SS ''Rebecca Lukens'' was a

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 ...

built in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

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 ...

. She was named after

Rebecca Lukens Rebecca Lukens (1794–1854), born Rebecca Webb Pennock, was an American businesswoman. She was the owner and manager of the iron and steel mill which became the Lukens Steel Company of Coatesville, Pennsylvania. Fortune Magazine called her "Amer ...

, the owner and manager of the iron and steel mill which became the

Lukens Steel Company Lukens Steel Company, located in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, Coatesville, Pennsylvania, is the oldest iron mill in commission within the United States. In 1995, it was one of the three largest producers of plate steel and the largest domestic man ...

Coatesville, Pennsylvania Coatesville is the only city in Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 13,350 at the 2020 census. Coatesville is approximately 39 miles west of Philadelphia. It developed along the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike ...

. She was converted in 1944 at Point Clear, Alabama into an Aircraft Repair Unit (Floating) and transferred to the

Army Transport Service The United States Army Transport Service (ATS) was established as a sea-going transport service that was independent of the Navy Department. ATS operated army transport ships for both troop transport and cargo service between United States ports ...

(ATS), after which she was renamed ''Major General Herbert A. Dargue'', for

Herbert Dargue Herbert Arthur "Bert" Dargue (November 17, 1886 – December 12, 1941) was a career officer in the United States Army, reaching the rank of major general in the Army Air Forces. He was a pioneer military aviator and one of the first ten recip ...

, a pioneering military aviator in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

Construction

''Rebecca Lukens'' was laid down on 7 January 1944, under a

Maritime Commission The United States Maritime Commission was an independent executive agency of the U.S. federal government that was created by the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, which was passed by Congress on June 29, 1936, and was abolished on May 24, 1950. The c ...

(MARCOM) contract, MC hull 1551, by

J.A. Jones Construction J.A. Jones Construction was a heavy construction company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. Operating internationally since the 1950s, it merged with Germany's Philipp Holzmann AG in 1979. In 2003, the company ceased operations due to th ...

Panama City Panama City, also known as Panama, is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has a total population of 1,086,990, with over 2,100,000 in its metropolitan area. The city is located at the Pacific Ocean, Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, i ...

, Florida; she was launched on 4 March 1944.

History

She was allocated to the

on 10 April 1944. She was converted at

Point Clear, Alabama Point Clear is an unincorporated census-designated place (CDP) in Baldwin County, Alabama, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 2,125. It is part of the Daphne-Fairhope-Foley metropolitan area. Geography Point Clear is loc ...

into an Aircraft Repair Unit (Floating) (ARU(F)) and designated USAAFS ''Rebecca Lukens'' (ARU(F)-2). The conversion added the shops to the Liberty ship, including machine, sheet metal, radiator, tank, wood, pattern, blue print, electrical, fabric and dope, paint, air-conditioned instrument and camera, radio, battery, propeller, tires and fuel cells, armament and turrets, plating, oxygen plant, radar, carburetor, and turbo-super-charger. Two LCVPs and two

DUKW The DUKW (GMC type nomenclature, colloquially known as Duck) is a six-wheel-drive amphibious modification of the GMC CCKW "deuce-and-a-half" 2½-ton trucks used by the U.S. military during World War II and the Korean War. Designed by a part ...

s were added for ship to shore transportation along with three or four

Sikorsky R-4 The Sikorsky R-4 is a two-seat light helicopter that was designed by Igor Sikorsky with a single, three-bladed main rotor and powered by a radial engine. The R-4 was the world's first large-scale mass production, mass-produced helicopter and the ...

s helicopters. The crew was given two weeks training in seamanship at the Grand Hotel in

Point Clear Point Clear is a village in the civil parish of St Osyth, south-west of the village of St Osyth and on the other side of St Osyth Creek, a branch of the Colne Estuary in the Tendring district, in the county of Essex, England. In 2018 it had an ...

, Alabama, on

Mobile Bay Mobile Bay ( ) is a shallow inlet of the Gulf of Mexico, lying within the state of Alabama in the United States. Its mouth is formed by the Fort Morgan Peninsula on the eastern side and Dauphin Island, a barrier island on the western side. T ...

. Classes included; swimming, elementary seamanship, life saving equipment, and advanced seamanship. On 1 October 1944, ''Rebecca Lukens'' sailed from

Brookley Field : ''For the civil use of Brookley AFB after 1969, see: Mobile Downtown Airport'' Brookley Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force base located in Mobile, Alabama. After it closed in 1969, it became what is now known as the Mobile Aero ...

for the Pacific, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel William McCraw, USAAF. She first visited Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to meet up with a convoy for

Eniwetok Enewetak Atoll (; also spelled Eniwetok Atoll or sometimes Eniewetok; , , or , ; known to the Japanese as Brown Atoll or Brown Island; ) is a large coral atoll of 40 islands in the Pacific Ocean and with its 296 people (as of 2021) forms a legi ...

. On 19 November 1944, ''Rebecca Lukens'' arrived off

Saipan Saipan () is the largest island and capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, an unincorporated Territories of the United States, territory of the United States in the western Pacific Ocean. According to 2020 estimates by the United States Cens ...

, and began her mission of repairing the

B-29 The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is a retired American four-engined Propeller (aeronautics), propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to ...

s that were beginning their bombing missions of mainland

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. Because the roads had not been finished yet her helicopters carried the parts to and from the ship to the air base. ''Rebecca Lukens'' was the sole supplier of breathing oxygen for the high altitude B-29s, she was averaging 100 cylinders of compressed breathable oxygen a day. On 6 December, her gunners shot down a Japanese

Mitsubishi G4M The Mitsubishi G4M is a twin-engine, land-based medium bomber formerly manufactured by the Mitsubishi Aircraft Company, a part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and operated by the Air Service (IJNAS) of the Imperial Japanese Navy from 1940 to ...

"Betty" bomber. ''Rebecca Lukens'' set sail for

Iwo Jima is one of the Japanese Volcano Islands, which lie south of the Bonin Islands and together with them make up the Ogasawara Subprefecture, Ogasawara Archipelago. Together with the Izu Islands, they make up Japan's Nanpō Islands. Although sout ...

, on 16 April 1945. At the end of April ''Rebecca Lukens'' was renamed ''Major General Herbert A. Dargue''. On 22 May 1945, she shot down another "Betty" with assistance from on shore

anti-aircraft Anti-aircraft warfare (AAW) is the counter to aerial warfare and includes "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It encompasses surface-based, subsurface ( submarine-launched), and air-ba ...

batteries. Between November 1944 and 1 September 1945, ''Major General Herbert A. Dargue'' supplied B-29s and

P-51 The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang is an American long-range, single-seat fighter and fighter-bomber used during World War II and the Korean War, among other conflicts. The Mustang was designed in 1940 by a team headed by James H. Kin ...

s with over 38,000 parts and units, ranging from spark plugs to the central fire controls for the B-29. On 2 March 1946, she was laid up in 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 ...

, in the James River Group, in

Lee Hall, Virginia Lee Hall is a community located in the extreme northern portion of the independent city of Newport News in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. History Lee Hall, located in the former Warwick County, was named for nearby Lee ...

. On 3 September 1970, she was sold for $41,330 to Horton Industry, Inc., for scrapping. She was removed from the fleet on 21 September 1970.

References

Bibliography

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External links

Liberty Ships
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rebecca Lukens Liberty ships Ships built in Panama City, Florida 1944 ships James River Reserve Fleet