Posted by Janet Hall on September 15, 2011, 11:42 pm
Looking for any information concerning the Daniel G Reid. My dad served on this ship in 1945. His name was Rodger Fay. Some called him Red.
Re: SS Daniel G Reid
Posted by Ron Carlson on September 16, 2011, 8:34 am, in reply to "SS Daniel G Reid"
Dear Janet,
SS DANIEL G REID was a Liberty ship built by the Kaiser Permanente Shipyard No. in Richmond, California. (About 2,700 Liberty ships were built before, during and after World War II, the largest single class of ships ever built.) Her keel was laid January 13, 1944, she was launched February 1, and was she was completed and delivered for service on February 9, just 27 days after keel-laying. She survived World War II and was laid up ("mothballed") in Mobile, Alabama. She was scrapped in Panama City, Florida, in 1971. See http://shipbuildinghistory.com/history/shipyards/4emergencylarge/wwtwo/kperm2.htm and scroll to hull number 2743. Also see http://www.mariners-l.co.uk/LibShipsD.html and scroll to the name of the ship. The namesake of the ship was Daniel Gray Reid (1858-1925), an industrialist, financier and philanthropist who made his fortune in the manufacture of tin plate, later an officer of the US Steel Corporation.
If you are interested in obtaining a photograph of the ship, see this page for sources of photographs of World War II merchant ships: http://www.usmm.org/photosource.html. The list includes a Mr. Hultgren who is a particularly good source, since he specializes in photographs of Liberty ships. Mr. Hultgren is quite elderly but at last report was actively managing his collection.
I have been able to find one record of your father serving in DANIEL G REID, following a search of Ancestry.com. Ancestry.com is a subscription website, more commonly used for genealogical research. However the website also contains databases of the crews and passengers of ships that arrived in certain U.S. ports of entry following a foreign voyage. In this case, your father arrived in San Francisco on September 21, 1945, having sailed from the port of Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands. The ship originally left San Francisco in late May 1945. Ancestry.com incorrectly lists your father as "Robert" M. Fay, although he is correctly shown in the original document as Rodger M. Fay. He served as one of six able seamen aboard DANIEL G REID, and had three years of seagoing experience as of that time. His age was listed as 27 and he was described as 5'10" tall and 175 lbs. The master (captain) of the ship was Carl E. Carlsen. The entire crew numbered 42 men.
Best wishes.
Ron Carlson, Webmaster Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website www.armed-guard.com
Re: SS Daniel G Reid
Posted by Janet Hall on September 16, 2011, 9:01 am, in reply to "Re: SS Daniel G Reid"
I am forever in your debt. This may mean the difference as to my mother receiving old age VA Benefits that she desperately needs. Thank you.
Re: SS Daniel G Reid
Posted by Ron Carlson on September 16, 2011, 1:08 pm, in reply to "Re: SS Daniel G Reid"
Dear Janet,
I am glad to help although I'm not sure that anything I have provided to you would carry much weight with the Veterans Administration. They would need official documentation, not just a posting on a message board. After all, I could have made it all up!
You may be able to obtain a copy of your father's official merchant marine service record, via the U.S. Coast Guard, which was and is responsible for issuing documents and licenses to U.S. merchant marine personnel. See this page from the website I manage, http://www.armed-guard.com/searchmil.html, in particular section A.2. Records of Individuals - Merchant Marine. You will have to contact the Coast Guard's National Maritime Center, providing as much identifying information as possible. Contact information is available on the above-noted page. If you can obtain his records they may indicate other ships in which he sailed (since I discovered he had three years of sea time as of 1945), including applicable dates, plus other information that may prove useful to you and your mother.
Good luck.
Ron Carlson, Webmaster Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website www.armed-guard.com
Re: SS Daniel G Reid
Posted by Janet Hall on June 8, 2012, 9:37 pm, in reply to "Re: SS Daniel G Reid"
Does anyone know of any Atomic Bomb activity in 1945 where the SS Daniel G Reid might have been. AARP had an article concerning vets who contracted, among other things colon cancer from Atomic Bombs. There is a benefit available for the survivors in some cases.