In spite of having to dodge Hurricane Floyd, the venerable SS American Victory arrived in Tampa on 16 September 1999 after a 2,400-mile tow by the powerful ocean-going tug Sharon DeHart. The World War II ship has been saved from the breaker’s torch by Victory Ship, Inc., a nonprofit group of volunteers organized by Captain John C. Timmel, a Tampa Bay harbor pilot. Timmel and marine surveyor Charles Harden selected the vessel from several available ships at the U.S. Maritime Administration’s (MarAd) James River Reserve Fleet. The 105th Congress passed title conveyance legislation, introduced and championed by Congressman Jim Davis (D-FL), which allowed Captain Timmel’s vision of a mariners’ memorial and museum to move ahead.
The American Victory was part of the greatest sealift in history. The merchant fleet in World War II made a vital contribution to victory—and the civilian mariners had a higher casualty rate than any military service. It took more than 40 years, however, for these survivors of bloody battles against U-boats, surface raiders, and aircraft to be recognized as veterans. The American Victory Mariners Memorial & Museum Ship will help rectify this gap in our maritime history. She will join her sister ships the Lane Victory and Red Oak Victory (in Long Beach and Richmond, California, respectively), and two Liberty ships, the John W. Brown (in Baltimore) and Jeremiah O'Brien (in San Francisco), as memorials to the U.S. Merchant Marine.
Victory ships were designed to replace the war-weary and notoriously slow Liberty ships and provide a postwar fleet of 17-knot merchant carriers. A total of 534 Victories were built between 1944 and 1946. The 7,600-gross-ton ships measured 455 feet in length, with a beam of 62 feet and a draft of 28 feet. Steam turbine engines delivered 6,000-plus horsepower. Victories had a cruising range of almost 24,000 nautical miles and cost $2.5 million dollars to build in 1945. The American Victory was launched on 20 June 1945 at the California Shipyard in Los Angeles and had a wartime complement of 62 Merchant Marine and Navy Armed Guard officers and men. She was protected by eight 20-mm antiaircraft guns, a bow 3-inch/50 deck gun, and a stem 5-inch/38 deck gun.
The American Victory delivered critical cargoes to U.S. fighting men in the Pacific who were advancing toward the home islands of Japan. After the Japanese surrender, the ship was chartered by American Export Lines for transporting food and machinery to Europe, Russia, and the Near East under the Marshall Plan. From November 1947 to February 1951, she was laid-up in the Hudson River Reserve Fleet near West Point, New York. She returned to war service under charter to the U.S. Navigation Company, supplying U.S. and U.N. troops during the Korean War. The ship was deactivated again in January 1954 at the Sabine Reserve Fleet near Orange, Texas. She was “broken-out” in 1963 and chartered to Hudson Waterways Corporation to supply U.S. troops in Vietnam. After her third war, she was mothballed once more in October 1969 and entered the James River Reserve Fleet. She was activated briefly in 1985 as part of the Victory Ship Validation Program, and then was scheduled to be stricken from the MarAd list when Timmel and Harden found her in 1998.
Survey reports indicate the American Victory is in remarkably good structural condition. The main engine and the auxiliaries, not used since 1985, are in good shape but will require some work. When the ship arrived in Tampa, she was given an initial cleaning, dry-docking, sandblasting, and painting. Volunteers have been an important part of the project to convert the ship into a working memorial with spaces for meetings, sea schooling, and a museum. Boarding the ship is a “time-capsule” experience for those who knew these ships.
The American Victory now is moored adjacent to the Florida Aquarium. The ship’s supporters want to create a world-class museum detailing life on board merchant ships in World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars. They hope to place the ship in service for short educational and public cruises, provide a training platform for youth groups, and offer a conference center for veterans groups and other organizations. The museum also will house artifacts, memorabilia, and documents pertaining to the maritime heritage of the Tampa Bay area.