Adding to what Jim has found for you, I can add the following information.
BLENHEIM was formerly the German merchant ship ODENWALD, which was intercepted and seized on the high seas on November 6, 1941, by U.S. Navy warships USS OMAHA and USS SOMERS. The two warships noted that ODENWALD acted suspiciously, finding that she had attempted to disguise herself as a U.S. merchant ship. An armed boarding party was sent to the ship to investigate, at which time the crew of ODENWALD attempted to scuttle the ship. Their attempts were unsuccessful and U.S. Navy crewmen succeeded in sailing the ship to Puerto Rico. It was later determined that ODENWALD had sailed from Japan with cargo of importance to Germany (particularly rubber) and had disguised herself as several other vessels in turn during that voyage. The crew was detained for the duration of World War II as prisoners of war. (The justification for seizing the ship and detaining the crew, which took place prior to the entry of the U.S. into World War II, is unclear to me.) The ship was later renamed BLENHEIM and served throughout the war for the United States. A detailed account of the seizure of ODENWALD is found at http://www.uboatarchive.net/Odenwald.htm, in particular the links at the bottom of the page.
As of 1942 BLENHEIM was officially owned by the U.S. War Shipping Administration. The ship was operated by the Waterman Steam Ship Company and home-ported in New Orleans. She was scrapped in 1949 in San Francisco. FYI there has been a number of other ships named BLENHEIM, some from quite recent times.
Getting back to your specific inquiry, I have found a record of BLENHEIM arriving in New York on March 28, 1943, following a voyage from Liverpool, England, and Cardiff, Wales. The ship had originally left New York in August 1942. Her crew list includes a U.S. Navy Armed Guard detachment, commanded by LT(j.g.) J. W. Bailey. He is listed as age 25 at the time, 6' tall and 160 lbs. There is no other identifying information. He led an Armed Guard unit of 15 men, including himself. Very possibly J. W. Bailey is your father, Julian Wooten Bailey. This information comes from Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com), a subscription website. The website is currently offering a 14-day free trial subscription, in case you want to make the same search I made. See the homepage of Ancestry.com for information.
Whether your father was still aboard BLENHEIM on the voyage in early 1945 that Jim described I can't say. It was typical for an Armed Guard unit to remain aboard a ship for an extended period (whereas the merchant crew often changed with each voyage), but for your father to have been aboard for two-plus years seems somewhat unlikely.
According to the website Convoy Web (http://www.convoyweb.org.uk/kx/index.html?kx.php?convoy=8!~kxmain), BLENHEIM was in convoy KX-8, which departed Milford Haven, England, on January 3, 1943; her destination was Oran, Algeria. This may be the same voyage that eventually ended in New York on March 28, 1943, in which case this may confirm your information about your father going to North Africa aboard BLENHEIM.
You may be able to obtain your father's complete military service record, which would confirm the ships in which he served, ranks held, decorations received, etc. See this page from the Armed Guard website: http://armed-guard.com/searchmil.html. In particular see section II.A.1 -- Records of Individuals - U.S. Military. You will have to contact the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, MO, a facility maintained by the U.S. Archives and Records Administration (NARA). You will have to provide appropriate identifying information. There may be a fee involved for researching and photocopying but the Records Center staff will inform you of the fee before beginning work.
Good luck and I hope this information is useful.
Ron Carlson, Webmaster
Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website
www.armed-guard.com
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