Here are some particulars about SS CHARLES CHRISTENSON.
The ship was constructed by the J.F. Dutrie Company in Seattle, Washington, in 1919, and was originally named WEST HEPBURN. She was one of a number of ships built to the same design at the request and funded bt the U.S. Shipping Board, a federal government agency tasked with seeing that supply ships were built for use in World War I. WEST HEPBURN and a number of other ships were completed too late to serve in that war, and the government sold them or leased them to private shipping companies for commercial operation.
WEST HEPBURN was renamed CHARLES CHRISTENSON in 1927 after being sold to the Sudden and Christenson Steamship Company. Very likely a Charles Christenson was an official of that company and therefore the the ship was named for him.
I have found evidence that CHARLES CHRISTENSON was involved in trade between the West Coast of the U.S. and the Orient prior to World War II, and it is likely that she continued to serve in the Pacific during World War II, carrying cargo for the U.S. war effort. I have been unable to find information on any of her voyages.
Then in 1945, CHARLES CHRISTENSON was one of at least 123 ships that were given or leased to the Soviet Union as part of the Lend-Lease program. Operating for the USSR's merchant marine, she was renamed PLEKHANOV in 1945 and renamed again to PROFESSOR LOBACHEVSKIY in 1949, before being scrapped in 1956.
See http://shipbuildinghistory.com/history/shipyards/4emergencylarge/wwone/duthie.htm and scroll to hull number 25.
See http://www.shipsnostalgia.com/guides/Soviet_Merchant_Marine._Lend_Lease_Ships and scroll to Number 21.
While I have not found a photograph of CHARLES CHRISTENSON, I found one of what is probably an identical sister ship named WEST GRAMA. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USS_West_Grama_%28ID-3794%29.jpg.
I hope this information is useful.
Ron Carlson, Webmaster
Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website
www.armed-guard.com
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