 West Cheswald had been selected to become one of the blockships for the Allied invasion of France , then in the planning stages . Though the specific modifications performed on West Cheswald are not revealed in sources , modifications for other ships do appear . In November 1944 , The Christian Science Monitor reported that blockships dispatched from Boston , like West Cheswald , had been loaded with " tons of sand and cement " and had been rigged with explosive charges before departing the port . Further , existing antiaircraft weapons had been moved higher up on the ship and supplemented by additional guns . An account by Cesar Poropat , chief engineer aboard West Honaker , another blockship dispatched from Boston , mentions that transverse bulkheads aboard that ship were cut open to facilitate sinking . 
