The SS ''Rutland Victory'' was a

Victory ship The Victory ship was a class of cargo ship produced in large numbers by North American shipyards during World War II to replace losses caused by German submarines. They were a more modern design compared to the earlier Liberty ship, were slig ...

built during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

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. Maritime ...

. It was built and launched by the

Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation was a World War II emergency shipyard located along the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, United States. The shipyard built nearly 600 Liberty and Victory ships between 1941 and 1945 under the Emergency Ship ...

on May 9, 1944, and completed on May 29, 1944. The ship's

United States Maritime Commission The United States Maritime Commission (MARCOM) 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, 195 ...

designation was VC2-S-AP3 and hull number 104 (1020). The ship was Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation's 20th victory ship. The Maritime Commission turned it over for Merchant navy operation to a civilian contractor, the

United States Lines United States Lines was the trade name of an organization of the United States Shipping Board (USSB), Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) created to operate German liners seized by the United States in 1917. The ships were owned by the USSB and al ...

. Mrs. Ada May Brannor, of

La Grande, Oregon La Grande is a city in Union County, Oregon, United States. Originally named "Brownsville," it was forced to change its name because that name was being used for a city in Linn County. Located in the Grande Ronde Valley, the city's name comes ...

, christened the SS ''Rutland Victory''. She worked at the Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation yard on the swing shift. Mrs. Brannor was given a gold jewel case with her name and the ship engraved on it.

World War II

In 1944, for the vessel's first mission, the ''Rutland Victory'' took

ammunition Ammunition (informally ammo) is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. Ammunition is both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines) and the component parts of other weapo ...

from

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, to

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the ...

. On August 29, 1944, the ''Rutland Victory'' transferred cargo to and from the

USS Massachusetts (BB-59) USS ''Massachusetts'' (BB-59) is the third of four fast battleships built for the United States Navy in the late 1930s. The first American battleships designed after the Washington treaty system began to break down in the mid-1930s, they to ...

Enewetak Atoll Enewetak Atoll (; also spelled Eniwetok Atoll or sometimes Eniewetok; mh, Ānewetak, , or , ; known to the Japanese as Brown Atoll or Brown Island; ja, ブラウン環礁) is a large coral atoll of 40 islands in the Pacific Ocean and with it ...

. Task force 38 was at the Enewetak Atoll in August 1944 and the ''Rutland Victory'' delivered cargo and goods to the Task force. In May 1945, she traveled from

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

Iwo Jima Iwo Jima (, also ), known in Japan as , is one of the Japanese Volcano Islands and lies south of the Bonin Islands. Together with other islands, they form the Ogasawara Archipelago. The highest point of Iwo Jima is Mount Suribachi at high. ...

with 82 days-worth of supplies for the American troops stationed at Iwo Jima for the purpose of preparing them for 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 ...

, lasting from April 1 to June 22, 1945. After the war she moved to ports where supplies were required.

Honors

''Rutland Victory'' earned

Battle Stars A service star is a miniature bronze or silver five-pointed star inch (4.8 mm) in diameter that is authorized to be worn by members of the eight uniformed services of the United States on medals and ribbons to denote an additional award or ser ...

for combat action from June 17, 1945, to June 30, 1945, at the

Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...

in the Pacific Ocean. On those days, the ''Rutland Victory'' used its

deck gun A deck gun is a type of naval artillery mounted on the deck of a submarine. Most submarine deck guns were open, with or without a shield; however, a few larger submarines placed these guns in a turret. The main deck gun was a dual-purpose ...

s to defend itself and other ships from Japanese

Kamikaze , officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending to ...

plane attacks.

Film

A short film about the

Panama Canal The Panama Canal ( es, Canal de Panamá, link=no) is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a Channel ( ...

featured the ''Rushville Victory'' crossing was made entitled "''Ocean to Ocean: Panama Canal''"; it shows the crossing of the ''Rushville Victory'' through the Panama canal to demonstrate how the canal worked. The film is now part of a

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

title
"''USN Oil Tankers Supply and Cargo Ships''"
by Campbell films, with a running time of 8:10 min.

Private use

In 1948, the SS ''Rutland Victory'' was sold to the

American President Lines APL, formerly called American President Lines Ltd., is an American container shipping company that is a subsidiary of French shipping company CMA CGM. It operates an all-container ship fleet, including 9 U.S. flagged container vessels. In 1938, ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

and renamed the SS ''President Fillmore''. In 1962, the boat was sold to Victory Shipping Enterprises Inc. from

Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington (Lenape: ''Paxahakink /'' ''Pakehakink)'' is the largest city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish settlement in North America. It lies at the confluence of the Christin ...

and renamed SS ''Smith Victory''. In 1965, Victory Shipping Enterprises renamed it the SS ''US Victory''. The vessel was later sold to Transpacific Container Services of

Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean to its south and southwest. It ...

in 1969 and renamed the SS ''Oriental Arrow''. In 1969, Transpacific Container Services converted it to a 7,511 g.t.

container ship A container ship (also called boxship or spelled containership) is a cargo ship that carries all of its load in truck-size intermodal containers, in a technique called containerization. Container ships are a common means of commercial intermoda ...

and in 1972, it was sold to Universal Enterprise Inc. of

Monrovia, Liberia Monrovia () is the capital city of the West African country of Liberia. Founded in 1822, it is located on Cape Mesurado on the Atlantic coast and as of the 2008 census had 1,010,970 residents, home to 29% of Liberia’s total population. As the ...

, and renamed the SS ''Oriental Ace''. In 1976, the ''Oriental Ace'' sank. The SS ''Oriental Ace'', operating as a Liberian container ship, started to leak in rough seas on its way from

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

Kobe Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, w ...

, Japan. The crew abandoned ship into the

lifeboat Lifeboat may refer to: Rescue vessels * Lifeboat (shipboard), a small craft aboard a ship to allow for emergency escape * Lifeboat (rescue), a boat designed for sea rescues * Airborne lifeboat, an air-dropped boat used to save downed airmen ...

s and it sank on February 13, 1976 at 32.05N 152.43E, 600 miles East of

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

, Japan. Wreck SS ''Oriental Ace'' (+1976)
/ref>

References

Sources

*Sawyer, L.A. and W.H. Mitchell. ''Victory ships and tankers: The history of the 'Victory' type cargo ships and of 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:Rutland Victory, SS Victory ships Ships built in Portland, Oregon Merchant ships of the United States 1944 ships World War II merchant ships of the United States