SS Sea Owl
Sea Owl in November 1944
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History | |
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Name |
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Owner |
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Operator |
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Port of registry |
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Ordered | 23 April 1942 |
Builder | Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, Mississippi |
Yard number |
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Laid down | 22 July 1943 |
Launched | 17 December 1943 |
Completed | 27 June 1944 |
Acquired | Delivered WSA: 27 June 1944 |
In service | 1944 |
Out of service | 1971 |
Identification |
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Fate | Scrapped 1971 |
General characteristics | |
Type | Type C3-S-A2 cargo ship |
Tonnage | |
Length |
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Beam | 69.6 ft (21.2 m)[1] |
Draft | 28.5 ft (8.7 m)[4] |
Depth | 29.5 ft (9.0 m)[1] |
Decks | 2 decks & open shelter deck |
Propulsion | 2 Westinghouse geared turbines, 2 combustion engineering "D"-type boilers, single propeller |
Speed | 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) |
Capacity | |
Troops | 2,156 |
Crew | 53 |
Notes |
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SS Sea Owl was a Type
Sea Owl was converted to commercial service during 1946 and early 1947 and sold in April 1947 to Isthmian Lines, renamed Steel Scientist and operated commercially until 1971.
Construction
Sea Owl was laid down 22 July 1943 for the
The 1945 U.S. registry information for Sea Owl gives characteristics as 7,886 GRT, 4,600 NRT, 466.5 ft (142.2 m) registry length, 69.6 ft (21.2 m) beam and depth of 29.5 ft (9.0 m), 8,500 horsepower and crew of 53.[1]
Service history
War Shipping Administration (1944–1946)
Sea Owl was allocated to Army requirements and operated by a
Sea Owl's shakedown cruise was from Pascagoula to New York City, followed by a voyage to Newport News, Virginia, to pick up her first troop complement, an Army battalion headed for Naples.[9] The ship departed Hampton Roads Port of Embarkation at Norfolk on 27 July 1944 and returned to New York on 31 August. During the remainder of 1944 the ship made two trips from the New York Port of Embarkation to Europe. The first departed on 12 September for Milford Haven and Cherbourg, France. The second was on 22 October for the Mersey, the Bristol Channel and Avonmouth with return to the Boston Port of Embarkation on 16 November. On 24 November the ship sailed for Southampton with return to New York on 22 December 1944.[4]
The first four voyages of 1945 were from New York. On 10 January 1945 Sea Owl departed New York for
On 15 December 1945 Sea Owl departed Hampton Roads to transit the Panama Canal for the Pacific arriving 14 January 1946 at Nagoya. With a stop at Incheon, Korea (named Jinsen during Japanese occupation) the ship returned to the Seattle Port of Embarkation 14 February 1946 to complete troop transport service.[4]
Units transported
Units transported included:
- The 55th Armored Engineer Battalion of the 10th Armored Division, departed New York POE 12 September 1944, arrived Cherbourg France, 23 September.[10]
- 289th Engineer Combat Battalion, departed New York 22 October 1944, arrived Bristol, England, 1 November 1944.[11]
- 1240th Engineer Combat Battalion (same as above).[12]
- 1251st Engineer Combat Battalion (same as above).[8]
- 385th Infantry Regiment (76th Infantry Division), left the Boston Port of Embarkation 23 November 1944, arrived Southampton 4 December 1944.[13]
- 661st Tank Destroyer Battalion of the 63rd Infantry, left New York 9 January 1945, arrived Le Harve, France 23 January 1945.[14]
- 57th Fighter Group, departed Naples 6 August 1945, headed for deployment in the Pacific Theater. Just before the Panama Canal the Japanese surrendered was announced and the Sea Owl turned around and arrived in Boston on 18 August 1945.[15]
- 644th Tank Destroyer Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division,[16] France to Newport News, Virginia, late 1945.[17]
Sea Owl was also used to transport German
Isthmian Lines (1947–1971)
Sea Owl was transferred to the Maritime Commission in 1946. A$282,00 contract for conversion into a cargo ship was awarded to J.K. Welding Co., of Yonkers, NY, to be completed in 70 calendar days. In 1947 she was sold to Isthmian Lines of New York.[3]
Beginning in 1947 it operated in Isthmian service as SS Steel Scientist hauling cargoes from Asia principally to U.S. Gulf ports carrying jute, gunnie sacks, shellac, and other materials. She was sold to Taiwan Shipbreakers, arrived at Kaohsiung 9 July 1971 and scrapped during that month.[3]
See also
Footnotes
- ^ After conversion to commercial.
- ^ The Army commands responsible for all Army troop and cargo shipments were the Ports of Embarkation which commanded not only the port facilities but shipments of troops and supplies from points of origin through the ports and to their destination. See New York Port of Embarkation for a description of the major port in operation in World War I and World War II.
References
- ^ . Retrieved 14 September 2021.
- ^ a b c Maritime Administration. "Sea Owl". Ship History Database Vessel Status Card. U.S. Department of Transportation, Maritime Administration. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
- ^ a b c d Lewis, Skip (2003). "S.S. Steel Scientist". IsthmianLines.com. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
- ^ LCCN 47004779. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
- ^ Colton, Tim (30 June 2020). "Ingalls Shipbuilding". ShipbuildingHistory. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
- ^ History of the 57th Fighter Group [1] "Group departs Italian soil aboard USAT Sea Owl bound for the Pacific Theatre."
- ^ Roster of Armed Guards on U.S. ships in World War II [2] "USAT SEA OWL"
- ^ War Department (1944). FM55-105 Water Transportation: Oceangoing Vessels (PDF). War Department Field Manual. Washington, DC: United States Department of War. pp. 25–34, Section 14, Allocated Vessels, Diagrams following p. 64. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
- ^ Cullinan, George, Sea Grapes and Rattlesnakes, Bloomington, IN, 2004, p. 124 [3] "I signed on as Second Mate on July 27, 1944. We left the shipyard and took her on a shakedown cruise up the Atlantic coast to New York, then down to Newport News to load our -live cargo, which seemed like an entire army battalion. She was a beautiful ship on the outside, but below the main deck every inch of space was filled with triple-decker bunks. It was so crowded that many of the GIs took refuge on the main deck for much of the voyage. We were part of a convoy transporting a full Army division to Naples."
- ^ Stone, Herb, Bio at 10th Amored Division Veterans Western Chapter, 30 January 2010: [4] "The division headed north to Camp Shanks in New Jersey and on Sept. 12, 1944 the 55th AEB departed the U.S. on a banana boat called the Sea Owl. Eleven days later we disembarked in Cherbourg, France"
- ^ Passage dates per "Travels of the 289th"
- ^ 1270th Engineer Combat Battalion: Introduction (citing National Archives) [5]
- ^ 1944 World War II Troop Ship Crossings
- ^ History of the 661st Tank Destroyer Battalion
- ^ 57th Fighter Group of WWII: Pictures
- ^ 644th Tank Destroyer Battalion
- ^ WWII SS Sea Owl troop ship paper for returning GIs 644 Tank Destroyer BN [6]
- ^ Sipes, Greg, The Transformation of the Soul, Bloomington, IN, 2008, p. 69. [7] "It's late December 1944. The small ship aboard which I am stationed is docked at Le Havre, France. We just unloaded the war materials carried from America to re-supply our forces during the "Battle of the Bulge," the battle that was the fiercest and one of the final battles of the war in the European theater of operations. The ship, the S.S. Sea Owl, relatively unarmed and with a crew of about forty-five, is now empty and preparing for the return trip to the United States. The word comes that we will be transporting fifteen hundred to two thousand German prisoners of war back to the States....The German soldiers come aboard in single file over the narrow gangplank."