The S.S. Central Victory
The S.S. Central Victory
Adapted from text by Dr. Robert Wiegers.
Ceremony for Launching of the S.S. Central Victory
Even in the midst of a U.S. Pacific war with Japan, it was impossible to hide the four Kaiser Permanente shipyards located at Richmond, California. Each yard with several ship building ‘ways’ were a round-the-clock operation, employing so many shift workers the local merchants learned to stay open all night. The Kaiser yards were building ships so fast one wit claimed they were “turning out ships by the mile and cutting them off by the yard” (Gilford 2011:3). The Kaiser yards reduced ship building time from almost a year to 60 days or less. After an additional 30 days for final outfitting and test cruise, the ship was ready for service in less than 100 days from keel to sea.
A typical launching ceremony, ultimately held 747 times at the Kaiser Permanente yards, was planned for a new Victory Class ship at Yard Number 2 on Saturday night at 11:15 pm. The size of the Kaiser complex and press of launchings allowed a late night launch of the 400th ship constructed in Yard Number 2 alone. This lucky vessel was about to be christened the S.S. (steam ship) Central Victory, hull number 736, on March 10, 1945 (Central Collegian 1945). To fully appreciate the date this is what a worker at the shipway in Yard Number 2 knew about the Pacific and European theaters in 1945; the war in Europe would drag on into 1946 or later. Current news from the war in Europe was that the Allies had beaten back a German assault in the February Battle of the Bulge but had yet to cross the Rhine River into Germany proper. Every worker in Yard Number 2 would have been shocked to learn the European war would end in roughly three months on 5 June, 1945. On the Pacific side of the war the Permanente workers, waiting for the launch of the 400th vessel, knew of battles against the Japanese who were fighting tenaciously on the Pacific island of Iwo Jima and in the seas and skies around the Philippine Islands and Japan itself. They could not have imagined the Pacific war ending within half a year on 6 August, 1945 or understood the mushroom cloud over Hiroshima that would end the war.
What the proud workers at the Permanente Yard Number 2 did know was that this ship was about to slide into the waters of San Francisco Bay completing their part of the war effort. The late night ceremony included a short address by dignitaries and a representative of the Central Victory namesake, Central College. A tall uniformed Colonel B. I. Lawrence, professor of psychology on leave from Central College, approached the microphone and spoke about the ship and its name over a national radio net.
Colonel Lawrence in a 3-minute speech drew a parallel between the ship behind him and the college which was its namesake. In his remarks he proclaimed that the determination of the Methodist men and women of Missouri to found Central College in 1854 was equal to this generation’s determination to build fleets and win this war. Because of this common resolve Colonel Lawrence claimed this ship is the symbol of “the faith, hopes, [and] ambitions” of Central College equal to the same aspirations and sacrifices that built “the great colleges” in past times (Central College Bulletin 1945).
Colonel Lawrence was a veteran of the Great War and the first to propose a connection between Central College and the new Victory Class ship. He recognized the Central Victory as simultaneously representing the power of American industry and Central College’s part in this crusade against evil. The Central Victory may indeed be the quintessential symbol of that era for Central College, as Colonel Lawrence suggested, but it is not memorialized on campus or remembered in connection with the Navy V-12 Officer Training Program.
How Big is Big?
Unlike most symbols, the Central Victory at 10,800 tons is monumental in size. Due to its immense proportions it is helpful to compare the Central Victory against an easily recognized yardstick, a football field gridiron. If the Central Victory were floated onto a football field, the length of the ship from one goal line is a football field and a half long at 455 feet, turning the vessel to parallel either goal line its width reaches to about the near 21 yard line or 62 feet wide, and placing the ship on its side with the main deck on either goal line the keel would rest on the near 13 yard line or 38 feet. The distance from the keel to the top of the mainmast is 147 feet or the near 48 yard line. Symbols in war time are a morale booster but a ship in the post-war world quickly loses significance. The Central Victory as a symbol would be better known if it were a person who had visited campus, or given a speech in Linn Memorial Chapel. But metaphorically the Central Victory completes the war time cycle of Central men participating in Navy officer training to eventually commanding a ship possibly like the Central Victory, the only manufactured article to carry the Central College name in World War II.
The Ship
SS Central Victory
The Central Victory was typical of her class of ships. Her keel was laid on the 27th of January, 1945. She was launched on that March evening ceremony at Yard Number Two in 1945. In total the ship spent 43 days on the slipway and 26 fitting out for a total build time of 69 days at a cost to the government of $2,536,432 (Cooper, 2000). On 23 April, 1945 The Central Victory was given her “Final Guarantee Survey Board” where small items were noted and corrected and she was ready for duty (Claude 1946).
Service Life
Her only wartime voyage, under Captain James Ralph Reichel, include the first trips to the Pacific Islands with cargo for the allies preparing to invade Japan, on to Pearl Harbor, Eniwetok, Guam, Tinian, Saipan and others. With the end of the war she carried cargo to West Coast ports for the American Hawaiian Steam Ship Company until she was put into a Reserve Fleet in Mobile, Alabama in 1948. The Korean conflict reactivated her in 1950 for trips to Japan and Korea for the Waterman Steam Ship Corporation. In 1952 she is leased to the American Foreign Steam Ship Company with repeated trips to Japan and Korea where she earns two Battle Stars.
In 1953 the Central Victory went into the Reserve Fleet at Suisun Bay, California until 1966 when she undergoes rehab at a cost of $838,735.87. The Weyerhaeuser Steam Ship Company leases the Central Victory for voyages to Viet Nam (Chung 1966). Between 1969 and 1990 she is moved around the Reserve Fleet at Suisun Bay until November, 1993 when she is sold for scrap.
A sampling of countries and ports the Central Victory visited include the Philippine Islands; Guam; Portland, Oregon; Mukilteo, Washington; Saipan; Pearl Harbor; Gedney Island; Seattle Washington; Colon, Panama; New York; Mobile, Alabama; Pusan, Korea; San Francisco; and Saigon, Vietnam,
Naming
Ships have been named since antiquity, and early in the war, it became a clever way to attract public attention to the vital shipbuilding program. By the time the Liberty program began building ships in 1941 and Victory ships in 1943, naming vessels was in the hands of a Ship Naming Committee appointed by the Maritime Commission.
Victory Class
The Victory Class of cargo ships was born out of the Quality concept of ship building at the Maritime Commission. By 1943 the U-boat threat was controlled enough that planners could shift to envisioning the post-war world. From the beginning the Liberty Class was considered too small and slow for commercial shipping after the war. The Victory Class ships, designed in 1943, were basic but a little bit larger and appreciably faster than the Liberty, making them a better fit for commercial purposes after the war (Jaffee 2006).
Originally designed in April 1943 the Victory Class was 445 feet long and 63 feet across the beam. The width caused a problem in 1943 because shipyards were not built with slipways wide enough for a 63 foot design so a compromise width was 62 feet (Jaffee 2006:5). So the Victory Class was to be 14 feet longer, 5 feet wider, allowing 1,000 tons more displacement, and more powerful engines (Jaffee 2006:11, 35). A Victory Class ship had the capacity to handle up to 2,000 men, or 440 light tanks, or 2,840 jeeps. The official designation for this new class of ships, using the Central Victory as an example is VC2-S-AP2. Dissecting the code means “V” for Victory Class, “C” for cargo, “2” for hull size (400 to 449 feet), “S” for steam propulsion, “AP” are design letters for type of ship hull, and “2” indicates the second version of the class. Not only was the Victory Class faster and larger but it was more comfortable with better amenities for the crew.
Although Liberty and Victory Class ships were designed to be merchant vessels, during war time all were armed against surfaced submarines and aircraft. The Central Victory carried the typical allotment of a 5”-38 caliber cannon mounted on the stern and a 3”-50 caliber cannon on the bow. Scattered around were eight 20 mm Oerlikon cannon, two aft, 4 around the central cabin area and 2 forward. With the Japanese surrender the Central Victory Armed Guard of naval personnel was ordered on 2 October, 1945, to dump all ammunition in deep water. The Central Armed Guard executed this order on 3 October, 1945 by throwing overboard 41,593 rounds of ammunition from .45 caliber pistol ammunition to 5 inch cannon rounds in water over 150 fathoms (900 feet) deep (Grabruck 1945).
The Victory class followed the general guidelines of the Liberty class naming process. The choice of institution was selected from a list of approved names based on historical background and for their role in the war effort. All Victory Class ships were named from a list of qualified nations, towns, or schools followed by the name “Victory.” The first Victory ship of 534 built was named the SS United Victory launched on 28 February, 1944. The next 34 Victory Class ships were named for Allied nations; the next 218 were named after American cities, but the next 150 were named after educational institutions (Lane 2001:66-71). Many of the 131 colleges and universities with named ships were institutions with V-12 programs.
Other Missouri Victory Ships
Several Missouri cities without V-12 programs have Victory ships named after them. Possibly the most famous is the SS Hannibal Victory, typical of her class and war time record. The Hannibal Victory was selected to be the focus of a wartime documentary film to publicize the importance of shipping. On a voyage to the Philippine Islands the Hannibal Victory carried a cargo of dry goods, railroad carriages and eight full size locomotives and their tenders each pair weighing 75 tons, secured to the upper deck (Thompson 2004).
Of the Missouri V-12 schools only two have Victory class ships named after their institutions the SS Central Victory and the SS Park Victory. Had the war continued more Missouri schools might have been so honored, but up to the end of the war only two out of the seven V-12 schools in the state were selected for Victory ship names. Unfortunately, both are only a memory. The Park Victory foundered in a snow storm on Uto Island in the Gulf of Finland on 25 December, 1947. Full of coal bound for Helsinki the ship broke in half and sank in 20 minutes taking 10 of her crew with her. The fate of the Central Victory is less dramatic. After years of service during Korea and Vietnam and in the Reserve Fleet at Suisun Bay, California, the now 48 year old hull was sold for scrap on November 19, 1993 (Vessel Status Card 2000).
In World War II four Victory ships were lost in action. Three of these, the Logan Victory, Hobbs Victory, and Canada Victory, were part of the armada of ships supplying the invasion of Okinawa. All three were victims of the infamous Kamikaze pilots. The Victory ship E. A. Bryan Victory tragically exploded at Port Chicago, California ammunition facility with great loss of life. Today only two remain, the SS Lane Victory in San Pedro, California, and the American Victory anchored at Tampa, Florida.
End
Although the Central Victory no longer exists, its memory does reside in a few passages in the histories of Central Methodist University. Aside from a few artifacts and other memorabilia, like the 5-foot brass Pelorus compass manufactured by the Sperry Gyroscope Company, the Central Victory is lost to the past. But in its time in history the campus and ship shared a bond that is significant for those who know how Central College survived during the Second of two world wars.