S.S. Scotts Bluff: Forgotten Contributor

Among the many ships that bolstered the Allied navies in World War II, the T2-class tankers are largely forgotten. Their cousins, the Liberty- and Victory-class cargo ships have also largely taken a back seat but unlike the T2s there are still some Liberty and Victory ships acting as museums and some are even still seaworthy. The tankers were likely not preserved because they still had a critical role moving forward while the cargo ships were quickly replaced with much larger and more efficient vessels. Following World War II, the T2s were used to transport oil as the world became more dependent on it. The most common variant was the T2-SE-A1 and one of these was named SS Scotts Bluff after Scotts Bluff National Monument.

"Ships for Victory," emblem of the U.S. Maritime Commission during the war effort.

Public Domain, U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Purpose: Both the T2 Tankers and Liberty ships were created as part of the Emergency Shipbuilding Program to supply the war effort against the Axis Powers in World War II, as part of the effort on the Home Front. They were designed to be cheap and quickly built to make up for their losses, primarily due to submarine threats, like the U-boats deployed by Germany. They would see service throughout the war and many would be sold off in the post-war years entering the merchant marine of different nations. A few saw service over 50 years after the end of the war in specialized roles.

Bethlehem-Fairfield shipyards Inc.; By: Alfred T. Palmer, 1941, Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyards Inc.

Library of Congress

Construction: SS Scotts Bluff was built at the Swan Island Shipyard which was owned by the industrious Henry J. Kaiser. He was well-known for developing new methods of ship-building which dramatically decreased their cost and build time. Kaiser’s seven Pacific Coast shipyards built 1,490 cargo and tanker vessels during the war, some 27% of the total Maritime Commission construction. The ships were constructed in sections and welded together. Much of the labor performed was carried out by African Americans. At the Bethlehem Fairfield Shipyard in Baltimore, Maryland, some 6,000 of them made up the 46,000-person workforce.The average construction time of a T2 tanker was 70 days, from first laid to fleet ready. The fastest built was 33 days. The Liberty-class ships were even faster to complete. Initially, their construction required 230 days but by mid-1943 that number had dropped to 39 days. In a publicity stunt Permanente metals Corporation No. 2 Yard, in Richmond, California, built the SS Robert E. Peary, in 4 days and 15 ½ hours. The shipyards operated much like the assembly lines that produced America’s automobiles. At its peak, in 1943, three Liberty ships were being launched daily. The T2s were the second most produced vessel of World War II, with 533 built and only losing to the Type VII Submarine from Germany, of which 743 were built.

Liberty and Victory Ships: The first of the “Liberty ships” was the Ocean-class cargo ship which saw 60 vessels built between December 1940 and November 1942, costing about $1.6 million (about $22.22 million today). The Liberty-class came about soon after and was a little bigger and faster than the Ocean-class vessels and had oil-fueled engines instead of coal-fueled. These cost around $2 million (about $27.78 million) to build. The Victory-class came next, and much like the Liberty-class, was an improvement over the previous design. Victory ships cost an average of $2,528,000 ($35.11 million) each. In total, 60 Ocean-class 2,751 Liberty-class, and 534 Victory-class vessels were created. Today, there are four Liberty-class and three Victory-class vessels preserved as museum ships to show this more hidden piece of American history. The T2 tankers are different than the more well-known Liberty and Victory ships.

A sketch by Charles H. Alston titled "Democracy in Action" from 1943.  It depicts Capt. Hugh Mulzac standing prominently on the bow while two crew members look on.  The Booker T. Washington served in both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters during the war.

Public Domain, U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.

Naming: T2-class tankers were named after National Park Service Monuments, Parks, Forts, and Battlefields and included Fort Laramie, Bent’s Fort, Grand Teton, and Glacier. For Liberty-class ships, any group that managed to raise war bonds worth $2 million could propose a name. Most would bear the names of deceased individuals but one was named for someone believed to be dead, but was later released from a prisoner of war camp, and a few were named for the organizations that raised the war bonds. Seventeen of the Liberty ships were named for African-Americans. SS Harriet Tubman (launched April 1944) was the first Liberty ship to be named after an African American woman. SS Booker T. Washington (September 1942) was perhaps one of the most successful Victory ships and captained by Hugh Mulzac, whose story deserves its own article, captained an integrated crew and served in both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters.

Size: Liberty-class vessels measured in at 455 feet long and 62 feet wide. T2-SE-A1-class tankers, like the SS Scotts Bluff, were 523 feet long and 68 feet wide. Liberty-class vessels displaced about 14,245 tons while the tankers displaced about 22,445 tons. Displacement is one of many ways that the weights of ships are expressed. It calculates how much water the ship is displacing by examining how far the ship is settling into the water, using numbers painted on the bow (front), midships (middle), and astern (rear). Simply put, displacement is the effect of setting an object in water and the water line rising.

USS Housatonic conducting refueling operations in aircraft carrier USS Ranger in Atlantic Ocean on July 17, 1942.

U.S. Navy Photograph, U.S. National Archives

Capacity: The T2-class tankers, Liberty-class, and Victory-class ships were not the fastest vessels on the water, only capable of reaching 15 knots (17 mph), 11 knots (13 mph), and 17 knots (20 mph) respectively. In comparison one of their most common escorts, the Buckley-class destroyer escort, was capable of reaching 27 knots (31 mph).T2-SE-A1 tankers had nine sets of tanks capable of carrying 5.93 million gallons, or about 141,200 barrels, of fuel. In comparison, the largest tankers today, those of the TI-class supertankers, are capable of carrying 117.6 million gallons, or 2.8 million barrels, of oil; 1,800% more than its World War II ancestors. There were two pumprooms on the T2 tankers, with the principal one being in the rear, housing three pumps capable of moving 2,000 gallons per minute, plus additional pumps. Refueling was often done while at sea and larger ships might take more than 10 hours to complete.

The SS Pennsylvania Sun burning after being torpedoed by German submarine U-571 on July 15, 1942.  Such events are a reminder of the dangers maritime sailors faced in the early phases of the Battle of the Atlantic.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, U.S. National Archives.

Combat: Neither the Liberty-, Victory-, nor T2-class vessels were designed for combat but that did not mean that they were completely unprotected. Their armament varied but often consisted of one 5-inch, 4-inch, or 3-inch dual-purpose gun which could target both air and surface threats. They would also have a complement of eight 20mm Oerlikon light AA guns. Their principal safety came in numbers and their escort vessels, which included destroyers and smaller aircraft carriers, some of which were converted T3-class tankers. The most common threat to the Allied vessels in the Atlantic Ocean were the German U-boats, which claimed some 3,500 merchant vessels. Eight of the merchant vessels lost to U-boats were T2-class tankers.

History of the Scotts Bluff: She was built in 39 "working days" and launched on May 10, 1944 by Kaiser Shipyards in Portland, Oregon. Not much is available on the ship’s wartime history but she did survive the war and was sold to the French government in 1948 and renamed Orcher. In 1963, she was again sold to Superior Shipping Company, out of Monrovia, Liberia, and renamed Patrick D. Her final owner was Trinity Shipping, Inc. who renamed the vessel Lake Katrina. It is not clear if they bought it for the purpose of scrapping but on July 19, 1968 the former SS Scotts Bluff arrived in Kaohsiung, Taiwan where she would soon be broken up and scrapped. This pattern was common among many of the T2 tankers, Liberty, and Victory vessels. They would briefly see service in new roles, some seeing conversions, and eventually sold to different nations for continued use. Many had met the same fate as SS Scotts Bluff by the time she met hers.

SS Schenectady sits broken in two at its dock in Portland, Oregon, January 16, 1943, less than three months after she launched.

Public domain.

Faulty Construction: The T2-class tankers served well during World War II, but they had some major flaws that would occasionally prove to be disastrous. At least six were lost when they broke in two. Sometimes, this break up occurred at the docks, as was the case with the SS Schenectady and SS Ponaganset. Brittle metal and poor welds were blamed for these failures, but the Schenectady was repaired and returned to service, retiring 19 years after the incident.

USNS Vanguard in its role aiding in space exploration.

Public domain, United States Navy.

The Last Survivor: There have been a few T2s that have survived until relatively recently. The last is gone but it was only scrapped in 2013 after some 70 years of service; this was the SS Mission San Fernando. She was launched in November 25, 1943 and served in her original role until 1957 when she was extended by 80 feet, renamed Muscle Shoals, and then in 1958 USNS Vanguard. She participated in the Apollo Project and then the joint U.S./Soviet Apollo-Soyuz Test Project and Skylab missions. Her final role was as a Navigational Test Ship in which she aided submarines testing their navigation equipment. She finally retired in 1999 and remained “mothballed” until in March 2005 when it was proposed that she be turned into a museum ship. In the end, she would not be saved and was scrapped in November 2013, being the last of the T2-class tankers.