USS Eastern Light

USS Eastern Light (ID-3538) was an Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) Design 1127 cargo steamship that was built in Japan in 1918 for the United States Shipping Board (USSB). From December 1918 to April 1919 she spent five months in the United States Navy. In 1926 she was sold and renamed Willkeno. She was renamed Isthmian in 1937 and Illinoian in 1939. in 1944 she was scuttled off the coast of Normandy as Blockship 485.

Building
The Osaka Iron Works Company in Innoshima, Hiroshima built Eastern Light as yard number 951. The USSB paid $2,408,625 for her, plus $23,035 for "Repairs and Equipment". She was completed in September 1918. Her lengths were 429 ft overall and 415.0 ft registered. Her beam was 55.5 ft, her depth was 34.6 ft, and her draft was 27 ft. Her hull had Isherwood-type longitudinal framing. Her five holds had capacity for 574349 cuft of grain, or 524918 cuft of baled cargo. Her tonnages were, , , and 12,105 tons displacement.

Eastern Light had a single screw, driven by a three-cylinder triple-expansion engine. It was rated at 553 NHP or 3,200 ihp, and gave her a speed of 10+1/2 kn. Her permanent bunkers had capacity for 390 tons of coal, and her reserve bunkers had capacity for 1,058 tons. Burning an estimated 60 tons of coal per day, this gave her a range of 1612 nmi on permanent bunkers, and 6047 nmi on total bunkers. The USSB registered Eastern Light in Seattle. Her US official number was 217292 and her code letters were LPBH.

Osaka Iron Works built four sister ships for the USSB to the same EFC Design 1127. Eastern Knight and Eastern Mariner were completed in 1919, followed by Eastern Admiral and Eastern Sailor in 1920.

USS Eastern Light
The US Navy acquired the ship from the USSB on 6 November 1918, and had her converted for naval use at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington. On 6 December she was commissioned as USS Eastern Light, with the Naval Registry Identification Number ID–3538.

Eastern Light loaded flour and other stores at Tacoma, and left Seattle on 29 December. She reached Norfolk, Virginia on 9 February 1919, and loaded cargo for the United States Food Administration. She crossed the North Atlantic, called at Falmouth, Cornwall on 13 February, and reached Rotterdam on 5 March. Her cargo was transhipped onto barges for the Commission for Relief in Belgium.

Eastern Light returned to the USA ballasted with sand. She called en route at Plymouth, England, and reached New York on 10 April, after a crossing of 16 days. On 16 April the Navy decommissioned her and returned her to the USSB.

Willkeno
In November 1926 the American Merchant Marine Steam Ship Corporation announced that it would buy Eastern Light, Eastern Admiral, and Eastern Mariner for $175,000 each. It intended each ship to carry cargoes of 5000000 ft of lumber. And it intended to convert each ship from coal to oil fuel. They were renamed Willkeno, Willboro, and Willzipo respectively, as the company was in joint liability with the Williams Steam Ship Corporation. The three ships were registered in Wilmington, Delaware.

In 1928 the Williams SS Corp absorbed the American Merchant Marine SS Corp, and registered the ships in New York. By 1934 Willkeno's wireless telegraph call sign was WKII, and this had replaced her code letters.

Isthmian and Illinoian
In 1937 the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company acquired Willkeno, Willboro, and Willzipo and renamed them Isthmian, Coloradan, and Washingtonian respectively. Also by 1937, Isthmian's navigation equipment included wireless direction finding. In December 1937 the American–Hawaiian SS Co announced that it was laying up three ships including Isthmian, and was considering laying up two others.

In 1939 the American–Hawaiian SS Co renamed the ship Illinioan. In July 1941 Illinoian took war materiél to India. On 7 December 1941 she was under way from New Orleans to Baltimore when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.

In June, July, or August 1944 (sources differ), Illinioan was scuttled off Omaha Beach to reinforce the Gooseberry 2 breakwater.

External link

 * – photograph dated 3 May 1919, but probably in fact 5 March 1919