The SS ''Luray Victory'' was the seventeenth Victory ship, a new 10,500 ton class ship built during World War II. The California Shipbuilding Company built the ship under the Emergency Shipbuilding program. She was launched on May 11, 1944, and completed on June 26, 1944. The ship’s United States Maritime Commission designation was VC2-S-AP3, hull number 17 (V-17). The SS ''Luray Victory'' served in the Pacific Ocean during World War II and was operated by the Black Diamond Steamship Company.

Design

Victory ships were designed to replace the outdated Liberty Ships. They would last longer and be able to serve the US Navy after World War II. The Victory ships differed from Liberty ships in that they were longer, wider, taller and faster. Victory ships had a thin stack set closer to the

superstructure A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships. Aboard ships and large boats On water craft, the superstruct ...

and had a long raised forecastle.

Christening

The SS ''Luray Victory'' was named after the city of Luray, Virginia, one of the 218 Victory ships named after an American city. She was launched at the yards of the California Shipbuilding Corporation in Wilmington, Los Angeles on May 11, 1944. The ship was the seventeenth in a long line of Victory ships, many of which were built at the California Shipbuilding Corporation ("Calship") yard. Her engines were built by the Joshua Hendy iron works in California.

World War II

During World War II, the SS ''Luray Victory'' operated in the Pacific ocean bringing supplies to the US and the

Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

. On November 30, 1944, the SS ''Luray Victory'' reached New Guinea. The ship was part of convoy GB 720 which carried supplies to forces fighting in the Battle of Leyte and the

Battle of Okinawa The , codenamed Operation Iceberg, was a major battle of the Pacific War fought on the island of Okinawa by United States Army (USA) and United States Marine Corps (USMC) forces against the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA). The initial invasion of ...

. From June 26, 1945 to August 15, 1945, she prepared for

Operation Downfall Operation Downfall was the proposed Allied plan for the invasion of the Japanese home islands near the end of World War II. The planned operation was canceled when Japan surrendered following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, th ...

, the invasion of the Japanese home islands with exercises at Leyte. When Japan surrendered on 15 August 1945, the exercises were cancelled.

Shipwreck

In January of 1946, the SS ''Luray Victory'' departed

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was d ...

, Maryland. She was transporting

grain A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legum ...

to Bremerhaven, Germany as part of the Marshall plan. She crossed the Atlantic Ocean at a speed near her maximum 16.5 knots. In the night of January 30, 1946, the SS ''Luray Victory'' entered the

Straits of Dover The Strait of Dover or Dover Strait (french: Pas de Calais - ''Strait of Calais''), is the strait at the narrowest part of the English Channel, marking the boundary between the Channel and the North Sea, separating Great Britain from continent ...

. She had no local maritime pilot on board and was steaming too fast and too close to the shore. The ship ran aground at Goodwin Sands, off the coast of

Deal A deal, or deals may refer to: Places United States * Deal, New Jersey, a borough * Deal, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * Deal Lake, New Jersey Elsewhere * Deal Island (Tasmania), Australia * Deal, Kent, a town in England * Deal, ...

, Kent, England. She hit the sandbank hard and the engines stopped. By 9:00 p.m. the chief engineer had informed the captain that the engines were unable to be repaired. The captain of the ship sent a radio distress signal to the coast guard. At 10:27 p.m. the coast guard found the ship. A rescue could not be made until morning due to a

low tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide tables can ...

and rough seas. On the morning of January 31, 1946, the rescue tugs, HMS ''Lady Bassey'' and ''Persia'' tried to free the ship but the attempt was abandoned due to gale force winds. At 4:00 p.m., the coast guard returned to find the SS ''Luray Victory'' breaking up and realised salvage was impossible. The forty-nine crew abandoned the ship, moved to shore by Freddie Upton, the life boat captain. The top part of the shipwreck was visible for fifty years at 51º-ll'-04N, 001º-31'-62E. ''Luray Victory''
Getty Images website On December 24, 1946, the SS ''Northeastern Victory'' was also wrecked on the Goodwin Sands.

References

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