Alabama Victory Ships in World War II

I seem to be doing a series on this blog about ships with names connected in some way to Alabama. This post fits that group. In previous items I've discussed the 1898 USS Alabama battleship, the USS Birmingham and early flight, the effort to save the World War II USS Alabama battleship, and the SS Selma, a concrete ship. This time let's look at Victory ships named for Alabama cities. 

During World War II various United States shipyards produced 531 ships of the Victory class, cargo ships that were an improved design over the older Liberty class. Five types were constructed across two main categories; 414 were standard cargo ships and 117 were attack transports. You can find a list of the ships here and by building shipyard here.  

Many of the Victory ships were named after U.S. cities. In my research I discovered seven vessels named after Alabama locations. As you'll see I found little information on four and more on three of them. I've included the shipyards where they were built.


SS Anniston Victory Permanente Metals, Richmond, California delivered Feb 21, 1945

SS Bessemer Victory California Shipbuilding Corporation, Los Angeles delivered Aug 30, 1945. Had some commercial service in Vietnam, remained in the National Defense Reserve Fleet and berthed on the James River in Virginia until sold in the late 1980's and finally scrapped in India in 1991

SS Dothan Victory Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation, Portland, delivered Nov 7, 1945

SS Eufaula Victory Bethlehem Steel, Baltimore, delivered Dec 12, 1944

SS Selma Victory California Shipbuilding Corporation, Los Angeles, delivered July 29, 1944

USS Talladega Permanente Metals, Richmond, California, delivered Oct 31, 1944. The Talladega was the only attack transport I found among the Victory ships with Alabama connections. The vessel worked various areas of the Pacific during the war, including the Battle of Iwo Jima. Here's the details on that from the Wikipedia entry:

Talladega sortied from Saipan as a unit of Task Group 56.2, the Assault Group, on 16 February, and arrived off Iwo Jima on the morning of 19 February, "D-day".^[4] Four Marines pictured in Joe Rosenthal's famous flag-raising photograph debarked from Talladega to climb Mt. Suribachi on Iwo Jima: Ira Hayes, Franklin Sousley, Harlon Block, and Mike Strank.^[2] After landing her troops, she remained off the beaches embarking combat casualties for six days before heading back toward Saipan.^[4]

His Wikipedia entry notes this information about Hayes, a Native American:

He was the subject of an article by journalist William Bradford Huie, which was adapted for the feature film The Outsider (1961), starring Tony Curtis as Hayes. The movie inspired songwriter Peter La Farge to write "The Ballad of Ira Hayes," which became popular nationwide in 1964 after being recorded by Johnny Cash. In 2006, Hayes was portrayed by Adam Beach in the World War II movie Flags of Our Fathers, directed by Clint Eastwood.

Sousley, Block and Strank are all portrayed in the 2006 film Flags of Our Fathers. William Bradford Huie, a Hartselle native, was a well-known novelist and journalist at the time. 

The Talladega also participated in the Korean and Vietnam wars and was finally scrapped in 1982. You can find many more details and a photo gallery about her here.

The city of Talladega has honored the ship with a monument on the courthouse square.

Photo taken by Rivers Langley 27 October 2011

Source: NavSource

SS Tuskegee Victory Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation, Portland, delivered June 5, 1945. The ship spent seven years in commercial service after the war, then returned to the National Defense Maritime Fleet in 1952. In 1958 she was refitted as a Bowditch class oceanographic survey ship for the Navy and rechristened the USNS Dutton. She served in that capacity until February 1980; the vessel was scrapped in September 2007.

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SS Selma Victory and six other ships of the class being outfitted at the California Shipbuilding Corporation in Los Angeles in June 1944 

Source: NavSource Online

USS Talladega a Victory class attack transport ca. 1945

Source: Wikipedia

SS Tuskegee Victory after its conversion to the USNS Dutton

Source: Wikipedia 

Red Oak Victory in 2013, at that time the only operational vessel of the class

Source: Wikipedia

USS Birmingham and Early Flight

The U.S. Navy has commissioned three ships named after the city of Birmingham. The first, a light cruiser, was in service from 1908 until December 1, 1923, when she was decommissioned. The vessel was sold for scrap on May 13, 1930. 

In the early years the first USS Birmingham participated in activities in the West Indies and along the South American coast She also served with the Atlantic fleet as a flagship in 1914 and 1916. When the U.S. entered World War I the Birmingham patrolled the U.S. Atlantic coast and then became part of the escort for the first troop convoy to France. She continued operating in European waters until the war's end, and then spent the rest of her service based in San Diego.

The USS Birmingham has two claims to important events in the history of flight. On November 14, 1910, a civilian pilot named Eugene Ely made an airplane flight from the deck of the ship. He piloted a Curtiss Model D biplane designed by Glen Curtiss in making the first airplane takeoff from a warship. In April and May 1914 the Birmingham operated in Mexican waters looking for mines. On April 25 off Veracruz one of a pair of Curtiss Model F flying boats made the first U.S. military mission of a heavier-than-air aircraft from the deck. 

Another important event on the Birmingham took place on November 4, 1910. Seaman G.H. Kephart fell overboard into freezing water off Hampton Roads, Virginia. Chief electrician William E. Snyder jumped in and rescued Kephart. Snyder was awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism. 

I've also done posts on "The 1898 U.S.S. Alabama Battleship" and "USS Alabama Charter Member: "Good for FREE Admission".

USS Birmingham in 1908 perhaps during a trial run

Source: Wikipedia

Pilot Eugene Ely takes off from USS Birmingham, Hampton Roads, Virginia, 14 November 1910

"The airplane plunged downward as soon as it cleared the 83-foot platform runway; and the aircraft wheels dipped into the water before rising. Ely's goggles were covered with spray, and the aviator promptly landed on a beach rather than circling the harbor and landing at the Norfolk Navy Yard as planned."

Source: Wikipedia

On January 11, 1911, Ely again made aviation history when he took off from a racetrack in San Bruno, California, and landed on a platform on the armored cruiser USS Pennsylvania. According to his Wikipedia entry, "This flight was also the first ever using a tailhook system, designed and built by circus performer and aviator Hugh Robinson."

Ely continued exhibition flying until his death in a crash in Macon Georgia, on October 19, 1911, aged 24. In 1933 Congress awarded him a Distinguished Flying Cross for his contributions to civilian and naval aviation.

S.S. Selma, A Concrete Ship

Did you know concrete ships were once a thing? Neither did I. Let's investigate.

These ships were built of a combination of steel and ferrocement, or reinforced concrete. Several were built by the U.S. in World War I due to steel shortages. The war ended before any were used, but such ships and barges were built and deployed by the U.S. and Great Britain during World War II. The U.S. alone built 104 of the vessels. The concrete boat actually dates to 1848 in France; vessels with concrete hulls have been launched even in recent years. A website dedicated to the history of these vessels is here.

The largest of the twelve concrete ships constructed by the U.S. during the First World War was the S.S. Selma and its twin the S.S. Latham. These ships were not entirely concrete, of course, only the hulls. The S.S. Selma weighed 7500 tons, was 434 feet in length, and could make about 12 miles per hour. 

F.F. Ley and Company built the S.S. Selma in Mobile, and she was launched on June 28, 1919. That same day the Treaty of Versailles was signed, long after hostilities had ended in November 1918. Since the government no longer needed her, she was sold to a private company and began working several ports along the Gulf Coast as an oil tanker. 

In May 1920 she struck a jetty in Tampico, Mexico; the accident put a long gash in the hull. Temporary repairs allowed the shipped to be towed to Galveston, but no permanent repairs could be made. The owners then partially sank her near Pelican Island in a specially dug channel on March 9, 1922. The wreck has been visible ever since and has become a tourist attraction.

A recent article from the Associated Press describes the current status and probable future of the SS Selma. The wreck has been a state archaeological landmark since 1993 and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, but the president of the corporation that owns her noted rapid deterioration and the possibility she could be under water in fifteen years. That would be a sad fate indeed for a vessel just now reaching 100 years after launch.

An appreciation of the SS Selma by Richard W. Steiger can be found here. A web site devoted to all the concrete ships of World Wars I and II is here. More about the SS Selma can be found in Dorothy Anne Rowland's 2018 thesis, "The History of Galveston's Concrete Ships" [Texas A&M University, PDF file]. 

You can find a gallery of photos of the wreck here.

Source: Shipwreck World

Source: Wikipedia