Victory ship

 ( World War Ii Auxiliary Ships Of The United States ) 

The design was an enhancement of the Liberty ship, which had been successfully produced in extraordinary numbers. Victory ships were slightly larger than Liberty ships, longer at , wider at , and drawing one foot more at loaded. Displacement was up just under 1,000 tons, to 15,200. With a raised forecastle and a more sophisticated hull shape to help achieve the higher speed, they had a quite different appearance from Liberty ships.

To make them less vulnerable to U-boat attacks, Victory ships made , faster than the Libertys, and had longer range. The extra speed was achieved through more modern, efficient engines. Rather than the Libertys' triple expansion steam engines, Victory ships were designed to use either Hugo Lentz reciprocating steam engines (no ship built), (one ship) or Compound turbine (the rest, all oil fired) (variously putting out between ). Another improvement was electrically powered auxiliary equipment, rather than steam-driven machinery.

To prevent the hull cracks that many Liberty ships developed—making some break in half—the spacing between frames was widened from to , making the ships less stiff and more able to flex. Like Liberty ships, the hull was welded rather than riveted.

The VC2-S-AP2, VC2-S-AP3, and VC2-M-AP4 were armed with a /38 caliber stern gun for use against submarines and surface ships, and a bow-mounted /50 caliber gun and eight 20 mm cannon for use against aircraft. These were manned by United States Navy Armed Guard personnel. The VC2-S-AP5 s were armed with the 5-inch stern gun, one quad 40 mm Bofors cannon, four dual 40 mm Bofors cannon, and ten single 20 mm cannon. The Haskells were operated and crewed exclusively by U.S. Navy personnel.

The Victory ship was noted for good proportion of cubic between holds for a cargo ship of its day. A Victory ship's cargo hold one, two and five hatches are single rigged with a capacity of 70,400, 76,700, and 69,500 bale cubic feet respectively. Victory ships hold three and four hatches are double rigged with a capacity of 136,100 and 100,300 bale cubic feet respectively. Victory ships have built-in mast, booms and derrick cranes and can load and unload their own cargo without dock side cranes or Gantry crane if needed.

Although initial deliveries were slow—only 15 had been delivered by May 1944—by the end of the war 531 had been constructed. The Commission cancelled orders for a further 132 vessels, although three were completed in 1946 for the Alcoa Steamship Company, making a total built in the United States of 534, made up of:

Of the wartime construction, 414 were of the standard cargo variant and 117 were attack transports. Because the Atlantic battle had been won by the time the first of the Victory ships appeared none were sunk by U-boats. Three were sunk by Japanese kamikaze attack in April 1945.

Many Victory ships were converted to to bring US soldiers home at the end of World War II as part of Operation Magic Carpet. A total of 97 Victory ships were converted to carry up to 1,600 soldiers. To convert the ships the cargo holds were converted to and stacked three high for hot bunking. and exercise places were also added. Chapter 2 After ASTP, Across the Atlantic to England Under Siege, By Lester Segarnick Some examples of Victory troopships are: , , , , , , , , and .The Nebraska State Journal from Lincoln, Nebraska, 26 December 1945, p. 4 Binghamton NY Press Grayscale 1945 – Fulton History, Oct. 15, 1945

Some 184 Victory ships served in the Korean War and a 100 Victory ships served in the Vietnam War. Many were sold and became commercial cargo ships and a few commercial . Some were laid up in the United States Navy reserve fleets and then scrapped or reused. Many saw postwar conversion and various uses for years afterward. The single VC2-M-AP4 Diesel-powered MV Emory Victory operated in Alaskan waters for the Bureau of Indian Affairs as North Star III. AP3 types South Bend Victory and Tuskegee Victory were converted in 1957–58 to ocean hydrographic surveying ships USNS and , respectively. Dutton aided in locating the lost hydrogen bomb following the 1966 Palomares B-52 crash.Melson, Lewis B., CAPT USN "Contact 261" United States Naval Institute Proceedings June 1967

Starting in 1959, several were removed from the reserve fleet and refitted for the NASA. One such ship was , which was renamed and converted into the world's first satellite communications ship. Another was the former Haiti Victory, which recovered the first man-made object to return from orbit, the nose cone of Discoverer 13, on 11 August 1960. was converted in 1969–1970 to the range instrumentation ship for downrange tracking of ballistic missile tests.

Four Victory ships became fleet ballistic missile cargo ships transporting torpedoes, , packaged petroleum, and spare parts to deployed :

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In the 1960s two Victory ships were reactivated and converted to technical research ships by the U.S. Navy with the hull type AGTR. became and SS Simmons Victory became . Liberty was attacked and severely damaged by Israeli forces in June 1967 and subsequently decommissioned and struck from the Naval Register. Belmont was decommissioned and stricken in 1970. Baton Rouge Victory was sunk in the Mekong delta by a Viet Cong naval mine in August 1966 and temporarily blocked the channel to Saigon.