 Ocean Traveller launch, August, 1942 | |
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Builders |
|
| Operators | Ministry of War Transport |
| Built | October 1941 – November 1942 |
| In service | 1941–1985[note 1] |
| Planned | 60 |
| Completed | 60 |
| Lost |
|
| Scrapped | 33 (including two ships lost to enemy action and subsequently salvaged) |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Cargo ship |
| Tonnage | 7,174 GRT |
| Length | 416 ft (127 m) |
| Beam | 57 ft (17 m) |
| Installed power | Triple expansion steam engine |
| Speed | 11 knots (20 km/h) |
TheOcean ships were a class of sixtycargo ships built in the United States byTodd Shipyards Corporation during theSecond World War for the BritishMinistry of War Transport under contracts let by theBritish Purchasing Commission. Eighteen were lost to enemy action and eight to accidents; survivors were sold postwar into merchant service.
To expedite production, the type was based on an existing design, later adapted to become theLiberty ship. Yards constructed to build the Oceans went immediately into production of Liberty hulls.[1][2] 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 totalingUS$100,000,000 had been signed between two Todd affiliates and the British Purchasing Commission for the construction of sixty cargo ships with thirty to be built atTodd California Shipbuilding Corporation inRichmond, California and thirty atTodd-Bath Iron Shipbuilding,South Portland, Maine.[3] 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 the first keels laid two and a half months after start of the yard construction.[3] Each yard was estimated to need 5,000 or more workers.[3]Henry J. Kaiser, then head ofSeattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation, was to become president of the Todd California entity and William S. Newell, then head ofBath Iron Works, president of the Todd-Bath Iron Shipbuilding entity.[3]
On 14 January 1941 groundbreaking took place for 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.[4][5] With a contract from the Maritime Commission for twenty-four emergency type ships of theLiberty class, Kaiser began construction of six ways at his nearby Richmond Shipbuilding Corporation yards four days later.[5]
The sunken basins in the Maine yard were the first in the world used to mass-produce ships.[2]
The Oceans were of steel construction with a welded hull to a design by naval architects Gibbs & Cox built to BritishLloyd's requirements and specifications under the inspection Lloyd's Chief Surveyor in the United States.[3] The design was based on the British "SunderlandTramp", which originated in 1879[note 2] and was last built 1939 byJ.L. Thompson and Sons North Sands shipyard becoming the basis for the Ocean class of freighter.[6] The 1940 contract for the Ocean type called for them to be built in United States yards.[1][3][6][7]
They were all nominally 7,174 GRT with a length of 416 ft (127 m) and a beam of 57 ft (17 m).[8] The ships were powered bytriple-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 the engine for a design speed of 11 knots.[4] 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 theUnited 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 the more modern geared turbine systems in demand for Naval and other construction.[4] Electrical power was to be provided by single-cylinder, vertical steam engines powering two 25 kW generators.[4]
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.[9] A design of the North Eastern Marine Engineering Co., Ltd., ofWallsend-on-Tyne, England 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.[9] General Machinery delivered its first engine to Todd California Shipbuilding Corporation for installation inOcean Vanguard.[9]
All the ships had "Ocean" names, but at the time of construction were sometimes referred to as British Victory ships as in theBerkeley Daily Gazette announcement on May 20, 1942 that "the Richmond Shipyards today are delivering a finished British victory ship—the Ocean Vengeance" or thePacific Marine Review article in its January 1943 issue noting "there had been one delivery of a Liberty ship from 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.[10][11] 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.[4][note 3]
Thirty of the Oceans were built at Richmond, California's Yard #1 byTodd-California Shipbuilding, intended specifically to build "Ocean" ships for the British.[12] All Oceans with name beginning with the letter "V" were built by means of electric welding at Richmond, California.[13]
The first Ocean type vessel launched wasOcean Vanguard on 16 August 1941.[14] The launch, about two months earlier than scheduled, was a significant event with the ship's bows decorated with flags of the two nations during whichRear Admiral Emory S. Land, Chairman of the Maritime Commission, delivering an address and his wife sponsoring the ship andSir Arthur Salter representing the British purchaser and Henry J. Kaiser representing the builder.[15]
Thirty of the ships were built atTodd-Bath Iron Shipbuilding,South Portland, Maine, an emergency yard built by Todd, Bath Iron Works andKaiser shipbuilding specifically to construct the "Ocean" ships for Britain, as yard hull numbers 1–30.[16] The first vessel from this yard wasOcean Liberty launched 20 December 1941.[16]
On Sunday, 16 August 1942, five of the Ocean ships were launched on one day as the Liberty shipSS Ethan Allen was launched at Todd's adjacentSouth Portland Shipbuilding Corporation and the destroyersUSS Conway andUSS Cony were launched at nearbyBath Iron Works Corporation for the largest mass launch at that time in the war shipbuilding program and largest in Maine's history.[17] The five Ocean ships launched that day were hulls 19–24:Ocean Wayfarer,Ocean Stranger,Ocean Traveller,Ocean Seaman, andOcean Gallant, with sponsors being wives of U.S. Senators, a Todd executive and directors of the British Ministry of Shipping.[17] The ships, launched by flooding the construction basins and towing them to the fitting out docks, were all launched within fifteen minutes.[17] The last three of the thirty ships from the Todd yard,Ocean Crusader,Ocean Gypsy, andOcean Glory, were launched 18 October 1942, whereupon the basins were to be used to build additional Liberty hulls with four already under construction.[2]
Five Ocean ships were transferred to foreign governments during the war.[8]
| Country | Ship |
|---|---|
 Belgium | Ocean Veteran |
 Netherlands | Ocean Athlete Ocean Merchant Ocean Victory |
 Poland | Ocean Hope |
Eighteen ships were lost to enemy action during the war, although two were later salvaged and returned to service.
| Ship | Details |
|---|---|
| Ocean Courage | Torpedoed on 15 January 1943 and sunk byU-182 about 200 miles south of theCape Verde Islands.10°52′N23°28′W / 10.867°N 23.467°W /10.867; -23.467 (Ocean Courage).[18] |
| Ocean Crusader | Torpedoed on 26 November 1942 and sunk byU-262 about 330 miles northeast of St. John’s, Newfoundland50°30′N45°30′W / 50.500°N 45.500°W /50.500; -45.500 (Ocean Crusader) with the loss of all hands.[18] |
| Ocean Freedom | Bombed on 13 March 1943 by theLuftwaffe and sunk atMurmansk. Refloated on 1 June 1943 and beached in theKola Inlet where she was scrapped.[18] |
| Ocean Honour | Torpedoed and sunk by Japanese submarineI-29 on 16 September 1942 at12°48′N50°50′E / 12.800°N 50.833°E /12.800; 50.833 (Ocean Honour)[18] |
| Ocean Justice | Torpedoed and sunk byU-505 on 6 November 1942 east ofTrinidad at10°06′N60°00′W / 10.100°N 60.000°W /10.100; -60.000 (Ocean Justice).[18] |
| Ocean Hunter | Torpedoed and sunk by Luftwaffe aircraft on 10 January 1944 at36°07′N00°11′W / 36.117°N 0.183°W /36.117; -0.183 (Ocean Hunter).[18] |
| Ocean Might | Torpedoed and sunk byU-109 on 2 September 1942 at00°57′N04°11′W / 0.950°N 4.183°W /0.950; -4.183 (Ocean Might).[18] |
| Ocean Peace | Bombed and sunk by aircraft on 12 July 1943 off Sicily at36°55′N15°13′E / 36.917°N 15.217°E /36.917; 15.217 (Ocean Peace).[18] |
| Ocean Seaman | Torpedoed while in convoy from North Africa to Gibraltar on 15 March 1943 byU-380 at36°55′N01°59′E / 36.917°N 1.983°E /36.917; 1.983 (Ocean Seaman). Towed byUSSPaul Jones and beached atAlgiers,Algeria but declared a total loss.[18][19] |
| Ocean Vagabond | Torpedoed and sunk byU-186 at57°17′N20°11′W / 57.283°N 20.183°W /57.283; -20.183 (Ocean Vagabond) on 10 January 1943.[13] |
| Ocean Vanguard | Torpedoed on 17 September 1942 and sunk byU-515 at10°43′N60°11′W / 10.717°N 60.183°W /10.717; -60.183 (Ocean Vanguard).[13] |
| Ocean Venture | Torpedoed on 8 February 1942 and sunk byU-108 at37°05′N74°46′W / 37.083°N 74.767°W /37.083; -74.767 (Ocean Venture).[13] |
| Ocean Venus | Torpedoed and sunk byU-564 on 3 May 1942 at28°23′N80°21′W / 28.383°N 80.350°W /28.383; -80.350 (Ocean Venus).[13] |
| Ocean Viking | Struck amine on 11 October 1943 at40°19′N16°59′E / 40.317°N 16.983°E /40.317; 16.983 (Ocean Viking) and badly damaged. Scuttled as a breakwater atBari, Italy in January 1944. Salvaged in 1947, repaired and returned to service.[13] |
| Ocean Vintage | Torpedoed by Japanese submarineI-27 on 22 October 1942 sinking at21°37′N60°06′E / 21.617°N 60.100°E /21.617; 60.100 (Ocean Vintage).[13] |
| Ocean Virtue | Bombed by theLuftwaffe offAugusta, Sicily, 21 July 1943, caught fire and sank. Salvaged later that year and later rebuilt as acargo liner.[13] |
| Ocean Voice | Torpedoed on 22 September 1942 and sunk byGerman submarine U-435 at71°23′N11°01′W / 71.383°N 11.017°W /71.383; -11.017 (Ocean Voice).[13] |
| Ocean Voyager | Bombed by the Luftwaffe on 19 March 1943 offTripoli, Libya. This ship was sunk in the first mass attack by the Luftwaffe usingMotobomba circular torpedoes. 72 of the circling torpedoes were dropped by parachute at medium altitude fromJunkers Ju 88s intoTripoli Harbor. Captain Duncan MacKellar was killed outright when one of the circling torpedoes struck the docked ship, along with six others, and 12 were seriously injured prior to the massive explosion the next day which sank her. Several awards for bravery resulted from the heroic actions of crew following the initial attack and fire.[13] |
Eight ships were lost in accidents postwar.
| Ship | Details |
|---|---|
| Ocean Liberty | On 14 May 1966, the Greek cargo ship,Newgrove, ran aground atPuerto Padre,Cuba. The wreck was abandoned to theCuban Government.[18] |
| Ocean Pride | In 1966,Susana K L suffered a fire in her boiler room, and was subsequently scrapped.[18] |
| Ocean Traveller | In 1959,Cape Corso was involved in a collision and grounding. She was subsequently scrapped.[18] |
| Ocean Verity | On 5 November 1961,Clan Keith sank after hitting rocks offCap Bon,Tunisia.[13] |
| Ocean Viceroy | On 13 November 1966, cargo on boardOmonia II caught fire when the ship was berthed atAmsterdam, Netherlands. The ship was subsequently scrapped.[13] |
| Ocean Vigil | On 3 December 1963,Roumeli was grounded after leavingdrydock atGijón,Spain. She was subsequently beached and scrapped.[13] |
| Ocean Wanderer | On 2 November 1962,Santa Irene was wrecked on the Los Cabezos Shoal, offTarifa, Spain.[13] |
| Ocean Wayfarer | In 1953,Clan Macquarrie grounded offTroon,Scotland in a storm and was subsequently scrapped.[13] |
The Oceans served until the mid-1980s, withOcean Athlete being scrapped in 1985.Ocean Merchant was onChinese shipping registers asZhan Dou 26 until 1992.[18]