SS Navajo Victory

SS Navajo Victory was a cargo ship built during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding program. It was completed by the California Shipbuilding Company on June 30, 1944 and served in the Pacific during World War II. Victory Ship class vessels were designed to replace the Liberty Ship class. Victory Ships were designed to last longer and to serve the US Navy after the war. The Victory Ships were faster, longer, wider, and taller than the Liberty ships, and they had a thinner stack set farther toward the superstructure as well as a long raised forecastle.[2]

Typical Victory Ship.
History
United States
Name:	SS Navajo Victory
Namesake:	Navajo City, New Mexico and Navajo, Arizona
Owner:	War Shipping Administration
Operator:	Luckenbach SS Company 1944, American Mail Line 1966
Builder:	California Shipbuilding Company, Los Angeles
Laid down:	March 5, 1944
Launched:	May 2, 1944
Completed:	June 30, 1944
Identification:	IMO number: 5247940
Fate:	Scrapped in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, 1985
General characteristics
Class and type:	VC2-S-AP3 Victory ship
Tonnage:	7612 GRT, 4,553 NRT
Displacement:	15,200 tons
Length:	455 ft (139 m)
Beam:	62 ft (19 m)
Draught:	28 ft (8.5 m)
Installed power:	8,500 shp (6,300 kW)
Propulsion:	HP & LP turbines geared to a single 20.5-foot (6.2 m) propeller, by Westinghouse Electric & Mfg. Co., Essington
Speed:	16.5 knots
Boats & landing craft carried:	4 Lifeboats
Complement:	62 Merchant Marine and 28 US Naval Armed Guards
Armament:	1 × 5 inch (127 mm)/38 caliber gun as Victory ship 1 × 3 inch (76 mm)/50 caliber gun 8 × 20 mm Oerlikon
Notes:	[1]

Launch

The SS Navajo Victory was christened by Mrs. Tom Price, wife of the general manager of Kaiser Shipyards; the matron of honor was Mrs. Frank Backman. The SS Navajo Victory was the 15th Victory Ship built by the California Shipbuilding Corporation, it was one of 218 Victory Ships named after cities in the United States.[3]

World War II

SS Navajo Victory conducted supply operations in the Pacific Ocean throughout the war under the operation of the Luckenbach SS Company. On October 18, 1944, it entered Palau with another cargo ship, the SS Sea Pike, escorted by a Marshall Islands-based destroyer, USS Brackett, for protection.[4] On November 29, 1944, the SS Navajo Victory and the SS Sea Pike delivered troops and supplies from Ewa Villages, Hawaii, to Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 323.[5] Navajo Victory also delivered supplies for the liberation of The Philippines,[6] and for the USS Floyd County, an American tank landing ship.[7][8] On December 29, 1944, it supplied fleet ships at Seeadler Harbor, Manus Island.[9] On January 16, 1945, it unloaded troop rations at New Guinea for the troops stationed there.[10] It prepared for Operation Downfall, the invasion of Japan, from June 26 to August 15, 1945, with exercises at Leyte. The training exercises were halted after the surrender of Japan on August 15.

Postwar

From 1946 to 1949, the SS Navajo Victory served as a relief ship, a fleet supply ship and as part of the National Defense Reserve Fleet in Astoria, Oregon.[11]

Korean War

SS Navajo Victory served as a United States Merchant Marine vessel during the Korean War. It made nine trips to Korea between November 18, 1950 and December 23, 1952 transporting mail, food, and other supplies,[12] and assisted in the transport of the 140th Tank Battalion. Merchant marine ships transported roughly 75% of all personnel to Korea.[13][14][15]

Menestheus rescue

On April 16, 1953, Navajo Victory received a distress call from the cargo ship SS Menestheus, a 7,800-ton British freighter. Menestheus had departed Balboa, Canal Zone, on April 5 en route to Long Beach Harbor with a cargo of rice. An explosion in the engine room (which occurred when the Menestheus was about 90 miles northwest of Magdalena Bay and 130 miles west of Baja California) started a fire which forced the crew to abandon ship. The crew of 80, who were in the lifeboats by the time of Navajo Victory's arrival, were rescued by the Navajo Victory and taken to San Diego. The Navajo Victory towed the Menestheus for nearly 500 miles but was eventually forced to abandon her.[16][17]

Navajo Victory sat idle in Astoria, Oregon until 1966.

Vietnam War

In 1966 the Navajo Victory was reactivated for the Vietnam War. It was operated by the American Mail Line.[18][19]

After the war in 1973, it was laid up in Suisun Bay as part of the National Defense Reserve Fleet as part of the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet. It was scrapped at Kaohsiung, Taiwan, in 1985.[20]

See also

• List of Victory ships
• Liberty ship
• Type C1 ship
• Type C2 ship
• Type C3 ship

References

1. Babcock & Wilcox (April 1944). "Victory Ships". Marine Engineering and Shipping Review.
2. National parks, Reading 2: Victory Ships
3. /shipbuildinghistory.com, Victory Ships
4. On Patrol in the Marshall Islands 1944-45. A partial history of U.S.S. BRACKETT DE--41, by William L. Roberts
5. A HISTORY OF MARINE FIGHTER ATTACK SQUADRON, by Colonel Gerald R. Pitzl, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, page 14.
6. History of United States Naval Operations in World War II: The Liberation of The Philippines By Samuel Eliot Morison
7. USS LST-762 Operational Records - Navsource
8. Victory Ships
9. DECK LOG BOOK & WAR DIARY, CONDENSED, USS DENVER, CL 58, DECEMBER 1, 1944 TO DECEMBER 31, 1944
10. War Diary - Michael K. Wood home page 16th Ohio Volunteer Infantry
11. REGULAR MEETING OF TIE BOARD OF Port of Oakland
12. The Times from San Mateo, California · Page 1, August 8, 1952
13. Small United States and United Nations Warships in the Korean War, By Paul M. Edwards
14. Korean War Educator, Merchant Marine, Accounts of the Korean War
15. Small United States and United Nations Warships in the Korean War, By Paul M. Edwards
16. The Baytown Sun from Baytown, Texas · Page 1, April 16, 1953
17. Long Beach Independent from Long Beach, California · Page 8, April 17, 1953
18. The American Legion Magazine, Volume 81, No. 1 In July 1966
19. Vietnam War, A Fight for Honor: The Charles Kerkman Story, By Michael Ireland, page 31
20. Mariners, The Website Of The Mariners Mailing List. Victory Ships

Sources

• Sawyer, L.A. and W.H. Mitchell. Victory ships and tankers: The history of the ‘Victory’ type cargo ships and of the tankers built in the United States of America during World War II, Cornell Maritime Press, 1974, 0-87033-182-5.
• United States Maritime Commission:
• Victory Cargo Ships