SS ''Morgantown Victory'' was a

Victory ship The Victory ship was a class of cargo ship produced in large numbers by American shipyards during World War II. They were a more modern design compared to the earlier Liberty ship, were slightly larger and had more powerful steam turbine engin ...

built during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

under the

Emergency Shipbuilding program The Emergency Shipbuilding Program (late 1940 – September 1945) was a United States government effort to quickly build simple cargo ships to carry troops and materiel to allies and foreign theatres during World War II. Run by the U.S. Maritim ...

. ''Morgantown Victory'' (MCV-632) was a type VC2-S-AP2 Victory ship built by

Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard The Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard of Baltimore, Maryland, was a shipyard in the United States from 1941 until 1945. Located on the south shore of the Middle Branch of the Patapsco River which serves as the Baltimore Harbor, it was owned by the Be ...

s. The

Maritime Administration Maritime administrations, or flag state administrations, are the executive arms/state bodies of each government responsible for carrying out the shipping responsibilities of the state, and are tasked to administer national shipping and boating issu ...

cargo ship was the 632nd ship built. The ship is named for the city of

Morgantown, West Virginia Morgantown is a city in Monongalia County, West Virginia, United States, and its county seat. It is situated along the Monongahela River in North Central West Virginia and is the home of West Virginia University. The population was 30,347 at the 2 ...

. Her keel was laid on 12 December 1944. She was launched on 5 February 1945 and completed on 28 February 1945. The 10,600-ton ship was constructed for the Maritime Commission. The States Marine Line operated her under the

United States Merchant Marine The United States Merchant Marine is an organization composed of United States civilian sailor, mariners and U.S. civilian and federally owned merchant vessels. Both the civilian mariners and the merchant vessels are managed by a combination of ...

act for the

War Shipping Administration The War Shipping Administration (WSA) was a World War II emergency war agency of the US government, tasked to purchase and operate the civilian shipping tonnage the United States needed for fighting the war. Both shipbuilding under the Maritime C ...

. Victory ships were designed to supersede the earlier

Liberty Ship Liberty ships were a ship class, class of cargo ship built in the United States during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Although British in concept, the design was adopted by the United States for its simple, low-cost cons ...

s. Unlike Liberty ships, Victory ships were designed to serve the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

after the war and also last longer. The Victory ship differed from a Liberty ship in that they were: faster, longer and wider, taller, and had a thinner stack set farther toward 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 ...

. They also had a long raised

forecastle The forecastle ( ; contracted as fo'c'sle or fo'c's'le) is the upper deck (ship), deck of a sailing ship forward of the foremast, or, historically, the forward part of a ship with the sailors' living quarters. Related to the latter meaning is t ...

World War II

On Wednesday 11 April 1945 at 1:15am the ''Morgantown Victory'' hit a mine at while joining convoy VWP 21, north of

Le Havre Le Havre is a major port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy (administrative region), Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the Seine, river Seine on the English Channel, Channe ...

, France. She had departed a path that had been swept of mines for the convoy. The mine hit the port side at cargo hold #5. This damaged the ship's generators. No one was killed and only three crew were injured. She had a load of cargo, including 386 tons of Army mail. Life boats were readied, but were not needed. The ship was towed to Le Havre by a Navy tug. On April 30 she was towed to

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

, Belgium and repaired in dry dock.

War relief and Seacowboys

In 1946 after World War II, ''Morgantown Victory'' was converted to a

livestock Livestock are the Domestication, domesticated animals that are raised in an Agriculture, agricultural setting to provide labour and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, Egg as food, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The t ...

ship, also called a cowboy ship. From 1945 to 1947 the

United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA, pronounced ) was an international relief agency founded in November 1943 on the joint initiative of the United States, United Kingdom, USSR, and the Republic of China. Its purpose ...

and the Brethren Service Committee of the

Church of the Brethren The Church of the Brethren is an Anabaptist Christian denomination in the Schwarzenau Brethren tradition ( "Schwarzenau New Baptists") that was organized in 1708 by Alexander Mack in Schwarzenau, Germany during the Radical Pietist revival. ...

sent livestock to war-torn countries. These "

seagoing cowboys Seagoing cowboys is a term used for men and ships used from 1945 to 1947 for United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration and the Brethren Service Committee of the Church of the Brethren that sent livestock to war-torn countries ...

" volunteers made about 360 trips on 73 different ships. The ''Heifers for Relief project'' was started by the Church of the Brethren in 1942; in 1953 this became ''Heifer International''. ''Morgantown Victory'' made six trips to deliver livestock to war worn nations in Europe. ''Morgantown Victory'' delivered livestock to

Gdańsk Gdańsk is a city on the Baltic Sea, Baltic coast of northern Poland, and the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. With a population of 486,492, Data for territorial unit 2261000. it is Poland's sixth-largest city and principal seaport. Gdań ...

, Poland in December 1945. There were problems loading ''Morgantown Victory'' for her first trip to Poland. The US port was not equipped to load horses, it took three days to load. They arrived in Poland on Christmas Eve of 1945. The Polish port city of Gdańsk-Danzig was just flat after the war. Unloading the horses, took a long time also, the ship was still in Gdańsk-Danzig for New Year's Eve a week later. Departing Poland she ran into thick fog and then ran aground near Sweden. She was able to get underway four days later. ''Morgantown Victory'' delivered poultry chicks to Poland in May 1946. She made three more trips to Poland in April 1946, July 1946 and January 1947. ''"Thirty-two cowboys back at sea, getting homesick as they could be, spent Christmas Day out on the deep, and dreamt of home while fast asleep."'' this was written by 23 year old Willard Bontrager who titled it ''“An Ode to Thirty-two Cowboys,”''. Willard gave the poem to his crew at their Christmas program on December 25, 1946 at sea. Willard and the crew delivered 750 horses to Yugoslavia in December 1946. After her war relief efforts in 1949, she was laid up at

Suisun Bay Suisun Bay ( ; Wintun for "where the west wind blows") is a shallow tidal estuary (a northeastern extension of the San Francisco Bay) in Northern California. It lies at the confluence of the Sacramento River and San Joaquin River, forming the e ...

as part of the

National Defense Reserve Fleet The National Defense Reserve Fleet (NDRF) consists of Ship, ships of the United States, mostly Merchant ship, merchant vessels, that have been Reserve fleet, mothballed but can be activated within 20 to 120 days to provide shipping during nationa ...

Korean War

''Morgantown Victory'' served as a merchant marine ship supplying goods for the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

. About 75 percent of the personnel serving in the Korean War were delivered by the merchant marine ships. ''Morgantown Victory'' transported goods, mail, food, and other supplies. About 90 percent of the cargo was moved by merchant marine ships to the war zone. ''Morgantown Victory'' made trips between 1951 and 1952. ''Morgantown Victory'' serviced in the Inchon-Seoul Operation, App E, Task Organization of Joint Task Force Seven.

Vietnam War

In 1966 she was reactivated for the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

. She was operated by the

Pacific Far East Line Pacific Far East Line, also called PFEL in short, was a passenger and cargo shipping line founded in 1943 by Thomas E. Cuffe, in San Francisco, California. At the beginning he started by chartering foreign ships to run the lines in tramp trade. La ...

.20th Engineer Battalion Unit History, Central Highlands, RVN
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Retired

In 1973 she was again laid up in Barn Bay. In 1984 she was taken to

Port of Kaohsiung The Port of Kaohsiung (POK; ) is the largest harbor in Taiwan, handling approximately 10.26 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) worth of cargo in 2015. The port is located in southern Taiwan, adjacent to Kaohsiung City, and surrounded by ...

and scrapped.

References

Sources

*Sawyer, L.A. and W.H. Mitchell. ''Victory ships and tankers: The history of the ‘Victory’ type cargo ships and the tankers built in the United States of America during World War II'', Cornell Maritime Press, 1974, 0-87033-182-5. *United States Maritime Commission

*Victory Cargo Ship

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morgantown Victory, SS Victory ships United States Merchant Marine 1945 ships World War II merchant ships of the United States