SS Rushville Victory

SS Rushville Victory was a Victory ship-based troop transport built for the US Army Transportation Corps (USAT) late in World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding program. It saw service in the European Theater of Operations in 1945, 1946 and in the immediate post-war period repatriating US troops.

VC2-S-AP2 type Victory ship
History
US
Name:	SS Rushville Victory
Namesake:	City of Rushville, Illinois
Owner:	War Shipping Administration
Operator:	Dichmann, Wright & Pugh, inc.
Builder:	Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard Corp.
Laid down:	March 3, 1945
Launched:	April 24, 1945
Completed:	May 22, 1945
Renamed:	Nikobar 1947, then Aydin 1954
Fate:	Sold to private; sank 1958
General characteristics
Tonnage:	7,607 tons (GRT), 4,551 tons (NRT)
Displacement:	15,200 tons (full load), 10,875 tons (lightweight)
Length:	455 ft (139 m)
Beam:	62 ft (19 m)
Draft:	28 ft (8.5 m)
Propulsion:	2 B&W oil-fired steam boilers, 2 steam turbines, single propeller, 6,000 shp (4,500 kW)
Speed:	16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph)
Troops:	1597
Armament:	1 × 5-inch (127 mm)/38 caliber gun 1 × 3-inch (76 mm)/50 caliber gun 8 × 20 mm Oerlikon
Notes:	Hull Type: C2-S-AP2 MCV hull No. 651[1][2]

After being briefly laid up in the US, Rushville Victory was sold for private cargo shipping in 1947 and sank near Antwerp in 1958.

History

Construction

SS Rushville Victory was laid down on March 3, 1945, as a US Maritime Commission (MARCOM) Type C2 ship-based VC2-S-AP2, MCV hull No. 651, by Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard of Baltimore, Maryland.[3] SS Rushville Victory was the last of the 50 Victory ships built by the Bethlehem Ship Corporation.[4] She was launched on April 24, 1945, and later converted into a dedicated troopship.[5][6] She was operated on behalf of the US Army Transportation Corps (USAT) by Dichmann, Wright & Pugh, inc.

Beginning on May 25, 1945, Rushville Victory was converted to a troopship along with six other Victory cargo ships at the Savannah Waterfront by the Savannah Machine & Foundry Company. Her cargo holds were converted to mess halls, exercise places, and sleeping areas with hammocks and bunk beds.

Operation

As a transport allocated to USAT, the Rushville Victory was crewed by US Merchant Marines, protected by a contingent of the US Navy Armed Guards, and had a complement of the US Army Transportation Corps (Water Division) aboard for troop administration.[7] She was armed with a 5-inch (127 mm) stern gun for use against submarines and surface ships, and a bow-mounted 3-inch (76 mm) gun and eight 20 mm cannon for use against aircraft.

Her Atlantic Ocean crossings include:

• Departed Le Havre, France October 3, 1945, and arrived in the Port of New York on October 11, 1945.
• Departed Calais, France on October 31, 1945, and arrived in New York on November 12, 1945.
• Departed Marseille, France on November 24, 1945, and arrived in New York on December 7, 1945.[8]
• Departed Le Havre, France, and arrived in New Jersey on January 5, 1946.
• Departed Antwerp, Belgium with 1,530 troops, including the: 3235th and 3006th Ordnance Depot Company, 7th Medical Convalescence Hospital, 39th Heavy Signal Construction Battalion, 4423rd Quartermaster Depot Supply Company and the 355th Quartermaster Railhead Company and arrived on February 2, 1946, in New York.[9][10][11][12][13]

In April 1946, the Rushville Victory took German POWs from New York to Antwerp; this included the crews of the U-boats U-530 and U-977.[14]

As part of Operation Magic Carpet she took US troops home from European port cities known as Cigarette Camps.[15]

Near the end of 1946, with her Atlantic crossings completed, she was laid up in the James River in Virginia as part of the National Defense Reserve Fleet.

Private use and sinking

Rushville Victory was sold in 1947 to A/S Det Ostasiatiske Kompagni of Copenhagen, Denmark and renamed MV Nikobar. In 1954 she was sold to Deniz Nikilyati in Istanbul, Turkey and renamed SS Aydin. In 1955 she was sold to D. B. Deniz Nakliyati T.A.S. of Istanbul and kept her name. On February 11, 1958, The Aydin had a collision with the MS Charles Tellier, owned by French Cie de Messageries Maritimes. After the collision she ran aground in the Schelde River near Antwerp to avoid sinking. She was abandoned and declared a total loss; her masts could be seen above the water line for many years.[16][17][18][19]

See also

• Victory Ship
• Liberty Ship

References

1. Vessel Status Card
2. Babcock & Wilcox (April 1944). "Victory Ships". Marine Engineering and Shipping Review.
3. shipbuildinghistory.com Merchant ships Victory ships
4. The Baltimore Sun from Baltimore, Maryland · Page 11, April 25, 1945
5. Appendix B: Victory Troopship Conversions Compiled from Roland W. Charles, Troopships of World War II (Washington, DC: The Army Transportation Association, 1947), Appendix E, pp. 356-357
6. Record of the Third Naval District Office of Port Director, Port of New York
7. United States War Department (1944). FM 55-105. United States Department of War. p. 12 Section 14, Allocated Vessels, Diagrams following p. 64.
8. A Small Town's Contribution: The Participation, Sacrifice and Effort of the War, page 17, By Randall M Dewitt
9. Benton Harbor News Palladium, October 12, 1945
10. History of the 313th Infantry in World War II, page 174, By Sterling A. Wood
11. Rupert Red Two: A Fighter Pilot's Life From Thunderbolts to Thunderchiefs, page 283, By Jack Broughton
12. The Pittsburgh Press from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania · Page 2, February 2, 1946
13. myheritage.com, Barrier Daily Truth (Broken Hill, NSW), Dec. 25, 1945, Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia
14. Hirschfeld: The Secret Diary of a U-Boat NCO, 1940–1946, page 219, by Geoffrey Brooks
15. World War II on the Savannah Waterfront in the American Theater of Operations, Wartime Production and Service in Savannah, City of Savannah Research Library and Municipal Archives, page 3, August 29, 2008
16. Mariners, The Website Of The Mariners Mailing List., Victory Ships
17. Wrecks: SS Aydin (Ajdin) [+1958
18. Photo of the sunken Aydin from the M/S "ANUNCIADA"
19. shipspotting.com, MS Charles Tellier

External links

• 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, ISBN 0-87033-182-5.
• United States Maritime Commission
• Victory Cargo Ships
• Baltimore Sun image archives (2 images)