SS United Victory
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States
| |
| Name: | SS United Victory |
| Owner: | War Shipping Administration |
| Operator: | American President Lines |
| Builder: | Oregon Shipbuilding Company Portland |
| Laid down: | 19 November 1943 |
| Launched: | 12 January 1944 |
| Completed: | 28 February 1944 |
| In service: | March 1944 |
| Fate: | sold to Furness Withy 1946 |
| History | |
 United Kingdom
| |
| Name: | SS Khedive Ismail |
| Operator: | Khedivial Mail S.S. Company |
| Route: | Alexandria - New York City |
| Maiden voyage: | 15 March 1948 |
| Renamed: | Cleopatra 1956 |
| History | |
 Egypt
| |
| Acquired: | United Arab Maritime Company 1961 |
| Fate: | Scrapped 1981 |
| 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 United Victory was the first of 531 Victory ships built during World War II. She was launched by the Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation on 12 January 1944, completed on 28 February 1944, and had her maiden voyage a month later. The ship’s United States Maritime Commission designation was VC2-S-AP3, hull number 85. The Maritime Commission turned her over to a civilian contractor, the American President Lines, for operation until the end of hostilities.
Postwar service
United Victory was purchased by Furness Withy in 1946 and renamed Khedive Ismail after Isma'il Pasha. After refitting as a 8196-GRT 78-passenger cargo liner, she began service between Alexandria and New York City on 15 March 1948. She was renamed Cleopatra in 1956, but service to New York ended when she was nationalized by the United Arab Maritime Company in 1961.[2] She was acquired by the Egyptian Navigation Company in 1974, and scrapped at the Gadani ship-breaking yard in 1981.[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.
- ↑ "Victory Ships - U". Mariners. World Ship Society. Retrieved 4 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