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HISTORY
The Ships
Liberty ships played a crucial role in the Allied victory in World War II. America’s armies overseas, as well as her allies, were reliant on a steady stream of supplies, and a large number of ships were required to deliver them.
Allied shipping suffered dramatic losses at the hands of German U-Boats, so to keep the supplies flowing there was a need to build new ships faster than the enemy could sink them. This need was answered with the 2,710 Liberty ships mass-produced between 1941 and 1945. These old-fashioned, slow "ugly duckling' cargo vessels played a vital yet unglamorous, role in winning World War II.
The Men
The bulk of Liberty Ships were operated by the volunteer, civilian seamen of the United States Merchant Marine and were protected by separate US Naval Armed Guard gun crews. The men of the Merchant Marine sailed their ships into all theaters of the war and suffered tremendous losses. Approximately 8,300 merchant mariners and 1,800 Armed Guard sailors lost their lives during World War II. Ultimately, one in 26 merchant seamen lost their lives, a fatality rate higher than the armed services.
THE 1940s
WWII Service
Named after the first American to capture a British naval vessel during the Revolutionary War, in June 1943 the Liberty Ship S.S. Jeremiah O'Brien slid down the ways at the New England Shipbuilding Corporation in South Portland, Maine. She entered WWII service operated by Grace Line for the War Shipping Administration.
The O'Brien made seven voyages in service ranging from England and Northern Ireland to South America, India, Australia, China, and the Philippines. In support of Operation Overlord's D-Day invasion of Northern France, she made eleven crossings of the English Channel carrying troops and supplies from Southampton to Utah and Omaha Beaches at Normandy.
After the war, she was "mothballed" and laid up for three decades in the Reserve Fleet at Suisun Bay, north of San Francisco.
THE 1970s
Out of the Mothball Fleet
Thirty-three years later, skillful maneuvering by U.S. Maritime Administration official Rear Admiral Thomas J. Patterson (himself a former Liberty ship sailor), saved the O'Brien from the scrapyard.
In 1979 O'Brien headed for San Francisco under her own steam to be restored. No other ship had ever steamed out of the mothball fleet under its own power. Her volunteer crew invested thousands of hours removing preservatives and preparing to transfer her to dry dock at Pier 70, San Francisco.
Following dry-docking, generous donations of money and supplies by numerous individuals and companies, and meticulous historical restoration work by her volunteer crew, the old ship entered service on San Francisco Bay in like-new condition.
She serves as a memorial to the seamen of the U.S. Merchant Marine and US Naval Armed Guard who served on Liberty ships throughout World War II, and to the civilian men and women who built the largest single class of ships in history. Image credit: Jennifer Capra
THE 1990s
Return to Europe
In 1994, in what was to be an epic eighth voyage, the O'Brien steamed through the Golden Gate, down the west coast, through the Panama Canal, and across the Atlantic Ocean to England and France. The O'Brien and her crew, a remarkable collection of old salts whose average age was 70 along with 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 World War II in Europe.
Of the more than 5,000 ships that formed the original D-Day armada, the O'Brien was the only ship to return 50 years later (although smaller vessels from many countries also returned). During that historic occasion, the O'Brien and her crew were reviewed by the Queen of England from the royal yacht Britannia, visited by the President of the United States, and honored on both sides of the English Channel.
Returning across the Atlantic, her first U.S. port of call was her birthplace, South Portland, Maine. Continuing what was ultimately a six-month, 18,000-mile journey, she called at many other U.S. cities before making her triumphant return through the Golden Gate. The O'Brien made the entire voyage with no significant repairs and arrived at each port ahead of schedule, a tribute to the skill and dedication of the volunteer crewmembers who maintained and sailed her, and a testimony to her sturdy design and construction.
PRESENT DAY
Today and Tomorrow
The S.S. Jeremiah O'Brien is approved by the American Bureau of Shipping, certified by the U.S. Coast Guard, and a fully operational vessel – and, the only operational Liberty Ship in its original configuration.
Operated as the National Liberty Ship Memorial, she is moored at Pier 35, Fisherman's Wharf, and open to the public most days. Virtually the entire ship, from the engine room to the flying bridge, can be seen by visitors. Boilers are "lit off," and the 2500-horsepower, triple-expansion reciprocating steam engine is operated on Steaming Weekends so visitors can see the engine plant in action. Several San Francisco Bay cruises are also scheduled each year.
The ship relies on the work of hundreds of volunteer crew members, funding from individual and corporate donations, and revenue from the thousands of visitors she hosts each year.
Check our calendar for ship hours, cruise schedules, steaming weekends, and other information at www.ssjeremiahobrien.org.
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