Red Oak Victory
Cargo ships were mass produced during World War II to carry vital wartime materials and manpower to both the European and Pacific theaters of operations. Victory ship production began in mid- 1944 to replace the slower Liberty class ships that had been built as a wartime expedient. The Kaiser Shipyards in Richmond, California were a major builder of both types, and once produced a Victory ship in 96 hours from laying of the keel to the launch. The Red Oak Victory was the 558th ship built at the Kaiser yard, which at it's height employed more than 100,000 men and women in the total production of 747 ships for the war effort. The Red Oak Victory is the last known restorable vessel of this remarkable output
Red Oak Victory was launched on November 9, 1944, 87 days after it's keel was laid at Kaiser Shipyard Number 1, under a U.S. Maritime Commission contract. The launch was sponsored by Mrs. Edna Reily, wife of the mayor of Red Oak, Iowa, the ship was named in honor of this city, which had lost more young men per capita than any other city in the United States during the War.
The ship was the ninth of ten Kaiser "Boulder" class Victory ships built for the Navy as ammunition carriers. It was commissioned on December 5 as the USS Red Oak Victory AK 235 with Lt. Cmdr John S. Sayers (USNR) as Commanding Officer. It served in the Caroline Islands and the Philippines supplying ammunition to vessels ranging from battleships to LST's. It was transferred from the U.S. Navy to control of the Maritime Commission in June, 1946.
As the SS Red Oak Victory, it was operated by Luckenbach Steamship Company from 1947 through 1953, in the latter part of this service bringing military supplies to troops in Korea. It was put into the Reserve Fleet in Astoria, Oregon, but brought out in 1958 to bring emergency grain supplies to India and Pakistan. It again came out of the Astoria Reserve Fleet as a cargo ship, operated by American Mail Lines during the Viet Nam conflict, making a dozen trips to the far Pacific in the years 1966 through 1968.
Placed in the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet in December, 1968, the Red Oak Victory remained in "mothballs" until it was acquired by the Richmond Museum Association in 1996.
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