David,

Here is what I have been able to find about the tanker GULFPRIDE, along with some information about an Armed Guard sailor who may be your father.

A ship named GULFPRIDE was built in 1927 by Federal Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company, Kearny, NJ, for the Gulf Oil Company. She was renamed HAMILTON LAKE in 1955, and was finally scrapped in 1964. See http://www.shipbuildinghistory.com/history/shipyards/1major/inactive/federalkearny.htm and scroll down to hull #86. There have been a number of ships by this name but the above-referenced vessel is the only one that would have operated during World War II.

A search of ConvoyWeb (http://www.convoyweb.org.uk/hague/index.html) turns up no fewer than 100 convoys in which GULFPRIDE sailed during World War II. Without exception, all of the convoys were within the Caribbean Sea or the Gulf of Mexico, and to or from ports on the East Coast of the U.S. A full history of the ship's operations between December 1941 and June 1945, both in convoy or sailing independently, is available at http://www.convoyweb.org.uk/ports/index.html?search.php?vessel=GULFPRIDE~armain. There is no evidence from this history that GULFPRIDE was ever near Oman.

Searching a database of ships damaged or sunk during World War II, I find no mention of GULFPRIDE. The closest I can come is a ship named GULFPRINCE, which was damaged in a torpedo attack in the Mediterranean in 1943, with the loss of one Armed Guard sailor. There were a number of other ships with names beginning GULF…, all identified as tankers, that were damaged or sunk during World War II. But all of these other ships operated along the East Coast, in the Caribbean, in the Gulf of Mexico or, in one case, in the Pacific. See http://usmm.org/sunkaz.html#anchor15661.

I did two searches of Ancestry.com, a subscription database that is more commonly used for genealogical research. However, www.ancestry.com also has databases of crew members of ships that arrived at various U.S. ports of entry between about 1820 and 1957, particularly the port of New York. One search was for GULFPRIDE, and I found numerous records of her arrival in New York City in 1932, 1942, 1943, 1946 and 1949, and two arrivals in Philadelphia in 1941 and 1944.

I also made a search at Ancestry.com for David Goddard on any ship. I found references to a David L. Goddard arriving in New York on 19 Aug 1943, 12 Jan 1944, and 10 Feb 1944. In each case he was a member of the Armed Guard unit assigned to a ship named CITIES SERVICE KOOLMOTOR, also a tanker. In two of the arrivals the ship had sailed from Aruba, in the third case from Venezuela. In each record David Goddard is identified as a gunners mate third class; in two records he is further identified as having a serial number of 648 18 61. Was your father David L. Goddard, and do you know his serial number?

You could obtain a short-term subscription at a very modest cost to Ancestry.com so as to replicate the results of my searches. See the Subscription tab at the upper right of the homepage of Ancestry.com.

(KOOLMOTOR was built by Bethlehem Steel Company, San Francisco, CA, in 1918. She had several names during her career, being named KOOLMOTOR between 1929 and 1947. She was scrapped in 1955. See http://www.shipbuildinghistory.com/history/shipyards/1major/inactive/bethsanfrancisco.htm and scroll to hull #147A.)

A search of the Armed Guard website finds five men who served in GULFPRIDE at one time or another. In two cases their service dates on the ship are not noted, and in a third case the man sailed in her after World War II. It is possible that four of the men may have been shipmates of your father. Their names:

Edward Roy Davis, no dates indicated
Starret D Dobcon, no dates indicated
Marc Enright (post-World War II only)
James I Harman, 1945
James Arden Simmons, 6/29/42 - 11/26/42

I do not know, however, whether any of the men are still living, nor do I have contact information for them. I suggest you contact the Chairman of the Armed Guard veterans association, as he might know whether they are living and, if so, would have addresses for them. Please contact:

C.A. Lloyd, Chairman
U.S.N. Armed Guard World War II Veterans Association
115 Wall Creek Drive
Rolesville, NC 27571
Telephone: 919-570-0909
E-mail: clloyd@nc.rr.com

You may be able to obtain your father's complete service records, including the ships to which he was assigned, by contacting the National Archives. See http://armed-guard.com/searchmil.html for details. The same page also discusses obtaining detailed information on the operations of individual ships, also available from the National Archives, if you want to pursue that information as well.

Good luck.

Ron Carlson, Webmaster
Armed Guard website www.armed-guard.com