Misplaced Pages

#394605

24-785: SS Red Oak Victory is a U.S. Victory ship of the Boulder Victory -class cargo ship used in the Second World War . She was preserved to serve as a museum ship in Richmond , California , and is managed by the Richmond Library of History and located near the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park . She was one of 534 Victories built during World War II , but one of only

48-472: A Pacific Coast shipyard and there were three shipyards building Libertys and one building Victory ships for Britain" in which there is a clear distinction between the United States' "Liberty" construction and British "Victory" construction. One of the early "classifications" of the ship type had been as a "Liberty V" design, a term not apparently later used in a professional journal's references. Thirty of

72-677: A few of these ships to be transferred from the Merchant Marine to the United States Navy . She was named after Red Oak, Iowa , which suffered disproportionate casualties in early World War II battles. (Montgomery County ranked third among Iowa counties in World War II casualties per capita). The ship was active during World War II , the Korean War , and the Vietnam War . Red Oak Victory

96-657: The Philippines , she issued cargo and ammunition to various fleet ships through the war's end in August 1945. During a hazardous tour of duty in the Pacific, Red Oak Victory handled many tons of ammunition, supplying the fleet without a single casualty. Red Oak Victory was decommissioned in 1946 and returned to the U.S. Maritime Commission . Red Oak Victory was used by the Luckenbach Steamship Company from 1947 through

120-551: The "Ocean" ships for Britain, as yard hull numbers 1–30. The first vessel from this yard was Ocean Liberty launched 20 December 1941. On Sunday, 16 August 1942, five of the Ocean ships were launched on one day as the Liberty ship SS  Ethan Allen was launched at Todd's adjacent South Portland Shipbuilding Corporation and the destroyers USS  Conway and USS  Cony were launched at nearby Bath Iron Works Corporation for

144-730: The 1950s, when the vessel went to Japan, Korea, Cuba, Pakistan, India, Singapore, and Japan again. Red Oak Victory was operated by American Mail Lines for the Military Sea Transport Service from 1966 to 1968, making a dozen voyages to Vietnam, Japan, and the Philippines carrying military supplies loaded at West Coast ports. From 1968 until 1998, she was laid up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet in Suisun Bay . Destined to be scrapped, Red Oak Victory came to

168-498: The British Purchasing Commission for the construction of sixty cargo ships with thirty to be built at Todd California Shipbuilding Corporation in Richmond, California and thirty at Todd-Bath Iron Shipbuilding , South Portland, Maine . The ships, each estimated at $ 1,600,000, were to be built in entirely new yards with initial yard construction started 20 December 1940 and yard completion planned in four months with

192-502: The Oceans were built at Richmond, California's Yard #1 by Todd-California Shipbuilding , intended specifically to build "Ocean" ships for the British. All Oceans with name beginning with the letter "V" were built by means of electric welding at Richmond, California. The first Ocean type vessel launched was Ocean Vanguard on 16 August 1941. The launch, about two months earlier than scheduled,

216-699: The Richmond Museum of History and is associated with the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park . See also, similar role:- Empire ship , Fort ship , Park ship , Ocean ship . Victory ship Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.226 via cp1108 cp1108, Varnish XID 827079140 Upstream caches: cp1108 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Fri, 29 Nov 2024 08:34:30 GMT Ocean ship To expedite production,

240-606: The attention of the Richmond Museum Association in 1993. In 1996 Congress passed legislation authorizing the ship's conveyance to the Museum Association. Red Oak Victory was turned over to the Richmond Museum of History and towed to a new home in Richmond Shipyard 3 (near the location where Shipyard 1 was, where the ship was actually built in 1944) on 20 September 1998. She is being restored and operated by

264-487: The basis for the Ocean class of freighter. The 1940 contract for the Ocean type called for them to be built in United States yards. They were all nominally 7,174 GRT with a length of 416 ft (127 m) and a beam of 57 ft (17 m). The ships were powered by triple-expansion steam engines with cylinders of 24.5 feet × 37 inches × 70 inches bore and 48-inch stroke supplied with steam from three single-ended Scotch-type coal-fired boilers placed forward of

SECTION 10

#1732869270395

288-489: The engine for a design speed of 11 knots. This plant is described as being a modern version of one known when they first went to sea to marine engineers age forty-five or older and was chosen for the emergency ships by both the British Purchasing Commission and the United States Maritime Commission in part due to availability of repair in almost any port and so as to not compete with the surge in orders for

312-554: The first keels laid two and a half months after start of the yard construction. Each yard was estimated to need 5,000 or more workers. Henry J. Kaiser , then head of Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation , was to become president of the Todd California entity and William S. Newell, then head of Bath Iron Works , president of the Todd-Bath Iron Shipbuilding entity. On 14 January 1941 groundbreaking took place for

336-486: The fitting out docks, were all launched within fifteen minutes. The last three of the thirty ships from the Todd yard, Ocean Crusader , Ocean Gypsy , and Ocean Glory , were launched 18 October 1942, whereupon the basins were to be used to build additional Liberty hulls with four already under construction. Five Ocean ships were transferred to foreign governments during the war. Eighteen ships were lost to enemy action during

360-545: The largest mass launch at that time in the war shipbuilding program and largest in Maine's history. The five Ocean ships launched that day were hulls 19–24: Ocean Wayfarer , Ocean Stranger , Ocean Traveller , Ocean Seaman , and Ocean Gallant , with sponsors being wives of U.S. Senators, a Todd executive and directors of the British Ministry of Shipping. The ships, launched by flooding the construction basins and towing them to

384-604: The more modern geared turbine systems in demand for Naval and other construction. Electrical power was to be provided by single-cylinder, vertical steam engines powering two 25 kW generators. Emergency shipbuilding programs in Canada and the United States required over 700 standardized triple-expansion steam engines to be built in seventeen plants by a number of companies. A design of the North Eastern Marine Engineering Co., Ltd., of Wallsend-on-Tyne , England

408-510: The new yard on a 48-acre site at Richmond, with the keel for the first Ocean ship laid seventy-eight days later on 14 April. With a contract from the Maritime Commission for twenty-four emergency type ships of the Liberty class, Kaiser began construction of six ways at his nearby Richmond Shipbuilding Corporation yards four days later. The sunken basins in the Maine yard were the first in

432-651: The ships had "Ocean" names, but at the time of construction were sometimes referred to as British Victory ships as in the Berkeley Daily Gazette announcement on May 20, 1942 that "the Richmond Shipyards today are delivering a finished British victory ship—the Ocean Vengeance" or the Pacific Marine Review article in its January 1943 issue noting "there had been one delivery of a Liberty ship from

456-530: The type was based on an existing design, later adapted to become the Liberty ship . Yards constructed to build the Oceans went immediately into production of Liberty hulls. Before and during construction the ships are occasionally mentioned as "British Victory" or victory ships as distinct from the United States variant known as the Liberty ship. On 19 December 1940 John D. Reilly, president of Todd Shipyards Corporation, announced that contracts totaling US$ 100,000,000 had been signed between two Todd affiliates and

480-437: The world used to mass-produce ships. The Oceans were of steel construction with a welded hull to a design by naval architects Gibbs & Cox built to British Lloyd's requirements and specifications under the inspection Lloyd's Chief Surveyor in the United States. The design was based on the British "Sunderland Tramp ", which originated in 1879 and was last built 1939 by J.L. Thompson and Sons North Sands shipyard becoming

504-518: Was a significant event with the ship's bows decorated with flags of the two nations during which Rear Admiral Emory S. Land , Chairman of the Maritime Commission, delivering an address and his wife sponsoring the ship and Sir Arthur Salter representing the British purchaser and Henry J. Kaiser representing the builder. Thirty of the ships were built at Todd-Bath Iron Shipbuilding , South Portland, Maine , an emergency yard built by Todd, Bath Iron Works and Kaiser shipbuilding specifically to construct

SECTION 20

#1732869270395

528-633: Was acquired by the United States Navy on 5 December 1944, and commissioned the same day as USS Red Oak Victory (AK-235). Following a fitting-out period, Red Oak Victory was loaded with cargo and departed San Francisco for Pearl Harbor on 10 January 1945. Red Oak Victory departed Hawaii on 10 February loaded with munitions needed in the Marshall and Caroline islands. Sent onward from Enewetak , she arrived in Ulithi on 28 February and then began operating under Commander Service Squadron Ten . Operating out of

552-548: Was built by the Permanente Metals Corporation's Richmond Number 1 Yard in Richmond, California and launched on 9 November 1944. Victory ships were not intended to be long-lasting, but the welds of the Red Oak Victory remained intact after 76 years. The ship is 455 feet (139 m) in length, and armed with one five-inch/38 caliber gun ; one three-inch/50 caliber gun , and eight 20 mm guns. The ship

576-605: Was modified and standardized for mass North American production by the General Machinery Corporation with the British Purchasing Commission placing an order for sixty of the engines to power the Ocean ships with General Machinery Corporation which went in production as its standardized design and patterns were being sent to other builders. General Machinery delivered its first engine to Todd California Shipbuilding Corporation for installation in Ocean Vanguard . All

#394605