched in September 1941 under Maritime Commission contract, Steel Artisan had almost been completed as

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2240-490: The Navy proposed the building of several Landing Ships Dock (LSD), but a February 1953 survey concluded that the cost of modernizing the yard would probably be excessive. In the early 1970s, the yard briefly came to life again when Howard Hughes ' Summa Corporation began the construction of the Glomar Explorer and the large submersible barge HMB-1 , as part of the top-secret Operation Jennifer whose purpose

2310-608: The New Zealand Registry (many larger New Zealand vessels were however registered in London for insurance purposes). Some foreign vessels were impressed, including the four-masted barque, Pamir . New Zealand, like several other Commonwealth nations, created a merchant navy. However, the "wartime Merchant Navy was neither a military force nor a single coherent body", instead it was "a diverse collection of private companies and ships". Although some ships were involved in

2380-571: The San Francisco shipyard switched in 1940 to manufacture of the larger and faster C3 type , which had been expressly designed by the Maritime Commission with naval auxiliary service in mind. The C3s were to comprise the bulk of the company's manufacturing output in tonnage terms, with a total of 43 C3 hulls being produced by the company. Many of these hulls were not completed as standard C3 cargo vessels however, but were converted onsite (or at other yards) into naval auxiliaries, particularly escort carriers , attack transports and troopships . In 1941,

2450-433: The aesthetic appearance of the current structure was complete replacement of the suspender cables on a periodic basis (estimated at 20–25 years). A later study, completed in 2011, found that many components of the bridge were in good condition, with the notable exception of the original lead-based paint. The coating had failed, allowing some surface corrosion in many places. The 2011 study also found several fractured wires in

2520-562: The assets for $ 8.3 million to Columbia Steel, a division of US Steel, in 1948. Columbia Steel transferred the assets to a new division, Consolidated Western Steel, which was later merged into the parent company, U.S. Steel . Consolidated Western continued to manufacture pipes at facilities in Maywood and South San Francisco, including the material used in a gas transmission pipeline which ruptured in San Bruno in 2010 . Little information

2590-505: The biggest hydroelectric plant in the United States, this giant project was eventually to employ the services of 21 companies. Western Pipe & Steel was awarded the contract to build the dam's penstock and pump inlet pipes. These pipes were so large that they could not be transported to the site, and had to be manufactured onsite in a fabrication plant built expressly for the purpose. The first 18 penstock pipes were each 290 feet (88 m) long and 18 feet (5.5 m) in diameter, while

2660-561: The bridge was supplied by U.S. Steel, American Bridge Division in South San Francisco, California . The bridge was closed between May and July 1987 after three suspender cables (connecting the deck to the overhead suspension cable) failed. All of the suspender cables were X-rayed during the closure, and the three suspender cables, along with three neighboring suspender cables were replaced, with some damage noted to all suspender cables. A draft root cause investigation identified

2730-643: The cargo. The ship owner may be responsible for one vessel or a major fleet. The following is a partial list of the merchant navies or merchant marines of various countries. In many countries the fleet's proper name is simply the capitalized version of the common noun ("Merchant Navy"). During the First World War, the government requisitioned Australian merchant vessels for use as transport ships, hospital ships and cargo ships . During World War II, they were commissioned for use as hospital ships, supply ships and armed merchant cruisers, in particular in

2800-545: The company for the US Shipping Board in World War I, West Aleta was the last such ship to be fitted with the unreliable General Electric turbine motor. Delivered in August 1919, she made her maiden commercial voyage the same month and was subsequently drydocked for repairs. A second voyage resulted in more repairs, this time to a cracked turbine. The following January she commenced a new voyage, and on 13 February

2870-539: The company was able to report that a total of 118 ships had been repaired, with repairs taking an average of ten days per ship. But with the surrender of Japan in the same month, this work too came to an end. All shipbuilding contracts were signed during the war. A handful of ships that were still in the process of production upon the cessation of hostilities were completed in the immediate postwar period. This latter category included two icebreakers, five Type C3 cargo ships and eight high performance cutters. In addition to

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2940-757: The company's wartime shipbuilding program. Another major project undertaken by Western Pipe & Steel in the interwar years was for construction of the large calibre water transport pipes between the O'Shaughnessy Dam in the Hetch Hetchy Valley to the Crystal Springs Reservoir on the San Francisco Peninsula, and its subsequent extension from San Mateo to San Francisco. Today, the Dam supplies water to 2.4 million San Franciscans. The company also worked at this time on

3010-744: The course of the war - U-666 on 10 February 1944, U-277 on 1 May, and U-674 and U-959 on the same day, 2 May 1944. Fencer also participated in Operation Tungsten , the successful attack on the German battleship Tirpitz in April 1944. Some of the other warships built by Western Pipe & Steel which accumulated distinguished service records were USS  Bangust , a destroyer escort which won eleven battle stars during World War II, USS  Bayfield , an attack transport which received four battle stars in World War II, four in

3080-484: The interwar years. In this period the company also began to extend its operations into other regions. The Fresno factory was expanded and in the 1930s new operations were set up in the San Francisco peninsula, and at Grand Coulee and Seattle, Washington . Perhaps the biggest peacetime contract awarded to Western Pipe & Steel was for work on the Grand Coulee Dam project in the 1930s. Destined to become

3150-414: The isolated merchant vessels, sinking 25 of the convoy's 36 ships and putting PQ 17 into the history books as the greatest Russia-bound convoy loss of the war. One of the victims of the debacle was West Kader , then operating under the name of Pan Kraft . Pan Kraft was disabled by bombing near-misses and forced to be abandoned, after which she exploded and sank. The PQ 17 disaster proved so costly that

3220-429: The late 1970s). While all of these vessels were originally built with World War I service in mind, none were lost in that conflict, but of the nine which survived to see service in World War II, more than half were sunk by enemy action. Source: Mawdsley, pp. 95-114. While many of America's First World War emergency shipyards shut down at the end of the war, Western Pipe & Steel continued to grow its business in

3290-461: The loss of all 34 crew. Another ill-fated crew was that of American Leader (WPS Hull No. 58), who were collectively to endure no less than three ship sinkings during the Second World War. One of the five Type C1 vessels built by Western Pipe & Steel for its initial Maritime Commission contract, American Leader was delivered in July 1941 but only made a handful of voyages before being sunk by

3360-571: The national capital city of Australia, is a memorial honouring the Australian Merchant Navy's involvement in both world wars. The British Merchant Navy comprises the British merchant ships that transport cargo and people during times of peace and war. For much of its history, the merchant navy was the largest merchant fleet in the world, but with the decline of the British Empire in the mid-20th century it slipped down

3430-522: The new company, which in this period was a small- calibre steel pipe and metal casings manufacturer. An early President of the company was James A. Talbot , later to make and lose a fortune as the head of the Richfield Oil Company . Western Pipe & Steel quickly began to expand its operations. In 1910 it established a factory in Taft, California for the supply of pipes and containers to

3500-488: The postwar era. The company closed its Richmond operation in 1921 and moved the plant located there to the San Francisco shipyard, which now began building barges and pipes. During this period the company is reported to have built self-propelled fuel, gasoline and water barges, and both self-propelled and non-self-propelled covered lighters . The exact number is not known, but the company's hull number sequence suggests that as many as 34 such vessels may have been completed in

3570-446: The potential for fatigue and corrosion damage in the overhead suspension cables. The final root cause concluded in 1990 that the suspender cables had failed in fatigue at the top of the socket connector to the bridge deck. Since the fatigue was caused by swaying in the overhead suspension cables relative to the bridge deck, all suspender cables were potentially vulnerable to fatigue failure. The most cost-effective repair that would maintain

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3640-442: The rankings. In 1939, the merchant navy was the largest in the world with 33% of total tonnage. By 2012, the merchant navy held only 3% of total tonnage. As of the year ending 2012, British Merchant Marine interests consists of 1,504 ships of 100 GT or over. This includes ships either UK directly owned, parent owned or managed by a British company. This amounts to: 59,413,000  GT or alternatively 75,265,000  DWT . This

3710-457: The remaining three had the same length but a 6-foot (1.8 m) diameter. The twelve pump-inlet pipes were each 14 feet (4.3 m) in diameter. Fabrication of the pipes required more than nine miles (14 km) of heavy welds, and the experience gained was to help make Western Pipe & Steel a world leader in the field of automated welding technology by the outbreak of World War II - expertise that would be put to good use after commencement of

3780-510: The rest were scrapped by 1930. The remaining 10 vessels were fitted with triple expansion engines built by Joshua Hendy , a local San Franciscan company. The 2,800 horsepower (2,100 kW) Joshua Hendy plant proved much more reliable, and many of the vessels powered by this engine went on to have long careers (one of them in fact, the West Camargo , was to enjoy a remarkable service life of almost 60 years, finally being scrapped only in

3850-433: The smaller ships were completed, though few were built in time to see service in the war. All of the vessels were of riveted construction, in accordance with the available technology of the period. They had a length of 410 feet (120 m), a beam of 54 feet (16 m), a draft of 24 feet 2 inches (7.37 m), and a displacement of about 8000 tons. They ran on oil fuel and had a speed of 11 knots (20 km/h) and

3920-465: The southern main suspension cable, which were promptly tested to determine the root cause of failure (determined to be fatigue) and to effect immediate repairs. The bridge was closed on weekends in the summer and fall of 2014 to remove the original lead-based paint and give it a fresh coat of international orange. The repainting and other minor repairs were slated to cost in excess of US$ 3,000,000 (equivalent to $ 3,860,000 in 2023). The Guy West Bridge

3990-440: The submarine USS  Tang . Only five of the eighteen former American Leader crewmen on board survived the attack. In September of the same year, five of another party of nine former crewmates were killed aboard the Japanese hell ship Junyo Maru when she was torpedoed and sunk by HMS  Tradewind . Other crewmembers died in Japanese captivity. Of the original 58-man crew of American Leader , only 28 returned home from

4060-550: The vessels listed below, the company also produced eleven 500-cubic-yard (380 m ) dump scows for the US Navy during the war. These vessels were produced at the San Francisco shipyard and were for use at Midway Island in the Pacific. Sources for this section: Maudsley pp. 115–179, Colton Company website, Hyperwar website, see References below. With the dropping of the atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima ,

4130-448: The war ended abruptly and the amount of work available to shipyards across America rapidly declined. The glut of vessels produced by US shipyards during the war now led to a shakeup in the industry with many shipyards closing and others consolidating their operations. In late 1945, shortly after the war, the Western Pipe & Steel Company was sold for a sum in excess of $ 6.2 million to Consolidated Steel of California, which in turn sold

4200-649: The war. Another of the World War I-era WPS ships, West Kader (WPS Hull No. 11), found a niche in history as part of Britain's disastrous Convoy PQ 17 in 1942. PQ 17 set out from Iceland for the Russian port of Arkhangelsk in June 1942. When the convoy commander was informed the German battleship Tirpitz was on course to intercept, he decided to split up the convoy with disastrous results. German U-boats and aircraft were able to easily pick off

4270-508: The whole of its existence, and eventually these technical problems would be overcome. The channel and the four shipping ways were completed in only three months, and the keel of the company's very first ship, Isanti , was laid on 30 November 1917. The first eight of the ships were fitted with General Electric steam turbines with a horsepower of 2500, but the plant proved unreliable and was subject to frequent breakdowns. Some of these vessels were lost at sea after foundering due to breakdown, and

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4340-553: The world in terms of total DWT . India currently supplies around 12.8% of officers and around 14.5% of ratings to the world seafaring community. This is one of the highest of any country. India has many merchant shipping companies. Some of the prominent shipping companies in India are Great Eastern Shipping , Tolani Shipping, SCI now a private company, and Seven Islands Shipping which is an ownership company. In December 1939, 3,000 seafarers were employed and 186 merchant vessels were on

4410-465: The world's largest merchant fleet in terms of tonnage with a total DWT of 334,649,089 tons and a fleet of 5,226 Greek owned vessels, according to Lloyd's List . Greece is also ranked highly regarding all types of ships, including first for tankers and bulk carriers . The birth of the modern Indian Merchant Navy occurred before independence from the United Kingdom, when in 1919 SS Loyalty sailed from India to Britain. Today, India ranks 15th in

4480-554: Was acquired by Japanese interests and subsequently sold for scrap, bringing to an end a remarkably long career of 58 years. The worst peacetime disaster to befall a WPS ship occurred to West Cadron (WPS Hull No. 12). Launched in 1920, she was renamed the Iowa in 1928, and foundered and sank near Cape Disappointment at the mouth of the Columbia River (site of the notoriously treacherous Columbia Bar ) on 12 January 1936, with

4550-706: Was created in the interwar period when the Second Polish Republic regained independence. During World War II , many ships of the Polish Navy joined the Allied merchant navy and its convoys as part of the Polish contribution to World War II . After the war, the Polish Merchant Navy was controlled by the People's Republic of Poland and, after 1989, by modern Poland. As of 1999 , the PMH controlled 57 ships (of 1,000 GT or over) totaling 1,120,165  gross tonnage  (GT)/1,799,569 tonnes deadweight (DWT) including 50 bulk carriers , two general cargo ships , two chemical tankers , one roll-on/roll-off ship and two short-sea passenger ships . Switzerland, despite being

4620-418: Was formed in 1947. The Ministry of Railways and Communication (Port and Shipping Wing), Mercantile Marine Department and Shipping Office established by the Government of Pakistan . Who were authorized to flag the ships and also ensured that the vessels were sea worthy. All of the private shipping companies merged and formed the National Shipping Corporation (NSC) and the Pakistan Shipping Corporation (PSC) and as

4690-404: Was launched in 1920 and enjoyed an active service life as a commercial cargo vessel between the wars. In 1942, the vessel was acquired by the US government and transferred to the USSR under lend-lease , where she was renamed Desna . After the war, Desna remained in service with the Soviet Union as a special cargo vessel for the transport of fish, a role she retained until 1978. In that year she

4760-456: Was reported stranded in breakers northwest of Terschelling Island , the Netherlands . She subsequently broke up and was reported a total loss on 19 June 1920, having provided a mere six months of active service. The WPS ship with the longest service life was probably West Camargo (WPS Hull No. 16), another vessel built under the US Shipping Board's World War I contract. Fitted with the much more reliable Joshua Hendy triple expansion engine, she

4830-435: Was the salvage of a Russian nuclear submarine which had sunk in the mid-Pacific. Many of the details concerning this operation are still secret. In 1983, the site was sold to a commercial developer. Little evidence now remains of the shipyard which once existed there. Many of the ships built by Western Pipe & Steel were inevitably destined to relatively uneventful careers. Many of the Type C3 vessels, for example, played

4900-440: Was the subject of an episode of California's Gold in 2009. Western Pipe and Steel Company 37°40′00″N 122°23′35″W  /  37.66669°N 122.39315°W  / 37.66669; -122.39315 The Western Pipe and Steel Company ( WPS ) was an American manufacturing company that is best remembered today for its construction of ships for the Maritime Commission in World War II. It also built ships for

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