SS Atchison Victory
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States
| |
| Name: | SS Atchison Victory |
| Namesake: | Atchison, Kansas |
| Owner: | War Shipping Administration |
| Operator: | American President Lines |
| Builder: | California Shipbuilding Company, Los Angeles |
| Laid down: | 17 February 1944 |
| Launched: | 22 April 1944 |
| Completed: | 8 June 1944 |
| Fate: | sold to Furness Withy 1946 |
| History | |
 United Kingdom
| |
| Name: | SS Mohamed Ali el-Kebir |
| Operator: | Khedivial Mail S.S. Company |
| Route: | Alexandria - New York City |
| Renamed: | SS Salah el-Din 1960 |
| History | |
 Egypt
| |
| Acquired: | United Arab Maritime Company 1961 |
| Fate: | Burned and sold 1963 |
| History | |
 Liberia
| |
| Name: | SS Mercantile Victory |
| Fate: | Burned 1964 & scrapped 1965 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | VC2-S-AP3 Victory ship |
| Tonnage: | 7612 GRT, 4,553 NRT |
| Displacement: | 15,200 tons |
| Length: | 455 ft (139 m) |
| Beam: | 62 ft (19 m) |
| Draught: | 28 ft (8.5 m) |
| Installed power: | 8,500 shp (6,300 kW) |
| Propulsion: | HP & LP turbines geared to a single 20.5-foot (6.2 m) propeller |
| Speed: | 16.5 knots |
| Boats & landing craft carried: | 4 Lifeboats |
| Complement: | 62 Merchant Marine and 28 US Naval Armed Guards |
| Armament: | |
| Notes: | [1] |
The SS Atchison Victory was a Victory ship built during World War II. She was launched by the California Shipbuilding Company on 22 April 1944 and completed on 8 June 1944. The ship’s United States Maritime Commission designation was VC2-S-AP3, hull number 11. The Maritime Commission turned her over to a civilian contractor, the American President Lines, for operation until the end of hostilities.
Postwar service
Atchison Victory was purchased by Furness Withy in 1946 and renamed Mohamed Ali el-Kebir. After refitting as a 8199-GRT 78-passenger cargo liner, she began service between Alexandria and New York City in 1948. She was renamed Salah el-Din in 1960, but service to New York ended when she was nationalized by the United Arab Maritime Company in 1961 and converted to a freighter.[2]
After two 1962 voyages through the Saint Lawrence Seaway, Salah el-Din suffered a superstructure fire on 4 September 1963 killing the chief steward and gutting the bridge and crew's quarters. The fire was extinguished with the help of Hamilton, Ontario, firefighters who prevented the fire from reaching an explosives cargo in the forward hold; but the ship took a heavy list. Stability was restored by pumping out the firefighting water, and on 22 November 1963 Salah El-Din left Hamilton under tow. Salvador Investment Company purchased the ship at Quebec City for repair in Houston. The ship was renamed Mercantile Victory and returned to service in March 1964, but suffered an engine room fire on the Red Sea on 23 April 1964. The ship was towed to Khorramshahr to offload its cargo, and then towed back to Marseille. Repair was considered impractical, so the ship was scrapped at Castellón de la Plana in 1965.[3]
Notes
- ↑ Babcock & Wilcox (April 1944). "Victory Ships". Marine Engineering and Shipping Review.
- ↑ Emmons, Frederick (1972). The Atlantic Liners 1925-70. New York: Bonanza Books. p. 151.
- ↑ Gillham, Skip. "Salah El Din caught fire at Hamilton on Sept. 4, 1963". Great Lakes & Seaway Shipping News Archive. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
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 Ships