SS SEAWITCH - Ship Of The Week #11 2/10/2015

[Admiral2]

STEAM SHIP SEAWITCH​

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In the early years of World War II, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt promised the nations facing Nazi aggression that the United States would serve as the “Arsenal of Democracy,” producing vital arms and supplies for the Allied war effort. The bulk of those supplies were transported across the Atlantic Ocean by the U.S. Merchant Marine, and those brave merchant sailors’ greatest assets were the Liberty Ships. More than 2,700 ships were built by the U.S. Maritime Commission to a standardized design and at a cost of $2,000,000 per unit.

One of the most famous of these ships was the SS Seawitch. The ship was bound for Murmansk as part of a convoy when an attack by a German “wolfpack” - a group of U-boats - attacked and forced the convoy ships to disperse. The Seawitch made her way to Murmansk on her own, dogged by a persistent U-boat and attack planes, defended only by her handful of naval guns and the command experience of Captain Steve Jarvis and First Mate Joe Rossi.

The Seawitch was 441 feet long and 56 feet wide, with an oil-burning steam engine and a max speed of 11 knots. She could carry more than 9000 tons of cargo and equipment in her holds and lashed to her deck. She had a Merchant Marine crew of 44 and a crew of around 20 US Navy sailors to man her guns, which included a 5-inch deck gun and 20mm machine guns

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ACTION IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC​

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Action in the North Atlantic is the award-winning 1943 film starring Raymond Massey and Humphrey Bogart about the men of the Merchant Marine in World War II.

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“That's no miracle...that’s American seamanship!”

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OudEsJEnq8[/yt]​

 

[publiusr]

When I think of Liberty Ships, the one that comes to mind was the ill fated Grandcamp: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_disaster

The explosion blew almost 6,350 short tons (5,760 metric tons) of the ship's steel into the air, some at supersonic speed.