SS Jeremiah O'Brien

Infobox_nrhp | name =SS JEREMIAH O'BRIEN National Historic Landmark
nrhp_type = nhl


caption =
location= San Francisco, California
lat_degrees = 37
lat_minutes = 48
lat_seconds = 40
lat_direction = N
long_degrees = 122
long_minutes = 25
long_seconds = 5
long_direction = W
locmapin = California
area =
built =1943
architect= New York Shipbuilding Corp.
architecture= Other
designated= January 14, 1986cite web|url=http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1799&ResourceType=Structure
title=Jeremiah O'Brien (Liberty Ship)|date=2008-06-18|work=National Historic Landmark summary listing |publisher=National Park Service]
added = June 07, 1978
governing_body = Private
refnum=78003405cite web|url=http://www.nr.nps.gov/|title=National Register Information System|date=2008-04-15|work=National Register of Historic Places|publisher=National Park Service]

SS "Jeremiah O'Brien", also known as "Jeremiah O'Brien" (Liberty ship), is a Liberty ship built during World War II and named for American Revolutionary War ship captain Jeremiah O'Brien (1744–1818). Now based in San Francisco, the "O'Brien" is a rare survivor of the 6,939-ship armada [cite web | url=http://www.usmm.org/normandyships.html | title=American Merchant Marine Ships at Normandy in June 1944 | publisher=U.S. Maritime Service Veterans] that stormed Normandy on D-Day, 1944,cite web | url=http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/wwIIbayarea/jer.htm | title=SS Jeremiah O'Brien | work=World War II in the San Francisco Bay Area | publisher=National Park Service | accessdate=2007-03-22] [While the preceding reference claims that Jeremiah O'Brien is the sole surviving D-Day armada ship, there is at least one other: Nash (tugboat), another National Historic Landmark ship located in Oswego, New York.] and one of only two currently operational WWII Liberty ships afloat of the 2,751 built during the war (the other being the SS "John W. Brown" based in Baltimore).

History

Built in just 57 days at the New England Shipbuilding Corporation in South Portland, Maine, and launched on June 19, 1943, this class EC2-S-CI ship not only made four perilous round trip wartime crossings of the Atlantic and served on D-Day, the vessel later saw sixteen months of service in both the South Pacific and the Indian Ocean calling at ports in Chile, Peru, New Guinea, the Philippines, India, China, and Australia.

The end of the war caused most of the Liberty ships to be removed from service in 1946 and many were subsequently sold to foreign and domestic buyers. Others were retained by the U.S. Maritime Commission for potential reactivation in the event of future military conflicts. The "O'Brien" was mothballed and remained in the National Defense Reserve Fleet in Suisun Bay for 33 years. In the 1970's, however, the idea of preserving an unaltered Liberty Ship began to be developed and, under the sponsorship of Rear Admiral Thomas J. Patterson, USMS, (then the Western Regional Director of the U.S. Maritime Administration), the ship was put aside for preservation instead of being sold for scrap. Possession of the "O'Brien" was taken in 1979 by the National Liberty Ship Memorial, an all volunteer group, to be restored. Amazingly, those who volunteered to resurrect the mothballed ship were able get the antiquated machinery plant operating while the vessel remained afloat in Suisun Bay, and after more than three decades of sitting in rusting idleness, the "O'Brien's" boilers were lit and on May 21, 1980, the ship left the mothball fleet -- the only similar vessel ever to do so under her own power Fact|date=March 2008 -- for San Francisco Bay, drydocking, and thousands of more hours of restoration work. The ship then moved to Fort Mason, located on the San Francisco waterfront just to the west of Fisherman's wharf. There the "O'Brien" became a museum dedicated to the men and women who both built and sailed the ships of United States Merchant Marine in WWII. In addition to serving as a floating museum, the ship also makes several passenger-carrying daylight cruises in each year in the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as occasional voyages to more distant ports such as Seattle and San Diego.

50th Anniversary of D-Day

In 1994 the "O'Brien", in its eighth voyage, (the previous seven were during WWII) steamed through the Golden Gate, down the west coast, through the Panama Canal, and across the Atlantic to England and France, where the "O'Brien" and its crew (a volunteer crew of veteran WWII-era sailors and a few cadets from the California Maritime Academy), participated in the 50th Anniversary of Operation Overlord, the allied invasion at Normandy that turned the tide of WWII in Europe . . . the only large ship from the original Normandy flotilla to return for the 50th anniversary celebration.

The SS "Jeremiah O'Brien" was designated a National Historic Landmark, and is docked at Pier 45 at Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco, California. It also hosts the amateur radio station K6JOB.

References

ee also

*Liberty ship
*Victory ship
*SS John W. Brown - other surviving Liberty ship
*Nash (tugboat) - last surviving Army ship at D-Day

External links

* [http://www.ssjeremiahobrien.org/ National Liberty Ship Memorial] (SS "Jeremiah O’Brien" official site)
* [http://inphotos.org/ss-jeremiah-obrien/ photo site of the O'Brien]
* [http://www.pbase.com/chris67/ss_jeremiah_obrien/ additional O'Brien photos]
* [http://www.hnsa.org/ships/jobrien.htm HNSA Web Page: SS Jeremiah O'Brien]