SS Sea Owl

SS Sea Owl was a Type C3-S-A2-based troop transport built during World War II for operation by the War Shipping Administration which saw service in the European Theater of Operations.

SS Sea Owl
History
Name: SS Sea Owl
Builder: Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, Mississippi
Laid down: 22 July 1943
Launched: 17 December 1943
Acquired: 27 June 1944
In service: 1944
Out of service: 1946
Homeport: New Orleans
Fate:
  • Sold into merchant service, 1946
  • Scrapped, 1971
General characteristics
Displacement: 8027 GT, 4670 NT
Length: 492 ft 0 in (149.96 m)
Beam: 69 ft 7 in (21.21 m)
Draft: 29 ft 5 in (8.97 m)
Propulsion: 2 Westinghouse geared turbines, 2 combustion engineering "D"-type boilers, single propeller
Speed: 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph)
Capacity: 180,500 cubic feet, 4,500 tons cargo
Troops: 2,156
Armament:
Notes:
  • Vessel #: 245730
  • Hull Type: C3-S-A2
  • MC Hull#: 407
  • USMC Hull #: 863
  • Call letters: WPIT
C3-S-A2 troop transports were designed to carry roughly 2,100 troops. Here 1,958 arrive in Boston from Europe, 26 July 1945
Type C3-S-A2 Troop Transport with similar mast configuration

At times mistakenly termed USAT Sea Owl,[1][2] she shared her name with a Balao-class submarine USS Sea Owl (SS-405), commissioned on 17 July 1944.

SS Sea Owl was one of an undetermined number of "Sea" prefixed C3-S-A2 transports built by Ingalls Shipbuilding and Western Pipe and Steel Company between 1943 and 1945. She was sold in 1947 to Isthmian Lines and operated commercially as the SS Steel Scientist until 1971.

History

Construction and operation

SS Sea Owl was laid down[3] 22 July 1943 as a Type C3-S-A2 ship for the U. S. Maritime Commission as MC hull 407 by the Ingalls Shipbuilding Corporation of Pascagoula, Mississippi. She was launched on 17 December 1943, and converted to a 2,156 troop transport (USMC Hull #863) by Ingalls for operation by the War Shipping Administration.[4] She was delivered to the WSA 6 June 1944, which contracted ship handling to the American Export Lines.[4]

In World War II (1944–1945)

As a transport allocated to the U.S. Army SS Sea Owl was crewed by United States Merchant Marines, protected by a contingent of the US Naval Armed Guards, and had a complement of the US Army Transportation Corps (Water Division) aboard for troop administration.[5]

SS Sea Owl's shakedown cruise was from Pascagoula to New York City, followed by a steam to Newport News, Virginia, to pick up her first troop complement, an Army battalion headed for Naples.[6]

Units transported

Units transported by the Sea Owl included:

  • The 55th Armored Engineer Battalion of the 10th Armored Division, departed New York POE 12 September 1944, arrived Cherbourg France, 23 September.[7]
  • 289th Engineer Combat Battalion, departed New York 22 October 1944, arrived Bristol, England, 1 November 1944.[8]
  • 1240th Engineer Combat Battalion (same as above).[9]
  • 1251st Engineer Combat Battalion (same as above).
  • 385th Infantry Regiment (76th Infantry Division), left Boston POE 23 November 1944, arrived Southampton 4 December 1944.[10]
  • 661st Tank Destroyer Battalion of the 63rd Infantry, left New York 9 January 1945, arrived Le Harve, France 23 January 1945.[11]
  • 57th Fighter Group, departed Naples 6 August 1945, headed for deployment in the Pacific Theater. Just before the Panama Canal the Japanese surrendered was announced and the Sea Owl turned around and arrived in Boston on 18 August 1945.[12]
  • 644th Tank Destroyer Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division,[13] France to Newport News, Virginia, late 1945.[14]

The SS Sea Owl was also used to transport German POWs to the United States.[15]

In mercantile service (1947–1973)

Sea Owl was transferred to the Maritime Commission in 1946. A $282,00 contract for conversion into a cargo ship was awarded to J.K. Welding Co., of Yonkers, NY, to be completed in 70 calendar days. In 1947 she was sold to Isthmian Lines of New York.[4]

Beginning in 1947 it operated in Isthmian service as SS Steel Scientist hauling cargoes from Asia principally to U.S. Gulf ports carrying jute, gunnie sacks, shellac, and other materials. She was sold to Taiwan Shipbreakers, arrived at Kaohsiung 9 July 1971 and scrapped during that month.[4]

Footnotes
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    See also

    References
    1. History of the 57th Fighter Group "Group departs Italian soil aboard USAT Sea Owl bound for the Pacific Theatre."
    2. Roster of Armed Guards on U.S. ships in World War II "USAT SEA OWL"
    3. Shipbuilding History "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 5 April 2016. Retrieved 8 September 2015.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) In 1943, the hull numbering system was changed, with hull #s 400-499 assigned to Pascagoula for Maritime Commission contracts
    4. Isthmian Lines ship S.S. Steel Scientist
    5. United States War Department (1944). FM 55-105. United States Department of War. p. 12 Section 14, Allocated Vessels, Diagrams following p. 64.
    6. Cullinan, George, Sea Grapes and Rattlesnakes, Bloomington, IN, 2004, p. 124 "I signed on as Second Mate on July 27, 1944. We left the shipyard and took her on a shakedown cruise up the Atlantic coast to New York, then down to Newport News to load our -live cargo, which seemed like an entire army battalion. She was a beautiful ship on the outside, but below the main deck every inch of space was filled with triple-decker bunks. It was so crowded that many of the GIs took refuge on the main deck for much of the voyage. We were part of a convoy transporting a full Army division to Naples."
    7. Stone, Herb, Bio at 10th Amored Division Veterans Western Chapter, 30 January 2010: "The division headed north to Camp Shanks in New Jersey and on Sept. 12, 1944 the 55th AEB departed the U.S. on a banana boat called the Sea Owl. Eleven days later we disembarked in Cherbourg, France"
    8. Passage dates per "Travels of the 289th"
    9. 1270th Engineer Combat Battalion: Introduction (citing National Archives)
    10. 1944 World War II Troop Ship Crossings
    11. History of the 661st Tank Destroyer Battalion
    12. 57th Fighter Group of WWII: Pictures
    13. 644th Tank Destroyer Battalion
    14. WWII SS Sea Owl troop ship paper for returning GIs 644 Tank Destroyer BN
    15. Sipes, Greg, The Transformation of the Soul, Bloomington, IN, 2008, p. 69. "It's late December 1944. The small ship aboard which I am stationed is docked at Le Havre, France. We just unloaded the war materials carried from America to re-supply our forces during the "Battle of the Bulge," the battle that was the fiercest and one of the final battles of the war in the European theater of operations. The ship, the S.S. Sea Owl, relatively unarmed and with a crew of about forty-five, is now empty and preparing for the return trip to the United States. The word comes that we will be transporting fifteen hundred to two thousand German prisoners of war back to the States....The German soldiers come aboard in single file over the narrow gangplank."
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