 California Shipbuilding Company | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name | Tufts Victory |
| Namesake | Tufts University |
| Owner | Maritime Commission |
| Operator | War Shipping Administration throughAmerican Mail Line |
| Builder | California Shipbuilding Company,Los Angeles |
| Laid down | 11 January 1945 |
| Launched | 2 March 1945 |
| Completed | 28 March 1945 |
| Identification | Official number: 247512 |
| Fate | Wrecked on 23 September 1969 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | VC2-S-AP3 Victory ship |
| Tonnage | 7612GRT, 4,553NRT |
| Displacement | 15,200 tons |
| Length | 455 ft (139 m) |
| Beam | 62 ft (19 m) |
| Draught | 28 ft (8.5 m) |
| Installed power | 8,500 shp (6,300 kW) |
| Propulsion | HP & LPturbines geared to a single 20.5-foot (6.2 m) propeller, by Westinghouse Electric & Mfg. Co., Essington |
| Speed | 16.5 knots |
| Boats & landing craft carried | 4 Lifeboats |
| Complement | 62 Merchant Marine and 28 US Naval Armed Guards |
| Armament |
|
| Notes | [1] |
TheSSTufts Victory was a class ofVictory ship built duringWorld War II under theEmergency Shipbuilding program. She was launched by theCalifornia Shipbuilding Company on 2 March 194. The ship was completed and delivered to the wartime operator of all United States oceangoing shipping, theWar Shipping Administration (WSA), on 28 March 1945.Tufts Victory, official number 247512, was assigned toAmerican Mail Line, under a standard WSA operating agreement at that time. That agreement continued until the ship's sale in 1947. The ship'sUnited States Maritime Commission designation was VC2-S-AP3, hull number 771.Tufts Victory was converted from acargo ship to atroopship to bring troops home after the war as part ofOperation Magic Carpet.
Tufts Victory was one of the new 10,500-ton class ship to be known as Victory ships. Victory ships were designed to replace the earlierLiberty Ships. Liberty ships were designed to be used just for World War II. Victory ships were designed to last longer and serve theUS Navy after the war. The Victory ship differed from a Liberty ship in that they were: faster, longer and wider, taller, had a thinner stack set farther toward thesuperstructure and had a long raisedforecastle.[2][3] The ship's namesake is forTufts University on the border ofMedford andSomerville, Massachusetts. The SS Tufts Victory was a Victory ship laId down on 11 January 1945 and one of a series of ships named for American colleges and universities.
Tufts Victory served as a troopship taking troops to and fromEurope.[4][5]Tufts Victory and 96 other Victory ships were converted to troopships take troops to Europe. Later she was used to bring the US soldiers home as part ofOperation Magic Carpet from port cities known asCigarette Camps. She was able to transport up to 1,500 troops to and from Europe. Her cargo holds were converted tobunk beds andhammocks stack three high forhot bunking. In the cargo holdMess halls andexercise places were also added.[6][7]
After the war, she was laid up at theSuisun Bay Reserve Fleet in 1947. In 1947 she was sold the Rotterdam Lloyd company (becameNedlloyd later) ofRotterdam and renamed theSSSamarinda. In 1962 she was sold to the Far Eastern Navigation Corporation ofKeelung,Taiwan and renamedSSChun Lee. In 1964 she was renameSSCherry Victory. On 23 September 1969Cherry Victory ran aground atSumatra in theStrait of Malacca at5°10′12″N97°16′48″E / 5.1700°N 97.280°E /5.1700; 97.280. She as refloated, but not worth repairing, she was scrapped at Keelung in 1970.[8][9][10][11][12]
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The firstKoninklijke Rotterdamsche Lloyd (Rotterdam Lloyd) ship with the name SSSamarinda was a 6825 gross ton (12,300 tons displacement) cargo ship. She was built at Port Glasgow, Scotland, was built in 1912. In 1918 she was seized by United States Government 20 March 1918 at New York under the right of angary forWorld War I uses as a military transport, for troops, good and then 550 horses. On 14 May 1919 she was returned to Rotterdam Lloyd. In 1932 the SSSamarinda (1912) was scrapped atGhent,Belgium.[13][14][15]
Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in 1969 | |
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| Shipwrecks |
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| Other incidents |
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