|
THE AMERICAN
VICTORY
(Tampa- 01 April 2006)
From the American Victory Website:
"The history of the SS American Victory is
a long and storied one, despite the fact that she spent much of her life in mothballs.
She has sailed the Seven Seas and was involved in World War II, the Korean
Conflict and the Vietnam war. Immediately following
World War II, the SS American Victory served as a sea going
“good will ambassador” for the United States, supplying foodstuffs,
vehicles and manufacturing machinery to the war torn countries of
Europe and Near East, under the auspices of the Marshall Plan.
The SS
American Victory, as her name implies, was one of 534 Victory
ships built between mid-1944 and mid-1946 to replace the venerable
Liberty class of merchant vessel."
Today a distinguished group of individuals, mostly volunteers are restoring this living piece of history to
authentic historical and seaworthy condition.
Port Tampa - April 1, 2006
-
Photos and story by Al Jacobson
The "American Victory" calls Tampa Bay, Florida home now. She is located just
aft of the Aquarium on the ship canal.
near the downtown and YBOR city. This is an all volunteer operation to restore the vessel
with as much accuracy and preservation in mind combined with the safety
and modern rules and regulations effecting a venue of this sort.
Just as she traveled the seven seas, the
diversification and usefulness of the American Victory is unlimited.
Here are some of the goals the organization hopes to attain.
-
Create a floating Memorial in tribute to
the Men and Women of the Merchant Marine.
-
Establish the American Victory Merchant
Marine Museum
-
As a Training Vessel: The American
Victory is also used by many Police SWAT, SCUBA, Marine and Fire
departments to train their teams for Homeland Security and Port
Protection.
-
Integration as hands on live learning for
the school systems of the state. -LIVING HISTORY-
-
Plans are underway for the ship to be
made "child friendly as an Explorer project for learning".
 It
is a Work In Progress:
This project requires as a many volunteers that can be
gathered. Those who own boats can attest to that. For every hour
on the water you need five on land we used to say. Multiply that by
455 feet of solid welded steel and 60 years of age. Needed are some with, but not limited to those with
licensed seagoing skills such as carpenters, pipe fitters, engineers, welders.
There's always the mundane routine aboard a steel ship in salt water
such as painting, rust removal, galley help (got to feed the workers)
and a little deck swabbing and broom usage on occasion. I have
to admit after several days aboard the American Victory, she is well
named, she could of been called "the American Spirit" as with this team
the spirit is alive and well.
The day started early after weeks of fitting, fixing, fine
adjustments, storing provisions and making her seaworthy for the
cruise. Passengers were arriving at embarking at 7:00 AM and
were greeted by a Color Guard comprised of re-enactors dressed in the
appropriate uniforms of the era. You could feel after 36
hours of preparation for "making steam" that she wanted to be free of
the lines holding her to the dock. If you noticed at the stern the
prop was making slow rotations from either the tide or engine bleed.
A good sign. You felt life breathing into pipes and arteries that have laid dormant for
the past several months.
After all were aboard, the gangways retracted, two large harbor tugs
from Marine Towing came alongside and the command was given to "single the docking lines",
parlance for removing the doubled and triple lines at each bollard down to the bare
single minimum. Upon signals from the bridge, the final dock lines
were released and the tugs gently pulled the "American Victory" from her
berth behind the Tampa Aquarium into the channel. We were free from
the dock.
 With her Captain and Tampa Harbor Pilot aboard coordinating
movement via VHF with the tugs and dock crew, a traditional and brief ceremony
was held for the shifting of the colors, the ensign at the bow was
lowered and the Flag raised. We edged into the ships
channel. Coupled with two Tugs guiding her through the narrow
confines and escorted by the Tampa Bay Sheriff's Department, the
American Victory worked her way out of the ships channel. At
the outer marker, the
Captain and Harbor Pilot released the tugs at the main channel and we were off.
Note: There are some 155 plus Photos are at
www.pbase.com/ajacobs2
American Victory. Most of those have now been converted to high
resolution so you may download them and print them. Up to
8x10's may be secured from the author simply by contacting Al Jacobson
and making arrangements. Using Paypal and other means 8x10's may be
sent directly to a Sam's near you. All funds collected by Al will be
donated to the ship's general fund or used when she is in scheduled
dry dock.
We slowly edged our way through the main ships channel escorted by the
Hillsboro County Sheriff's Department and a smaller Tug provided by Marine
Towing. They stayed with us throughout the voyage to insure a backup
in case of anything happening. With time and a few miles under her belt,
she felt almost relaxed settling in more like a long distance runner than
a 100 yard sprinter. The engine gently pushing her with more and more
confidence and additional knots. Soon we were making about 82 shaft
revolutions per minute or 12-13 knots. at 100 SRPM she'll make
an honest 17 knots. The longer she ran, the smoother she sounded.
With enough Bunker fuel on board to go 25,000 miles we were secure
we'd make the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.
During this week I received excellent briefings from the engineers,
some engineering students and some who actually served on the vessel. They
say men love their toys, this is a much higher level. They
do the actual licensed work on the sixty three year old engine, boilers, and gearboxes
with big reductions. With the engine assembly mid ships, the power to the
prop comes by way of the 166 foot shaft which sits on seven pedestal's. They
all remarked what fine shape the vessels is in, spoken with pride from
those who put some of the 80,000 hours into her refurbishment.
It was estimated we were cruising close to 13.5 knots. With cargo aboard,
the Victory class merchant ship was sometimes capable of 17-18 knots. We only had about
3/4 of our prop in the water and were light, so "pouring on the coals"
might not of increased our speed since we were high in the water. A vessel
of this size is
not the same thing as maneuvering or captaining, a 20-25 foot out drive pleasure
craft. This is real Maritime and a whole new ballgame for this
sailor to fathom. (pun intended). This meant some research. From websites,
the library, and mariners I learned about this class of vessel.
History:
The America Victory is a Victory ship, think of
it as a second generation Liberty Ship.
- Liberty ships were the workhorses of World War II.
They are the largest class of civilian-made warships ever built. Simple
square-hulled vessels. All welded and pounded into shape. Huge presses
bent the steel into shape.
- The average one was built in 50-60 days. With as many
as 16 ports contributing to building Liberty ships, there were launches
almost every few days. Sixteen American shipyards built 2,751 Liberties
between 1941 and 1945, easily the largest number of ships produced to a
single design.
- They were standard simple utilitarian vessels,
no frills, no pools, rock climbing walls, social directors, on board
entertainment possibly consisted of card games and maybe a guitar.
- Their sole purpose was to get needed
war supplies of almost every size and nature from the production here in
the United States to the front lines. They carried
diversified cargo in their decked holds of guns, grain, mail, ore and
ammo, trucks and troops in huge convoys that crossed the Atlantic to the
front. Allies, They were part of Roosevelt's famous ''bridge of ships''
from the New World to the Old.
- One is credited with a "kill". The Liberty ship
SS Stephen Hopkins, which sank a German commerce raider in a
ship-to-ship gun battle in 1942 and became the first American ship to
sink a German surface combatant.
- With upgrades, these
vessels were to be designated as OCEAN Class ships. Sixty British Oceans were built in this
country (30 each at Portland, Maine, and Richmond, California).
- The U.S. Maritime Commission made a number
of alterations to the British "OCEAN" design. Some alterations were made
to conform to American manufacturing and shipbuilding standard.
- They were designated Emergency ships.
The formal name is EC2-S-C1. One of the more
common nicknames was 'Ugly Duckling'. There were a few others.
- The first of the new ships, the SS PATRICK HENRY, was
launched in 1941. It was launched by President Franklin D. Roosevelt who
referred to
Patrick Henry's speech of March 23, 1775, that ended with the phrase
"give me Liberty, or give me death." The President told the country that
these ships would bring liberty to Europe. From then on, they were known
as 'Liberty Ships.'
- There were some variants. a tanker
version, a landing ship configuration, changes to power plants etc.
The Improved Victory Class:
The Victory class was larger, mostly turbine powered steam, and faster
than the Liberty ships. In particular they had a higher speed of 15 to 17
knots (28 to 31 km/h) and greater range. The Liberty Class's slower cruise
speed (11 knots) left them vulnerable to the Nazi submarines who could
overtake the fleets at night by riding on the surface. With a fine raked
bow and a "cruiser overhang stern", ( about thirteen feet worth) to help
achieve the higher speed, the Victory's had quite a different
appearance to Liberty ships.
 The additional speed came from design changes and improved engines over
the Liberty's triple expansion steam engine — with Lenz type reciprocating
steam engines, steam turbines and a few variants with diesel engines with
a power output between 6000 and 8500 horsepower (4.5 and 6 MW).
It takes about two plus days to get "steam up". That means to an operational
440 pounds per square inch. (PSI) First, diesel fuel gets the
boilers going as the Bunker C grade fuel is the consistency of molasses.
Molasses doesn't flow so it is preheated through a system of pipes and it
will then aspirate and become usable as fuel. For the Saturday cruise they
started making steam on Thursday.
It also had electrically powered auxiliary equipment. The Victory class were oil fired,
although some Canadian vessels were completed with both bunkers and oil
tanks so that they could use coal or oil.
Also the Victory class were a little stouter in the
armament department which was comprised of one 5 inch naval gun (127
mm) mounted on
the stern for anti-sub or surface use and one 3-inch AA gun forward. This vessel is accompanied by two 3-inch
(76 mm) anti-aircraft guns mounted one in the foc'sle (that secure area raised in the bow
which comes from the term "forward castle") and another in the stern just
aft of the 5-incher.
Most had one 3-incher. The side decks could mount 20mm cannons if
needed for aircraft or surface defense. These weapons were manned by United States Naval Armed Guard
personnel, members of the United States Navy. On the American
Victory, the quarters for the NAG were aft right alongside the aft
armament for easy access.
Another area of improvement was the hull
itself. Many Liberty ships had suffered fractured hulls. They were
strengthened. Victory ships measured 455 feet long, 62 feet wide with a 25
foot draft. They were about 109 feet in height.
Back to the cruise:
The live band played on with familiar music of the times, the guests had a fine continental breakfast, as
the ship worked it's way free to the turning channel and then the larger channel to Tampa Bay. Many of
those taking the six hour cruise had a chance to tour the vessel and with
six decks of accessible levels and 455 feet of length there was plenty to see. Just
the line handling and tug exit from the dock were interesting and went off
without a hitch. But as we headed out of port, you started looking deeper
into the vessel. The living conditions, the bunks, the galley, the
Captains quarters, the wheelhouse, chartroom, the various
compartments for maintenance, and the communications room where "sparks
"was to be found. During the voyage the "sparks team sent messages
around the world and some were received back from as far as Afghanistan, I
believe.
The first impression is one of "pure business", the myriad of fifteen ton
booms and the single massive fifty ton boom near the mizzenmast attest to that.
The winches and block and tackle were for loading and off loading thousand
of tons of cargo to support the troops in the war. The design allowed for
different configurations and utility whether off loading to a secure dock
or smaller craft or the portable floating docks the British used.
The five independent holds of the ship were sealed, no internal doors to
the holds. Access to the cargo was from the top
via the winches, booms and some really claustrophobic ladders. The closed
cell hold design made sense
for strength, seaworthiness, cargo protection, and to ward off extending
damage from enemy torpedo or
surface action attacks.
As part of the modernization as a museum, during the refurbishment sea
doors were added between holds, there are five holds, allowing easy access
for the visitors. The cargo holds offer a unique and clever layout
for it's time. In today's world we either use drive on- drive off ramping
or use containers with computer driven cranes and flatbed trailers. None
of which was available back in the forties.
Cargo was loaded in the holds in the lowest level of the ship. When that
deck space filled, steel cross members were placed and cross-filled with a wood plates
 and this created another deck. Think of it as building a tiered
cake. Then the hold was sealed with "batten down the hatches".
Battens stretched across the top of the hold, sealed the ships cargo for
the rough seas to be encountered. Large triangular wedges locked and
secured the top in place. This is what this vessel was born and
lived for...
There were many events scheduled during the cruise. Continuous live
music, guest appearances and demonstrations by the re-enactors, and
look-alikes Joan Crawford and Rita
Hayworth spent a lot of time mingling with the passengers. There
were live gun demonstrations by the re-enactors of the troop weaponry used
in those days, followed by a solemn wreath ceremony near the Skyway Bridge
in memory of those who gave the ultimate price for freedom. The
ceremony included a 21 gun salute by the re-enactors, a beautiful poem and
invocation read by the ships Chaplain, and the placement of the wreath in
the sea.
Diving out of the sun came two aircraft from Albert Whitted airport making sustained low passes in
formation about as close as one can to the ship. The vintage correct and
immaculate T-6 (Texan) built by North American is one of the most
important aircraft of all time
 in
continual production for nearly 10 years and in active use for more than
five decades primarily as a trainer. The markings red-yellow-red I believe
are Spain. The other Warbird, the T-28 (Trojan) was originally
designed to replace the T-6 trainer. It was first flown on September 24,
1949, and entered production in 1950. When production ended in 1957, a
total of 1,948 of these had been built. These aircraft put on an exciting
show well appreciated by the passengers and crew alike. Being built in the
forties kept the authenticity of the entire show.
We managed to get some nice photos literally
from stem to stern, from port to starboard and from the bilge to the
deckhouse. About 90%
of the text is supported by almost 150 photos at Pbase which is an
online photo holding site.
www.pbase.com/ajacobs2
then click on the thumbnail at American Victory.
Please visit official
website: www.americanvictory.org
Additional
Photos are at
www.pbase.com/ajacobs2 American Victory |
