My father, Claude Love, died when I was just 6 months old. According to a short biography written by my mother, when mild color blindness kept him out of the Navy, he served in the MM during WWI aboard the USS Western Wave and, because that was a time before they were married, she couldn't provide much more information. I have searched the on line resources I could find concerning ship lists and Googled the ship name various ways but can't find any listing for this ship. Anyone out there know of the Western Wave or other resources that are available for me to research it? Any help would be appreciated.

My father, Clifford Blanchard, served on the Western Wave from August 1917 through April 1918. He was 16 when he signed up. I have a picture of the ship.

Perhaps they served together.

Sarah Blanchard

I found some information on this ship, indicating it had changed names a few times before being scrapped in 1939.

Built in 1886 named Cherokee; 1922 sold to Gulf & Southern SS Co., NY renamed Tampa, 1929 sold North American Fruit & SS Corp, NY renamed Western Wave, 1932 sold to J. A. Wilson, NY renamed Texan, 1939 scrapped. (Source: http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/lines/clydeline.htm - scroll to vessel name "Cherokee (1)")

SS Western Wave was listed as Arrived, from Liverpool, in this article from the New York Times: http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F60812F63A...

This is a link to a lawsuit in 1935, vs. the Port of New Orleans: http://174.123.24.242/leagle/xmlResult.aspx?xmldoc=193577277...

Most ships (when researching the Merchant Marine) were not commissioned by the US Navy, so Western Wave was probably called S.S. Western Wave, not USS. The S.S. (or s/s or stmr) usually refers to Steam Ship.

Best of luck in your research!

Nancy

Thank you for responding to my post. I would be very interested in seeing the picture you have. I have some pictures of my father being initiated with some crew members when they crossed the equator the first time and of some harbors they visited, including Valparaiso. Apparently, the ship had a collision with a German freighter and needed repairs there.

Dennis