Voyages of the Liberty's

      

                    Voyage Of The Liberty's
                                                          
                                                                      ( Amended )
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                                         SS Robert George Harper
                          5 May 1943 ----- 21 December 1943

     January 22, 1942, the keel was laid on the SS Robert George Harper, hull # 0234.  She was Launched March 22, 1942, and completed ready for sea in April, 1942.  She was named for a congressman from South Carolina who served in congress from 1795 - 1801.  Her radio call letters were KEVO.
     Anchored in San Francisco, Dad reported aboard May 5, 1943, and the ship set sail May 10th for Port Heuneme in Santa Barbara, Ca. where loading was completed, they then sailed for Nandi Bay in the Fiji Islands on May 20th. The AGC officers report states that the ship averaged 10.73 knots and arrived in Nandi Bay on June 11, 1943 - " no enemy contact ", signed LTJG Donald I. Bailey.
     When the crew was not training, they were provided with various things to entertain themselves.  A Port Director Material Report list the following items for the recreation and welfare of the AGC crew: 2 pair boxing gloves, one set horseshoes, Chinese checkers, one sack of marbles, a cribbage board, an acey duecy game, Dominoes, several decks of playing cards, a phonograph with records, a medicine ball and a set of books for men at sea.  Having been aboard ship I have to scratch my head about the horse shoes and sack of marbles but then if a sailor can walk on a ship's deck in a rolling sea I guess he can figure out how to play a game of marbles on the same deck - and I do remember Dad was a pretty good horseshoe player.  Guess he learned in the Navy.
     A June crew roster lists Dad as a loader for the 20mm gun.
     The AGC officers report of 16 July 1943 states that on 25 June they departed Lautouka, Vitu Levu, Fiji and sailed for San Francisco where they arrived July 16th, " no enemy contact ". The report also states that two men who had picked up VD in the states were removed from the ship prior to leaving Fiji.
     The ship took on cargo in San Francisco and departed for San Diego, Ca., arriving there July 27th, they took on more cargo and departed for Noumea, New Caledonia July 30th.  Engine trouble developed August 21st and after stopping at sea to fix the problem they pulled in to the port of Suva, Fiji to make full repairs.  They departed Suva August 23 and arrived Noumea on the 27th.  After unloading, the ship departed New Caledonia for San Francisco on September 5th.  Averaging 10.74 knots they arrived stateside September 28th " no enemy contact ".
     The ship took on cargo in Oakland, Ca. and a new AGC crew except Dad who stayed aboard. They departed Oakland October 22 and sailed to Espiritu Santo an island in the New Hebrides.  They arrived November 13th " no enemy contact " as reported by LTJG C.F. Grossman.  After unloading they departed November 25th and arrived San Francisco, Ca. December 17th, 1943. Speed was 10.5 knots.

     The Fiji Islands were going to be the next target for Japan as it was on the supply route to Australia but the battle of Midway put a hurting on the Japanese and they didn't have the forces to put the plan into action.  The allies established an air base at Nadi and a Naval base at Nandi Bay.  There was another Naval base at Suva.  I could not find where there was any enemy action in the Fiji Islands during the war.
     Noumea, New Caledonia was a major supply port on the route to Australia and was occupied by allied troops in March 1942.  I could not find reports of enemy action in New Caledonia.
     Espiritu Santos is an island in the New Hebrides group of islands.  While there was no enemy action that took place during the war Espiritu Santo was considered a strategic forward base as it was a little over 500 miles from Guadal Canal.

     After the war, like a lot of Liberty ships, the Robert G. Harper was sold and continued to sail the oceans of the world until she was scrapped in 1970 in Taiwan.  Her name was changed in 1947 to the St Croix and she flew the Danish Flag.  In 1951 her name was again changed to the Marna and flew the Panamanian flag. While still flying the Panamanian flag in 1954 her name changed again to the Astron.  In 1962 she was known as the Uranos and flew a Greek flag and in 1966 she was called the Great Peace and sailed under the Liberian flag until she was sold to Taiwan in 1968 and scrapped.

     I could not find indication that Dad saw any enemy action while serving aboard the SS Robert George Harper.

                               

    

     
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                                            SS John H. Rosseter
                                             
                                            13 January 1944 ------ 11 December 1944

     June 2,1943, the keel was laid for hull# 1580.  She was launched 22 days later and towed away for rigging.  In July she was completed and ready for sea under the name John H Rosseter.  She was named for the director of operations for the war shipping board in WWI.
     Dad reported aboard January 13, 1944.  According to the previous AGC Officers reports the ship had been involved in air attacks in New Guinea in November 1943.  For the next 11 months Dad would be sailing into and out of the New Guinea area.
     Around January 18 the ship left San Francisco and sailed to Milne Bay, Papua, New Guinea.  They arrived February 16.  Over the next few weeks they were in the ports of Langemak and Saidor.
     The last part of March they dropped anchor in Cape Gloucester on the island of New Britain.  My research tells me that the Allies were engaged in battle with the enemy for Cape Gloucester from December 1943 until sometime in April of 1944.  The AGC Officers report dated 14 April 1944 included a Notification of the Death of Seaman Frank Knapp who was killed in an explosion on March 30, 1944, at Cape Gloucester, New Britain.  He was buried in the local military cemetery in Grave 355. His death was in the line of duty.
     The AGC officers reports for the time Dad spent aboard the John H Rosseter were very disappointing.  There were only five entries found for the period of January 1944 thru December 1944 and they were not very informative.
     April 12th the ship arrived in Lae, Papua , New Guinea then back to Langemak then back to Lae. The month of May found them in Langemak and Oro Bay and in June back again to Langemak and Oro Bay.  July was spent in Oro Bay, Langemak and Humboldt, Hollandia where a battle was in the mopping up stage. They finished up July in Langemak, Milne Bay and Townsville, Australia.
     According to the ship movement cards they stayed in Townsville until September 3rd then sailed to Cairns just up the coast, then back to Milne Bay and Hollandia. Sometime in late September they sailed to an island north of New Guinea called Biak where fighting had recently finished then back to Hollandia and on to Finschhafen and Langemak, New Guinea.
     Sometime in early November the ship sailed back to San Francisco and Dad left the ship in San Pedro in December 1944.
 

     The big island of New Guinea was split in half.  The eastern half was called Papua New Guinea and the western half was called Dutch New Guinea or Dutch East Indies.  Allied forces started booting the Japanese from the islands in 1943 and fighting continued in many areas until late 1944. The battle for Saidor was not over until 10 Feb 1944.  Hollandia was not recaptured until 30 March 1944 and Cape Gloucester fought on till April.  Even after the areas were considered secured and ground fighting had ended the Japanese continued well into 1945 with attempts to recapture the lost positions by sending bombers overhead to attack shipping and supply depots.
     Although I need more records to prove it, I think enough verifiable information has been found that indicates Dad was involved in enemy action during this voyage on at least one occasion and possibly more often.  All of the ports mentioned were held by the Japanese until U.S. and Australian forces started taking them back in 1943.  The fighting was fierce even after the battle was over in mid 1944 but Japanese forces continued to bombard troops and supply areas well into 1945.

     While researching WWII action for the island of Biak, I read a story from an Australian soldier who, after the battle was over, wandered around the Japanese base.  He walked into the PX and discovered dozens of pairs of ice skates.  Keep in mind that Biak is located maybe 150 miles south of the equator and here are all of these ice skates.  During interrogation of the prisoners, it was learned that the Japanese officers told the soldiers they were actually on an island just off the coast of San Francisco, CA. and they were going to invade at any time.  The ice skates were to be used for recreation after the successful invasion.


     As for the SS John H Rosseter, it appears that she continued sailing under a US flag until 1966 when she was scrapped in Tacoma, WA.


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                                                     SS Cape Archway

                                                     16 January 1945 ----- 13 April 1945


     Of the four ships Dad sailed on, the Cape Archway is the only ship believed to be a Victory ship. She is the only one of which I could find very little information about.  I know she was one of forty-nine built by the Consolidated Steel Corp of Wilmington, CA.  Her radio call letters were KWOD. Beyond that my computer skills petered out.
     Dad reported January 16, 1945 and around the 18th the ship departed for San Pedro, CA. to take on cargo.  February 1st the ship departed for Melbourne, Australia and arrived there on the 22nd of the month.  Two days later the ship set sail for Calcutta, India.  Along the way the ship was challenged by an allied B-24 bomber on patrol. The ship arrived in Calcutta on the 13th of March. Three days later they departed for Colombo, Ceylon ( now known as Sri Lanka ) and after just one day in port they set sail for Sydney, Australia, arriving there April 9, 1945.
     LTJG W.B. Leighton didn't write too many Voyage reports but when he did he seemed to complain about the condition of the guns (they were worn out) and the need for a refrigerator and electric fan for the crew (which he received).
     In Sydney the AGC crew was rotated off the ship on April 13th.  Dad went to his next assignment.
     While this was the shortest voyage time wise it was not necessarily short in the distance traveled. In just under three months the Cape Archway traveled some 19,077.64 statute miles or 16,581.8 nautical miles at a top speed of about 15 miles per hour if they ran at top speed.
  

     Although Melbourne and Sydney were never attacked, Colombo and Calcutta were both targets of the Japanese bombers throughout the war.  Calcutta was the center for supplies and personnel fighting in the China / Burma theater.  Colombo was the seat of the Southeast Asia Command and a major supplier of raw rubber.  Several major air battles were fought there.

     I can't find any information about the Cape Archway after the war.

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       Update, further discoveries on the internet have produced information about the Cape Archway. There were several types of cargo ships built during the war, Liberty ships, Victory ships and types C1, C2, C3 and C4. The Cape Archway was a C1-B not a Victory ship, she was 417.75 ft. in length, 6750 gross tons and had a top speed of 14 knots ( about 16 mph ) from her 4,000 hp. engine. Both the C1-A and C1-B had the word " Cape " in it's name. there were 95 of these ships built.
     At the end of the war, she joined the Hawaiian American Line, March 31, 1944 and was manned by crews from that company. In 1949 she was sold to a private concern presumably the Hawaiian American Line as a permanent asset and sailed the oceans until 1974.



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                                                   SS Charles Lumis
                                                 

                                                   13 April 1945 ----- 24 October 1945

     The keel for Hull # 1649 was laid on 13 April 1943.  She was launched on May the 5th and completed ready for sea later in the month. The Charles Lumis was named for a journalist /author who wrote of the New Mexico Indians at the turn of the century.  The Charles Lumis was listed as a troop ship.
      April 17, 1945 found the ship in Sydney, Australia.  The AGC crew was rotated off and Dad reported aboard with the new crew and the ship quickly departed for Cairns just up the coast.  After a week the ship was dispatched to Biak island arriving there on the 6th of May.  A quick turnaround put them back to sea where they arrived at Morotai Island in the Netherlands East Indies.  From there they shipped out to Leyte Island in the Philippines Island, arriving there about the 20th of May and then on to Tocloban and Manila. The voyage report for this time frame shows " no enemy contact ".
     From Manila the ship sailed to Eniwetok island in the Marshal Islands then on to San Pedro, CA. Arriving there June 29th.  According to LT. W.H. Zimerman, the voyage was uneventful " no enemy contact ".
     The Japanese surrendered on August 15, 1945, the official " Formal Surrender " took place in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945.  The war was over.
     There was still a need for supplies so on August 23rd the ship left San Pedro headed for Pearl Harbor at a top speed of 11.9 knots.  After a couple of days in Pearl Harbor it was off again to Eniwetok to arrive by the 13th of September then Manila by the 23rd.  After waiting to be offloaded and rerouted they departed the 20th of October sailing to Tocloban where the ship was put into a maintenance status on the 24th of October 1945 and all AGC personnel were removed.
     In less than a month Dad was in Memphis, TN arriving there on the 28th of November and Honorably discharged from the Navy as of December 8, 1945.  His Navy career was over.


     Prior to Dad being assigned to the Charles Lumis it was awarded a battle star for it's participation in the battle for Leyte Gulf, 19 Nov 1944 / 29 Nov 1944.  As far as I know, the SS Charles Lumis continued to sail under the US flag until it was scrapped in Portland, OR. in 1965.



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            Why IS A Ship Called A SHE

       A SHIP IS CALLED A SHE BECAUSE THERE IS ALWAYS A GREAT DEAL OF BUSTLE AROUND HER.
       THERE IS USUALLY A GANG OF MEN ABOUT.
       SHE HAS A WAIST AND STAYS.
       IT TAKES A LOT OF PAINT TO KEEP HER GOOD LOOKING.
       IT IS NOT THE INITIAL EXPENSE THAT BREAKS YOU, IT'S THE UPKEEP.
       SHE CAN BE ALL DECKED OUT.
       IT TAKES AN EXPERIENCED MAN TO HANDLE HER CORRECTLY.
       AND WITHOUT A MAN AT THE HELM, SHE IS ABSOLUTELY UNCONTROLLABLE.
      SHE SHOWS HER TOPSIDES, HIDES HER BOTTOM WHEN COMING INTO PORT, ALWAYS FOR THE BUOYS.
     
     During my search I found several sites that discussed Liberty ships and I found that some of the info was contradicting  especially the speed, most sites stated that top speed was 11 knots which is pretty slow (about 12.661 mph), one knot is equal to 1.151 mph. The newer Victory ships were supposedly faster by about three knots.
        Liberty ships were built with a 5 year life span in mind.  About 2000 survived the war and continued to sail the oceans of the world well into the seventies.  Many had their name changed several times and sailed under many flags.  I didn't realize it at the time but when I was in the Navy during the late 1960's I saw Liberty ships in every port.  They were streaked with rust stains flowing from flaking slabs of rust, the pride with which they were built had disappeared long ago only to be over taken by neglect.  There are only two left now as museums.  Those ships not lost to storms at sea fell into disrepair after years of hard work and little care, they were cut up and sold for scrap in various ports around the world.  Like many of the men who sailed on them during war time, their days of glory are memories of a generation quickly passing into history with the hopes that someone will remember them.

WWII And Bill Riggan

                                        WWII And Bill Riggan



     A few years ago Little Sister Vickie gave me Dad's Naval discharge papers. The discharge listed Dad's duty assignments for the time he was in World War II as well as the name of the ships he was attached to. Dad and I never talked about the war or his experiences. Occasionally he would tell a humorous story such as those told in previous post. Like so many people before me I wish I could go back and ask both my parents so many questions that at the time just didn't seem important. I guess it is true about hindsight being 20/20.
     I didn't realize until much later in life that Dad was a member of the U.S. Navy Armed Guard, an all volunteer group of men assigned to man the guns on merchant ships as they crossed the oceans of the world. Dad's discharge papers provided me with pieces of his past I was unaware of and started me wondering what he might have gone thru during the war. Many volunteered for the Armed Forces of their choice without any hesitation, patriotism and revenge for the Pearl Harbor attack altered the lives and futures of young men and women across the Nation. To what extent did it alter Dad? we may never know.
     Armed with questions, a slow internet and a less than basic skills with the computer I decided "what the hell" and started on a quest thru the Internet that while informative it was also frustrating but here is what I found out.
    

     I think it is important to tell about the AGC and the ships Dad sailed aboard. Just prior to the U.S.'s entrance into WWII, the United States had been shipping war materials and supplies to England and Russia, via merchant ships, across the Atlantic Ocean. The German forces attacked these ships and sunk them on a large scale. In 1941 President Franklin Roosevelt did two things for the war effort in this regard - he first started the U.S. shipyards to building new merchant ships to replace those sunk, and he had the congress revive the Neutrality Act to allow merchant ships to protect themselves.
     The first of the new merchant ships slipped into the water September 24, 1941 and was followed by 2709 more over the next four years.  This was a new design for cargo ships, they were bigger, faster (if you call 11-14 knots fast -about 15 mph), easy to build (avg. about 29 days), and cheap, only $2 million each.  Roosevelt called them "Ugly Ducklings", the rest of the world came to know them as "Liberty Ships". Once the emergency need for ships was over another new design vessel was built, they were called "Victory Ships" and they too were bigger and faster (up to 16 knots),531 of these ships were built from January 1944 - 1946.
     The AGC was a re-creation of a similar program used during WWI and revived again for WWII in November 1941. The Navy started training the first of more than 6,000 officers and men for this hazardous duty because the Merchant Marine Union refused to allow its members to be taught how to fire the guns mounted to their ships so the Navy and President Roosevelt decided it would be better to supply trained sailors to do the job.  At first there was animosity from the Merchant Marine sailors but once the fighting started they came to appreciate the Navy personnel, there were even stories of the Merchant Marine sailors jumping in to help man the guns when the chips were down.
     In my search I read many accounts of the actions these ships and sailors were involved in.  One account told of an AGC crewman who left New York heading for Murmansk, Russia.  During the voyage he was on three different ships as each of the previous ships were sunk by submarines. Along the way he spent days floating in lifeboats and suffered the loss of shipmates. 
     Not all voyages were filled with such horror. Dad used to have a ring he made on one of his voyages, he told me they would take a quarter, stand it on edge on the steel mess table and whack it with a spoon while rotating it. This process took many hours but in the end you had a ring which looked like a wedding band and on the inside it read "in God we trust".  I haven't seen the ring since I was a kid so I hope it is still in the family.
     Liberty ships weighed some 7100 gross tons and could carry another 9,000 plus tons of cargo which equates to the equivalent of about 300 train carloads. Due to the war needs the ships often left port with their holes full and deck cargo of locomotives, airplanes, tanks and various other items lashed to the decks.  This would cause the ships to be top heavy and have to run slower in high seas.  Some of the loads were war materials such as aviation gas, ammunition, artillery shells or bombs, when hit during an attack, these ships would instantly disappear into an inferno of flame, there would be no survivors. In the North Atlantic Ocean German submarines raised such havoc with the sinking of the Liberty ships that it was calculated that the cost of the ship was recouped after one successful voyage. Regardless of the loads or dangers ahead, sailors of the Navy and Merchant Marines boarded their ships and sailed off to far horizons.
     In all of the sadness and horrors of war there were also humorous happenings.  As with any endeavor there will be SNAFUs.  There was the ship that left San Francisco loaded with barbed wire headed for a Pacific Island, on arrival they were told the cargo was not needed so try another island.  The ship sailed around island after island for months but nobody wanted their cargo.  The captain returned to San Francisco only to find out the barbed wire was supposed to go to Italy.  Sometime later a ship left the states loaded with a PT Boat squadron lashed to its decks and all of the personnel and spare parts in the holes.  Upon reaching the designated island no one knew anything about the cargo.  The captain, remembering the barbed wire incident, quickly offloaded the cargo and left port.  Several months later the ship returned to the island with another load and found the PT squadron sitting where he had left it.
     Armed with ship names and dates I scoured the Internet searching for knowledge. I found a website for the AGC where members and their families have tried to stay in contact with each other or submit stories to be archived for history.  I spent several hours reading with interest, hoping to find some mention of one of the ships Dad was assigned to or maybe someone was looking for him. Ironically the last entries on the message boards were several years old, the ranks of the "Greatest Generation" were thinning fast.
     I found a site where all of the Liberty ships were listed and I was able to get the date the keel was laid down, the date the ship was launched and completed ready for sea. I also was able to find out when the ship went to the scrap yard and where. Then I found that I could write to the National Archives in Maryland and get copies of the ship movement cards and later the copies of the Armed Guard Officers Report. Unfortunately, a key item in the search is not available - the ships logbooks were destroyed back in the 1970's because it was believed that no one would ever want the valuable information they contained.
     Much of the information I uncovered was intriguing and gave me a sense of what the men of the AGC went thru and in turn lead to more searching. With all of the information I came across there are questions left unanswered and probably will remain that way but there are stories left to tell about the voyages Dad took across the Pacific Ocean so the next step is to start putting it all together.
     Dad was 19 when he followed his older brothers into the Armed Forces.  January 18, 1943, he volunteered for the Navy and was sent to recruit training in San Diego, CA. Why did he wait a year before joining up? is one of those unanswered questions. Sometime during recruit training he volunteered again this time for Naval Armed Guard.  As a Seaman Second Class he reported for AGC training also in San Diego - that was April 2, 1943.
     May 5,1943, Dad reported aboard the SS Robert George Harper, the first of four ships he sailed on over the next two years.  At times he sailed calm seas and experienced days of boredom and monotony as the ship gently rose and fell with the swells of the ocean. Then there would be days of wind driven waves higher than the masthead, tossing the ship and all aboard in all directions, one such storm split a seam in the side of his ship and they had to limp into Sydney, Australia with the ship listing heavily to one side. I have come to the conclusion that there were also days of terror as they watched the skies for the enemy and probably at times even fired their guns to stave off the enemy assault.
     One of Dad's favorite movies was "Mr. Roberts".  It was about a ship's officer aboard a Navy supply ship as it sailed from port to port experiencing nothing but monotony and tedium. The officer wanted desperately to get into the real war which he did with fatal results. My findings tell me that Dad also sailed from monotony to tedium a few times but he also had his real war however brief it may have been.  How much war does it take to change a person? how much did it change Dad?  there lies another question to remain answered.
     In the following post titled "Voyages of the Liberty's", I put together all of the information I collected about the ships, ports of call and the AGC officers report. I was hoping for more than I was able to collect but it is what it is, there are still questions but there will probably not be any more answers.