West Point Barges

Two sunken steel wrecks known as the West Point Barges (aka the Four Mile Rock Barges) were former Navy LSMs (Landing Ship Medium). LSM-429 and LSM-473 were operated as freight barges (O & H 45 and O & H 125) by the Pioneer Towing Co. Both vessel foundered on 8 November 1973 for reasons unknown. The 203 ft barges are laying side by side in about 90 ft of water.

The following two descriptions are from the book “World War II U.S. Navy Vessels in Private Hands” by Greg H. Williams.

LSM-429. Built in 1945 by the Dravo Corp., Wilmington, Delaware.
Commissioned on February 16, 1945, under Lt. Samuel G. Atkinson, USNR. Operated in the Pacific and decommissioned on January 1, 1947.
Registered in 1958 by the Hugo Neu Corp., 45 Nassau St., New York, as the 961-ton tugboat LSM-429, call sign WJ7110.
Registered in 1959 by Alaska Freight Lines, Inc., Seattle Washington, as the 961-ton tugboat LSM-429, call sign WJ7110.
Registered in 1961 by Pioneer Towing Co., Inc., 5001 E. Marginal Way South, Seattle, Washington, as the 516-ton freight barge O & H 45, call sign WJ110. Foundered on November 8, 1973, about 1 mile west of the Four Mile Rock Light, Puget Sound, Washington. The O & H 125 was lost also. Official number 275744.

LSM-473. Built in 1944 by the Brown Shipbuilding Corp., Houston, Texas.
Commissioned on March 24, 1945, under Lt. Raymond Arthur Johnson, Jr., USNR. Operated in the Pacific and decommissioned on May 6, 1946.
Registered in 1959 by the American Tug Boat Co., 1318 Grand Ave., Everett, Washington, as the 551-ton freight barge A.T.B. No. 61, homeported at Seattle.
Registered in 1970 by the Pioneer Towing Co., Inc., 5001 E. Marginal Way, Seattle, Washington, as the 551-ton freight barge O & H 125. Foundered on November 8, 1973, about 1 mile off the Four Mile Rock Light in Puget Sound, Washington. The O & H 45 was lost also. Official number 278373.

The West Point Barges were surveyed by NOAA Survey Launch S1212 in 2006-2007. Survey ID H11605.