The SS William C. Endicott (hull number 0438), was a “standard” Liberty Ship named after the Secretary of War in President Cleveland’s administration. (SS means steam-ship.) She was built at Kaiser shipyards in Richmond, California, near San Francisco, in 1942. Richmond was a complex of 4 different shipyards, and it was one of seven different Kaiser shipyard complexes. Henry Kaiser (1882 -1967), the great American industrialist, developed new methods of shipbuilding that allowed his yards to outproduce other, similar facilities and build 1,490 ships, 27% of the total Maritime Commission construction. Kaiser's ships were completed in two-thirds of the time and at one quarter of the cost of the average of all other shipyards.
In a special publicity stunt, one Liberty Ship was built in 4 days, 15 hours, and 29 minutes. Kaiser Shipyards shut down at the end of the war. In June 1944, the SS William C. Endicott participated in Operation Neptune (June 6-30, 1944), the water transportation of men and equipment to Normandy during D-Day and its after-math, which was the assault phase of Operation Overlord (June 6 - August 30, 1944), the Battle of Normandy.
The SS William C. Endicottwas one of 196 Liberty Ships reported as “loading in June” on a list of ships that was listed as either “loading in June” or “awaiting orders” in June, 1944. These 196 Liberty Ships were part of the 326 Allied cargo ships participating Operation Neptune. They, in turn, were part of an armada of 6,939 ships, boats, and amphibious craft in Neptune, the largest number of vessels ever assembled. (But only 682 ships, mostly warships and landing craft, and no Liberty Ships, participated on June 6 itself.)
The SS William C. Endicott was part of the US Merchant Marine, the fleet of US civilian-owned merchant vessels, operated by either the government or the private sector, that transports goods and services around the world. In peacetime, the Merchant Marine transports cargo and passengers. In wartime, it becomes an auxiliary of the US Navy and is asked to deliver troops and supplies for the military. The U.S. Merchant Marine was a critical contributor to victory in World War II, carrying the bulk of all matériel sent over-seas, and many of the men. For example, it has been estimated that 7 to 15 tons of supplies were necessary to support one soldier/marine for one year.
The SS William C. Endicott was one of 2,710 Liberty Ships built by 18 US shipyards during the war under the auspices of the US Maritime Commission, easily the largest number of ships produced to a single design. Though British in conception the first ships were built for Britain before the US got into the war the design was adapted by the United States for its simple, low-cost construction. Mass-produced on an unprecedented scale, the Liberty Ship came to symbolize U.S. wartime industrial output. A number of Liberty Ships survived far longer than their original five-year design life. The United States first learned how to mass-produce merchant ships during World War I at Hog Island, near Philadelphia.
William Crowninshield Endicott, U.S. Secretary of War, March 5, 1885 to March 5, 1889
The Plan of a Liberty Ship.
In WWII, Liberty Ships were standardized and designed to be built quickly and efficiently. The 250,000 parts were pre-fabricated throughout the country in 250-ton sections and welded together, often by women welders. Using new welding technology, workers pieced together the prefabricated sections in assembly-line fashion. This largely replaced the labor-intensive method of riveting, while lowering cost and speeding up production. While it took about 230 days to build one Liberty Ship in the first year, the average construction time eventually dropped to 42 days, with three new ships being launched each day in 1943. A Liberty Ship cost under $2,000,000. A word about the naming of Liberty ships. Initially, Liberty Ships were named after prominent (deceased) Americans, starting with Patrick Henry and the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Any group that raised $2 million dollars in War Bonds could suggest a name for a Liberty Ship. Then, as the war went on, Liberty Ships were named after heroes of the Merchant Marine who had lost their lives in accidents or enemy action. One hundred Liberty Ships were named for women, and another group honored war correspondents killed on duty. The SS William C. Endicott’s continued service after the Normandy invasion was mentioned in a book called Pied Piper: The Many Lives of Noah Greenberg. Greenberg was a merchant mariner who sailed on the SS William C. Endicott from late October, 1944 to January 8, 1945. He was cook and baker. The account talks about Noah making an Atlantic run during the winter of 1944-45 that lasted well over two months. This run may have taken him to Italy and/or England with material to be used in support of US troops in both places. A description of the SS William C. Endicott in the book about Noah Greenberg says:...she has two decks, three masts, five cargo holds, a single propeller, a steam reciprocating engine.... Her average speed is about eleven knots and the normal crew complement is forty-four men.” The SS John W. Brown, one of only two remaining fully operational Liberty Ships that participated in World War II, is docked at Clinton Street Pier 1 in Baltimore Harbor in Maryland. The SS William C. Endicott was scrapped in Portland, Oregon in 1965. US Naval Armed Guard Often mistaken for members of the Merchant Marine, the Armed Guard was a special branch of the U.S. Navy assigned to defend merchant ships, especially Liberty ships, against enemy attack.
There is a record of the SS William C. Endicott having one: a William K. Rogers, Lt. (jg) is listed as the Armed Guard Commander for the ship. (In Navy records, his file number is 399551. He was born in 1911 and retired from the Navy in January,1962.) Formed in World War I, the Armed Guard was disbanded after the war, only to be reactivated for WWII. The members were US Navy sailors assigned to Merchant Marine ships, a job many of them were disappointed because it was hazardous but not as glamorous as being assigned to a real warship.
Training for these gunners improved tremendously from only 5 weeks in 1942, to 13 weeks by 1943, with an additional 5 weeks of advanced school. After basic training, men were assigned to one of three Armed Guard Centers. These were located in Brooklyn (for assignments to ships sailing in the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea), New Orleans (for Gulf of Mexico assignments), and Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay (for Pacific Ocean assignments).
The typical Armed Guard complement for a merchant ship was 24 gunners and one officer (an ensign, lieutenant junior grade, or lieutenant), plus up to three communications personnel, for a total of 28 men. An armed merchant ship would typically have a 5-inch stern gun, a 3-inch bow gun, and eight 20-mm antiaircraft guns mounted. Aboard ship, the merchant and Navy crews had separate sleeping and eating quarters. Enemy submarines, aircraft, and torpedo boats were the main threats to the Armed Guard crews. As long as a submarine stayed under water, there was not much an Armed Guard crew could do about it. Against planes, however, they were more effective, often shooting them down. No voyage was as dreaded as the Murmansk run to Russia. Arctic storms, lack of escorts, continuous U-boat attacks, and raids by German planes from Norway and Finland made the Murmansk run a horrific nightmare that drained a man mentally and physically. Sometimes, ice formed on the guns and had to be broken off with axes and picks.
A total of 144,970 enlisted men and officers served in the US Navy Armed Guard during World War II. They sailed on 6,236 merchant ships (including Allied vessels), of which more than 700 ships were sunk and many more were damaged. Armed Guard casualties numbered at least 1,810 killed or missing in action and many more wounded, a casualty rate that rivals that of any of the Armed Forces during World War II. Victory Ships: the Next Model A follow on model to the Liberty Ship was the Victory Ship, the first one of which was launched on February 28, 1944. Victory ships were larger and faster than Liberty Ships, but only 534 were made. They are easily distinguishable from Liberty Ships in that Victory Ships had five masts instead of the three that Liberty Ships had. Victory Ships also had a raised front deck, whereas Liberty Ships had a flat front deck.
Sources
http://www.usmm.org/ww2.html
http://www.navweaps.com/index_tech/tech-083.htm
http://www.usmm.org/normandyships.html
http://www.mariners-l.co.uk/LibShipsW.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_ship
http://warfarehistorynetwork.com/daily/wwii/hazardous-duty-with-the-naval-armed-guard/
In the June 10, 1945 edition, page 29 of “The Rattle” the Theta Chi fraternity newsletter for servicemen, covering many universities, there is the following citation: Oscar K. Rogers, Ohio ’33, Lt. (jg) Armed guard commander, SS William C. Endicott FPO, New York. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_ship