Posted by Rebecca Bianchi on November 28, 2011, 1:17 am
Hi, my name is Rebecca. I recently found out through ancestry.com that my grandfather, Gilbert Baldwin, served on the Liberty ship William F. Cody in 1946. However, I can't find any information about this ship - what this ship did, why it went to Belgium after the war, fellow crew members, stories, pictures, etc. I was hoping someone here could help me fill in the blanks? Thanks in advance!
Re: SS William F. Cody
Posted by Phil Frey on March 26, 2012, 6:52 pm, in reply to "SS William F. Cody"
Hi Rebecca
I have recently been doing research on this ship as my uncle was aboard, as a mess man, when they had two encounters with enemy forces. He disembarked in New York shortly afterward and came home to Mendota, Ill. where his sister (my mother) and I lived; my father was in the navy at that time. I was six or seven. The action he described was quite amazing and if I can verify his story I will pass the information on to you. I feel confident that what he told me was accurate as I heard the same story off and on for many years after the war. However, I am trying to locate the ship and captain’s log to confirm what I was told.
I would appreciate any information you may receive regarding the locations of logbooks from the liberty ships.
Phil Frey Bigfork, Montana
Re: SS William F. Cody
Posted by Ron Carlson on May 1, 2012, 9:55 am, in reply to "Re: SS William F. Cody" Message modified by board administrator May 1, 2012, 10:12 am
Phil,
I just now found your message as it had slipped to the second page of the message board.
Merchant marine logbooks, whether for Liberty ships or any other classes of ships, are typically held at the National Archives regional research facility closest to the port in which a particular voyage terminated. Therefore, the logs for the voyage you describe are presumably held at the National Archives regional facility in New York City.
However, even that information is limited. What the Archives holds are the "official logbooks" of a voyage. According to the National Archives: "The logbooks document the names and assignments of crew members, drills conducted during the voyage, brief descriptions of situations and events and some personnel-related information. Some of the regional archives hold official merchant marine logbooks for ports served by that region. Some have declassified merchant marine "secret logbooks" from 1942-1945 that may contain more specific information than the official logbooks." See http://www.archives.gov/research/military/ww2/ww2-participation.pdf.
Therefore, the "official logbook" and the "secret logbook" (if any) have rather limited information on a given voyage. Day-to-day logbooks, variously known as deck logs, engine room logs, captain's logs, rough logs, smooth logs, etc., that would have documented in detail what happened during the voyage, no longer exist. In fact the Archives destroyed many such logs back in the 1970s, presumably on the assumption that they were of limited interest. What a loss! See http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq73-1.htm#anchor189351.
Obviously you are not in a position to do in-person research at the New York facility. It may be possible that staff at that facility will do research for you, for a fee. You may want to contact the New York regional archives facility for more information via e-mail (newyork.archives@nara.gov) or toll-free telephone at 1-866-840-1752. Also see http://www.archives.gov/northeast/nyc/.
Another avenue is to obtain a copy of the U.S. Navy Armed Guard officer's report for the voyage in question. The officer's report is typically a more detailed, often day-by-day, diary of events related to the voyage, of interest to the Armed Guard unit assigned to the ship. Since the Armed Guard detachment was responsible for the defense of the ship and the operation of its weapons, any encounter with enemy forces would likely be recorded, in greater detail than found in the official log or secret log. See http://www.skylighters.org/milinfo/vessinfo.html.
My uncle’s name was Donald Clark; I think his middle initial was B. He was one of the mess men.
I’ll start researching the references you provided. If I can find something of interest I’ll let you know.
Of course anything you could find on my uncle would be of interest to me. He was a bit wild and had been shot in a street fight in India. The English patched him up and put him aboard the William F. Cody for his last voyage.
FYI: I also had some time at sea. As a Marine Aviator I spent several weeks aboard the Princeton CV/CVA/CVS-37, LPH-5, a straight deck WW II carrier. It was loaded with helicopters, some of which were bound for Vietnam; it was 1962 and the helicopter squadrons were to be the first Marines to arrive in SVN. I was attached to one of the squadrons as a fixed wing pilot flying a light observation aircraft (OE-1). We could come aboard at such a slow speed that no arresting wire was necessary; probably the last fixed wing aircraft to land aboard a straight deck carrier. Just a year before, as a cadet, I had completed my carrier qualifications by “hooking up” on an angled deck carrier, the Antietam CV/CVA/CVS -36.
Phil Frey Bigfork, Montana
Re: SS William F. Cody
Posted by Ron Carlson on December 5, 2011, 12:45 pm, in reply to "SS William F. Cody" Message modified by board administrator December 6, 2011, 4:24 pm
Dear Rebecca,
SS WILLIAM F. CODY was one of more than 2,700 Liberty ships that were built in a great rush immediately before, during and immediately after World War II. Most were used exclusively to carry cargo although some were converted to carry both troops and cargo. WILLIAM F. CODY is known to have served temporarily as a troopship, so it is very likely that her voyage to Belgium in December 1945-January 1946 was in that role, very possibly to repatriate U.S. troops remaining in Europe to that time. On her eastbound voyage she may have carried a cargo of supplies for the Belgian civilian population. WILLIAM F. CODY departed New York approximately December 3, 1945, arrived Antwerp, Belgium, on December 20, 1945, departed Antwerp on January 1, 1946, and arrived New York January 18, 1946.
WILLIAM F. CODY was built by the California Shipbuilding Company ("Calship") in Los Angeles, in 62 days in June-August 1942. Her keel was laid June 14, she was launched July 26, and she was completed and delivered for service on August 15. Her wartime career was apparently uneventful as I can find no unusual mention of her online. She was scrapped in 1967 in Tacoma, Washington, probably after many years in the reserve fleet ("mothballed"). See http://shipbuildinghistory.com/history/shipyards/4emergencylarge/wwtwo/kcalifornia.htm and scroll to hull number 50. Also see http://www.mariners-l.co.uk/LibShipsW.html#WilDH and scroll to the name of the ship.
I made a search of the subscription website Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com), which is more commonly used for genealogical research. However, Ancestry.com also includes databases listing the names of crew members and passengers who arrived at certain U.S. ports of entry following a foreign voyage. The records for New York are particularly extensive. My search turned up one record of your grandfather, Gilbert Baldwin, as a crewman aboard WILLIAM F. CODY for her voyage to and from Belgium. He signed onto the ship in New York on November 27, 1945, and was recorded as age 17, height 5'8" and weight 135 lbs. He served as a messman, an entry-level position in what is known on a merchant ship as the steward's department, which is responsible for meals and cleaning the living areas of the ship. As messman he likely helped prepare and serve meals to the crew, cleaned the galley, and performed other related tasks. He reported to a Porter Johnson, the chief steward. He had not been a member of the crew on the ship's most recent previous voyage, and he was discharged from the ship upon returning to New York, as was true of most of the rest of the crew (a standard practice). I can find no other record of a Gilbert Baldwin in the U.S. merchant marine, so this may have been his first and only voyage as a merchant sailor.
The crew of WILLIAM F. CODY on this voyage totaled 62 men, an unusually large merchant marine crew for a Liberty ship. (During the war a Liberty would typically have had a merchant marine crew of about 44 men.) The steward's department was unusually large in number, with such job descriptions as 2nd steward, storekeeper, chief and 2nd baker, chief and 2nd butcher, chief and 2nd pantryman, five cooks rather than the usual three cooks, and a large number of messmen. The rest of the crew, namely those in the deck department and the engine department, had more typical numbers and types of crewmen. This tends to support the supposition that WILLIAM F. CODY may have served as a troopship on this voyage, as there would have been a larger number of meals to prepare and serve. In addition to the merchant marine crew, the record shows that the ship carried, as part of its official crew, nine U.S. Army personnel, who may have been responsible for supervising the troops that came aboard and/or the cargo aboard the ship.
Following are the names of the merchant marine crew and their titles. I have no way of knowing whether any of these men are still living, nor do I have contact information for any who may be living. It seems quite possible that some are still alive, as many of the men were, like your grandfather, were in their late teens and early 20s at the time. You might search the Social Security Death Index (http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/) for the more unusual names to identify those who have likely died. (Note that the Social Security Death Index does not contain death records for all deaths in the U.S., and most death records date only from the 1960s onward.) You may also want to search an online telephone directory, such as www.whitepages.com, for more unusual names. Searching for common names will not be productive as so many individuals share those names.
If you wish to obtain a photograph of this ship, please see this webpage for sources of photographs of World War II-era merchant ships: http://www.usmm.org/photosource.html. I especially recommend Mr. Hultgren, who specializes in photographs of Liberty ships. I am familiar enough with his collection to know that he apparently has a photograph of WILLIAM F. CODY during its wartime career. Mr. Hultgren is very elderly but at last report was actively managing his collection.
Good luck.
Ron Carlson, Webmaster Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website www.armed-guard.com
Merchant marine crew, SS WILLIAM F. CODY, December 1945-January 1946:
Kenneth Hulme, master (captain) John Emery Grossman, 1st mate Alfred Benson, 2nd mate John Antonucci, 3rd mate Leroy Goodrick, chief radio operator Emanuel Aronowski, 1st assistant radio operator William Spencer, 2nd assistant radio operator Walter Perry, carpenter James Tippett, bosun Jan Sobejko, able seaman (A.B.) Hans Holm, A.B. Joseph Zulinski, A.B. George Koppinger, A.B. James Daly, A.B. William Hinton, A.B. Kenneth Flewelling, ordinary seaman (O.S.) Ernest Yarbery, O.S. Sherman Greenwald, O.S. Charles Schimmelfennig, purser Edward Dawson, chief engineer William Large, 1st assistant engineer Ralph Leighton, 2nd assistant engineer Donald Burns, 3rd assistant engineer Thomas Quinlan, electrician Robert Miller, plumber Jack Graves, deck engineer George Brandt, oiler John Jeffries, oiler Ralph Kelly, oiler Phillip McDonnell, fireman/water tender Cornelis Kurvink, fireman/water tender Frederick Wagner, fireman/water tender Ronald Stetz, wiper Clarence Galaska, wiper Porter Johnson, chief steward William Trego, 2nd steward Tony Sanzone, storekeeper Vincent Lynch, chief cook Robert Bly, 2nd cook Alexander Hill, 2nd cook Joseph Graham, 2nd cook Oscar Hall, 3rd cook Fred Layne, chief baker Harry Skinner, 2nd baker Louis Kollar, chief butcher Charles Meyer, 2nd butcher Marvin Siebold, chief pantryman Albert Davis, 2nd pantryman Victor Kurz, messman Donald Mills, messman James Orazine, messman Gilbert Baldwin, messman Charles Schoonmaker, messman Raymond Gough, messman Phillip Schoonmaker, messman Thomas Sheeran, messman John Leonard, messman Richard Cutaio, messman Mac Harless, utility man Maurice Stonewall, utility man Francis Panette, utility man Joseph Ross, utility man
Re: SS William F. Cody
Posted by Richard J. Perry on January 15, 2014, 7:15 pm, in reply to "Re: SS William F. Cody"
My dad's duffle bag from WWII has William Cody on it. My dad was a Staff Sgt. in the Army Air Corps during the war and was part of the 339th fighter group in England. He either returned home or went over on this ship.