Tampa Bay’s Historic SS American Victory

By William E. Males

One of Tampa Bay’s historic treasures is the SS American Victory, a historic 1945 WWII merchant ship. This sixty four year old proud ship is now moored at her new home berth adjacent to The Florida Aquarium at Tampa Bay Port. Thanks to the efforts and donations of many volunteers, the SS American Victory has been restored to close to the beauty she once was, when she was delivered to the U.S. War Shipping Administration on May 24, 1945 by the California Shipbuilding (Calship) Yard at Los Angeles, California.

 Her original assignment was to the U.S. Army at Fort Mason, California where she was sent to Los Angeles and other West Coast cities to be loaded with military cargo. On her official inaugural trip she sailed to Manila in the Philippines and then to Shanghai, China to discharge her cargo. Later she set sail for Calcutta and Port Said, Egypt and returned in January 1946 to New York.

The SS American Victory was given her name to honor the contributions to war training and weapons research by American University in Washington, DC during both World War I and World War II. There where many shipyards on the east and west coasts in the early and mid 1940s which were mass producing both Liberty and Victory merchant ships at a record pace to meet war effort supply demands. This was a time when the American industrial machine was demonstrating the heart and determination of the Americans as they worked to meet the demands necessary to secure and maintain both the liberty and victory of which these ships were appropriately named. The SS American Victory was the 442nd ship constructed by Calship alone, and was given hull designation of No. 792 by the U.S. War Shipping Administration.

 In early February 1946, she had a guarantee survey in Stapleton, New Jersey which required her to be placed into dry-dock in Hoboken, New Jersey. After a brief dry-dock period she then sailed to New York and received a fresh load of military cargo sailing on to make several port calls in the Caribbean and throughout South America, including Trinidad, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Montevideo, Uruguay and Buenos Aires and all the way to Argentina. After returning back to the United States she had an annual survey in New York in June 1946 and was then chartered by American Export Lines until November 1947. It was during this time that the SS American Victory sailed under the American Export Lines flag to Europe, Russia and the Near East under the support of the Marshall Plan.

 It is recorded that after leaving port in Odessa, the SS American Victory sailed through rough winter waters of the Black Sea and North Atlantic. It was on her outbound trip from Odessa in January 1947 that the captain of a Soviet icebreaker attempted to order Captain Cushman of the SS American Victory to delay his departure since the Black Sea was icebound and the icebreaker needed more time to clear the ice. Nonetheless, Captain Cushman rejected the order and set sail using the SS American Victory as an icebreaker and successfully led several other ships out of the harbor and into the ice, including Soviet icebreaker Turgenev. However, though the attempt was successful, it proved hard on the SS American Victory as the engines were rigorously taxed by the continual reversing of the engines to work her way through the ice. Upon her return to Boston, this required her to be placed in dry-dock for hull repairs.

 For a brief time the SS American Victory was chartered by U.S. Navigation Company as she supplied American and United Nations troops during the Korean War. Her initial purpose was carrying the much needed military cargo, vehicles and equipment from ports throughout the United States and Japan through the conclusion of the Korean War, at which she was assigned to dismal task of returning the bodies of 370 GIs who lost their lives defending freedom in Korea.

 Upon her return to the United States the SS American Victory was de-activated and was placed into the Sabine River Reserve Fleet until her reactivation for the Vietnam War in 1966. Back in service the SS American Victory sailed from the U.S. on several occasions to Europe and the Far East carrying necessary ammunition, military equipment and supplies to South Vietnam and Southeast Asia. With a capable cruise speed of 17 knots the Victory ships were the preferred work horse of the merchant mariners.

 One trip in September 1967 from Yokohama, Japan, the SS American Victory set sail for South Vietnam loaded with 400 tons of creosoted telephone poles, military vehicles, and boxes of ammunition. Very soon after her departure from Japan the ship encountered a typhoon and suffered considerable damage when a door to the emergency generating room sprung open allowing sea water to flood the room and shorted out the emergency switchboard. This resulted in a fire which cause the loss of the ship’s main electric plant for several hours. Due to the rough seas and high winds the upper deck was also damaged by the telephone poles requiring the SS American Victory put into Buckner Bay in the Okinawa Islands for repair.

The SS American Victory literally circumnavigated the world while supplying American troops in Vietnam, making port calls to Capetown, South Africa, to Battaan in the Philippines, as well as Sattahip, Thailand and other ports. On her return trip, she sailed to Pearl Harbor for fuel and then sailed through the Panama Canal and up to Norfolk, Virginia, where the voyage ended. She was de-activated on October 24, 1969 and placed in the James River Reserve Fleet near Norfolk. There she stayed as a “mothballed ship” until she was chosen to participate in a government-sponsored Victory Ship Validation Program in March 1985.

The intent was to determine the time and expense it would take to ready mothballed Victory ships and bring them to full operational status. After going through a $2.5 million restoration, the SS American Victory again proudly sailed for 26 hours before returning to her point of anchorage in the James River Reserve Fleet, and was returned to in-active status on June 24, 1985, where she has remained until 1999.

Nowadays the American Victory is one of only four in the United States that is still operational. This sixty four year old proud ship is available to the public for tours or even private events in a unique venue. The crew welcomes you and would be happy to host your corporate or private event aboard this historic icon of our nations Maritime history.

To be continued . . .