SS Elmira Victory
Typical Victory Ship.
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| History | |
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 United States |
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| Name: | SS Elmira Victory |
| Namesake: | Elmira, New York |
| Owner: | War Shipping Administration |
| Builder: | Oregon Shipbuilding Company |
| Laid down: | March 25, 1944 |
| Launched: | May 12, 1944 |
| Completed: | May 31, 1944 |
| Fate: | Scrapped |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & 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) |
| Draft: | 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 |
| Speed: | 16.5 knots |
| Boats & landing craft carried: |
4 Lifeboats |
| Complement: | 62 Merchant Marine and 28 US Naval Armed Guards |
| Armament: | |
| Notes: | [1] |
The SS Elmira Victory was a Victory ship built during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding program. It was built and launched by the Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation on May 12, 1944 and completed on May 31, 1944. The ship's United States Maritime Commission designation was VC2-S-AP3 and hull number 105 (1021). The ship was Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation's 21th victory ship. The Maritime Commission turned it over for Merchant navy operation to a civilian contractor, the Isthmian Steamship Company under the United States Merchant Marine act for the War Shipping Administration. Named after the city of Elmira, New York.[2]
Victory ships were designed to supersede the earlier Liberty Ships. Unlike Liberty ships, Victory ships were designed to serve the US Navy after the war[3] and also last longer. The Victory ship differed from a Liberty ship in that they were: faster, longer and wider, taller, and had a thinner stack set farther toward the superstructure. They also had a long raised forecastle.
Contents
World War II
On 12 January 1945 at 8:00am off the west coast of Luzon Philippines, Kamikaze plane attacked and damaged the Elmira Victory. At the time she was being operated by the Alaska SS company. She has just steamed from Kossol Roads in a convoy. The first Kamikaze plane crashed into her #5 cargo hold cover and did minor damage. But, a second plane hit the ship's side near the superstructure. A bomb on the plane exploded and started a fire on the deck and a life boat. The fire dropped into hold #4, which held bombs, but the crew was able to put the fire out before any detonate. The same day, 12 January 1945, near Elmira Victory kamikazes damaged the destroyer escorts USS Richard W. Suesens (DE 342) and the USS Gilligan (DE-508). Also the damaged was the transport USS Zeilin (APA-3), and the Landing Ship, Tank LST-700. The USS Zeilin lost 129 of her 506 Army troops, being transported. Shells on the destroyer escorts exploded and did some damage to the Elmira Victory also. Six Elmira Victory crew members were injured in the plane explosion, there was no lose of life in attack.[4]
After the war in 1949, Elmira Victory was laid up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet at the Hudson River and later transferred to Suisun Bay National Defense Reserve Fleet. In 1993 she was scrapped.[5]
See also
References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ shipbuildinghistory.com Merchant ships Victory ships
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ United States Merchant Marine Casualties of World War II, rev ed. By Robert M. Browning, Jr., page 356
- ↑ mariners-l.co.uk, 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: [1]
- Victory Cargo Ships [2]
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