By 1943, the US had designed a stronger and faster cargo ship to replace the Liberty ship. It was known as the “Victory ship”. The Victory ships were 455 feet long, with a displacement of 15,200 tons—slightly larger than the Liberty ship. They carried a 5-inch gun at the stern and a 3-inch gun at the bow, and eight 20mm anti-aircraft guns. Like the Liberty ships, they were put together from prefabricated sub-assemblies—it took an average of 55 days. With their more powerful engines, the Victory ship could make 15 knots, compared to the Liberty ship’s 10 knots. There was also an “attack transport” version built, which had more guns and could carry 1500 troops and small landing craft to put them ashore.
The first Victory ship launched in January 1944. In the last years of the war, 414 Victory cargo ships were built, and 117 attack transports. Because the German U-Boat threat had virtually disappeared by 1944, only two Victory ships were sunk by submarines, and three were sunk in the Pacific by Japanese kamikazes.
The Victory cargo ship USS American Victory (named after American University in Washington DC) was built in Los Angeles and launched in May 1945. During the last months of the war, American Victory delivered cargo from California to Southeast Asia. After the war ended, she was used to ferry troops in the Pacific home to the US, then carried supplies to Europe under the Marshall Plan.
In 1963, American Victory was selected by the Navy to be converted into a “forward depot”, loaded with supplies and stationed in areas where they might be needed, but the program was canceled before any work could be done on her. In 1966, she was assigned instead to the Military Sealift Command, and was used to ferry troops, cargo, and supplies to South Vietnam until 1969, when she was deactivated and placed into storage in Virginia. In 1985 she was restored as an experiment (to see how much effort would be needed to reactivate mothballed ships), and after one voyage was placed back into storage. In 1998, she was scheduled to be scrapped, but was purchased by a group of private citizens (the “American Victory Ship and Museum”) and towed to Tampa Bay in October 1999, where she is now maintained as a floating museum. The ship has been restored to seaworthy condition, and twice a year makes a memorial cruise into the Gulf of Mexico.
American Victory is one of only three remaining Victory ships—the other two are in California.
Some photos from a visit.
For those who don't know, I live in a converted campervan and travel around the country, posting photo diaries of places that I visit. I am currently wintering in Florida.