The SS Empire Miniver was a British steam merchant ship. She was originally an American merchant, launched in 1918 as SS West Cobalt. During a brief stint in the United States Navy in 1919, she was known as USS West Cobalt (ID-3836). SS West Cobalt was built as a steam-powered cargo ship in 1918 for the United States Shipping Board (USSB). She was part of the West boats, a series of steel-hulled cargo ships built on the West Coast of the United States for the First World War war effort, and was the 11th ship built at Columbia River Shipbuilding Company in Portland, Oregon. Though she was completed too late for the war, she was commissioned into the Naval Overseas Transportation Service (NOTS) of the United States Navy as USS West Cobalt (ID-3836) in January 1919. After her one overseas trip for the Navy—delivering grain products to Danzig—she was decommissioned in May 1919 and returned to the USSB. West Cobalt had a relatively uneventful merchant career for the USSB and, after her 1933 sale, for the Lykes Brothers Steamship Company. In June 1940, West Cobalt was sold to British interests and renamed Empire Miniver. Just over four months later, the ship was torpedoed and sunk by while carrying supplies to the UK in Convoy SC 7 during the Second World War. Three crewmen were killed in the attack; the master and 34 others were rescued by a British corvette. Design and construction The West ships were cargo ships of similar size and design built by several shipyards on the West Coast of the United States for the USSB for emergency use during the First World War. All were given names that began with the word West, like West Cobalt, the ninth of some 30 West ships built by the Columbia River Shipbuilding Company of Portland, Oregon. West Cobalt (Columbia River Shipbuilding yard number 11) was launched on 26 October 1918, and was completed in December. West Cobalt was , and was long (between perpendiculars) and abeam. She had a steel hull that displaced 12,424 t with a mean draught of . Her hold was deep and she had a deadweight tonnage of . West Cobalts power plant consisted of a single steam turbine driving a single screw propeller which moved the ship at up to . US Navy career Upon completion of West Cobalt in December 1918, a month after