 Samuel Huntington was a standardliberty ship, similar toSS John W. Brown, seen here. | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name | Samuel Huntington |
| Namesake | Samuel Huntington |
| Owner | United States Maritime Commission |
| Operator | Oliver J. Olson & Company.,San Francisco, California |
| Builder | Permanente Metals Corp. |
| Yard number | |
| Way number | 4 |
| Laid down | 20 January 1942 |
| Launched | 26 April 1942 |
| Completed | 18 May 1942 |
| Identification | MC Hull #248 |
| Fate | Bombed and sunk offAnzio, 29 January 1944 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type |
|
| Tonnage | 7,181 GRT |
| Length | |
| Beam | 57 feet (17 m) |
| Draft | 27 ft 9.25 in (8.4646 m) |
| Propulsion | |
| Speed | 11.5knots (21.3 km/h; 13.2 mph) |
| Capacity |
|
| Troops | 350; 504POWs |
| Complement | |
| Armament |
|
SSSamuel Huntington was an Americanliberty ship duringWorld War II. She was the 248th liberty ship authorized by theUnited States Maritime Commission and was named in honor ofSamuel Huntington, aFounding Father and signer of theAmerican Declaration of Independence. SSSamuel Huntington waslaunched in 1942 and sailed to ports in thePacific,South America,Africa, and theUnited Kingdom. She was one of a select group of liberty ships that were outfitted to carry a limited number of either troops orprisoners of war. As part of a convoy to resupply theAllied troops atAnzio, she sank after a successfulGerman bomb attack in January 1944.
Samuel Huntington waslaid down on 20 January 1942 byPermanente Metals Corp. on ship way number four at theirNo. 2 Yard inRichmond, California. She was the 248th liberty ship authorized by theUnited States Maritime Commission and the 48th ship begun at the ship yard. TheHuntington—a type EC2-S-C1, or standard, liberty ship—waslaunched on 26 April, and delivered on 18 May. She was completed in 118 days, spending 96 on theways and 22 on the water before delivery.[1] She was one of about 220 liberty ships, about one out of every 10 made, that were outfitted to carry a limited number of either troops orprisoners of war. Sources are not clear when the passenger capability was added toSamuel Huntington, but modifications of this sort were made after November 1942.[2]
Ten days after her delivery,Samuel Huntington departedSan Francisco forLos Angeles. Sailing from that port on 31 May 1942, she arrived atSuva in theFiji Islands on 19 June. After theHuntington made her way toLautoka, she departed there on 6 July forChile. After arriving atAntofagasta on 29 July, the cargo ship worked her way up and down the South American coast, calling atIquique on 30 July,Valparaiso on 7 August, andPunta Arenas on 13 August. Sailing from Punta Arenas the next day, she navigated theStraits of Magellan, crossed theSouth Atlantic, and arrived atCape Town,South Africa, on 2 September.[3]
Sailing from Cape Town on 6 September,Samuel Huntington sailed around theAfrican continent, calling atDurban on 10 September, and arriving atAden, on theArabian Peninsula, in mid September. Departing there on 24 September, theHuntington sailed up theRed Sea, calling atMassaua on theEritrean coast on 26 September andSuez on 1 October. Departing Suez on 12 October, she retraced her track around Africa, calling atPort Sudan on 18 October, Durban on 2 November, Cape Town on 7 November. Leaving the same day, she crossed the South Atlantic and headed forParamaribo,Suriname.[3]
Samuel Huntington arrived at Paramaribo on 27 November, and sailed three days later forTrinidad.[3] After arriving at thatCaribbean port on 1 December, theHuntington waited for a week before sailing in convoy TAG-27 toGuantanamo Bay with 12 other ships.[4] After arriving at Guantanamo Bay on 12 December, the convoy, dropping four ships, reformed as convoy GN.27 headed forNew York City and departed the same day. TheHuntington, calling at a U.S. port for the first time in seven months, arrived at New York on 19 December.[5]
TheHuntington departed New York as a part ofConvoy SC-118 headed forLiverpool viaHalifax on 24 January. As the convoy, which consisted of 60 ships and 26 escorts, sailed near Iceland, awolf pack ofKriegsmarineU-boats attacked the convoy repeatedly over a four-day period.[6][7] Some 20 U-boats participated, sinking 12 Allied ships, includingHenry R. Mallory, a troop transport that went down with 272 men—more than half of her passengers and crew;[8] three U-boats were lost.[7]Samuel Huntington departed the convoy and arrived atClyde on 11 February.[6]
After calling atBelfast Lough in early April,Samuel Huntington made her way to Liverpool to join Convoy ON 181 to New York. Departing on 30 April as one of 48 merchant ships in the convoy, the liberty ship made port at New York on 17 May.[9] The convoy reported no submarine activity, and about two-thirds of the convoy were able to take target practice on icebergs during the voyage.[10]
Samuel Huntington next departed New York on 13 June forOran as a part of Convoy UGS-10. Joining 74 other merchant ships and their 28 escorts, theHuntington made it safely to Oran on 5 July; another ship in the convoy was sunk by a U-boat.[11] During her participation inOperation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily, theHuntington and fellow liberty shipsWilliam W. Gerhard andWilliam Mulholland all suffered casualties from an air attack on 1 August atPalermo.[12] Damage to the ship was apparently minor enough that she was ready to sail nine days later, when she joined Convoy GUS-12—which had originated inAlexandria and was destined forHampton Roads,Virginia—to return to the United States.Samuel Huntington left the convoy as it neared the U.S. east coast, and headed for New York, arriving there on 5 September.[3][13]
After making her way to Hampton Roads,Samuel Huntington departed forCasablanca on 5 October as part of Convoy UGS-20, where she arrived on 21 October. Eight days later, she joined Convoy GUS-19—a 110-ship Alexandria–Hampton Roads convoy[14]—and headed for home. She arrived inBaltimore on 16 November. Shifting to Hampton Roads in early December,Samuel Huntington prepared to depart on what would be her last sailing from the United States.[3]
TheHuntington—in Convoy UGS-27, a 115-ship convoy[15]—sailed from Hampton Roads on 15 December for Oran, arriving there on 3 January 1944. She departed from Oran on 16 January and arrived atNaples five days later. One week later,Samuel Huntington sailed toAnzio where she anchored one-quarter mile (400 m) off the beach on 29 January with 7,181 long tons (7,296 t) of cargo, including ammunition, canned gasoline andTNT.[3][16]
At sunset on 29 January,Luftwaffe bombers armed withHenschel Hs 293 anti-shippingglide bombs attacked the ships at anchor off Anzio. BritishcruiserSpartan was hit amidships and rolled over on her port side and sank with a loss of 65 men.[17] Soon afterSpartan was hit, another Hs 293 slammed intoSamuel Huntington, penetrating to her boiler room before exploding and killing four men.[16] The force of the explosion blew out two of her cargo hatches, launching ajeep into the stricken ship'sflying bridge in the process.[18] With no power, and, hence, no way of fighting the fire,Samuel Huntington's master ordered the ship abandoned, and the crew lowered her lifeboats and headed away from the ship.[16] Fifteen minutes after the bomb's blast, another explosion rocked the ship, throwing a cloud of debris over 1,000 feet (300 m) in the air, and raining shrapnel on ships as far as1+1⁄2 miles (2,400 m) away.[19]
After the second explosion,Samuel Huntington settled to the bottom, but because the bottom had been only 3 feet (0.91 m) below her keel, most of the ship remained above the water.[16]U.S. Navy salvage shipWeight came alongside theHuntington and trained two deck water guns and a 2.5-inch (6.4 cm) water hose to douse the fires. When the task seemed accomplished,Weight pulled away. The fires flared up again four hours later andWeight returned to fight the conflagration again. After tending to other ships damaged during the raid,Weight returned a third time.[20] By the early morning hours on 30 January, any hope of salvagingSamuel Huntington or her cargo ended when the fires reached her load of canned gasoline. The resulting explosion completely destroyed the ship and again rained shrapnel on nearby ships. When the smoke cleared, no trace of theHuntington remained.[16]
Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in January 1944 | |
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| Shipwrecks |
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| Other incidents | |
