Posted by Joanne T Bennett on February 26, 2010, 5:35 pm
We are helping a Merchant Marine try to get veteran's benefits. He has Alzheimer's so trying to piece together information is tough. We think he served on the SS Sweepstakes or a ship re-named that at the end of the war. We are interested primarily in 1944-45. If anyone has any information on the ship that could help us, we'd appreciate anything you could tell us.
Re: Looking for information on SS Sweepstakes in WWII
There were apparently two ships named SS SWEEPSTAKES although only one seems to fit the information you have.
There was a class C-2 cargo ship named SWEEPSTAKES built by the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company, Wilmington, NC, in 1944. Her wartime career was apparently uneventful because I cannot find other information online about her. The ship was sold to private shipping interests in 1947. She was apparently renamed several times (likely after being sold and resold), renamed ELIZABETH (1947), ADAMS (1963), and SOUTHPORT II (1963). She was finally scrapped in 1969. See http://shipbuildinghistory.com/history/shipyards/4emergency/wwtwo/northcarolina.htm and scroll down to hull number 106, and also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Sweepstakes. See also http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/lines/bull.htm and scroll down to "Elizabeth (3)." This seems most likely to be the ship in question.
There was another ship, also a class C-2 cargo ship, initially named SWEEPSTAKES, built by the Tampa Shipbuilding Company, Inc., Tampa, FL, in 1941. However, even before this ship was launched, she was acquired by the U.S. Navy and renamed USS PROCYON. She apparently spent her entire career under that name, before being scrapped in 1973 (some sources say she was scrapped in 1971). See http://shipbuildinghistory.com/history/shipyards/2large/inactive/tampa.htm and scroll to hull number 36; also see http://www.navsource.org/archives/10/02/02002.htm.
Information about the ship in which the man served may not be as important as other information. Please see this page from the Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website about obtaining military service records: http://armed-guard.com/searchmil.html. In particular, see section A.2. Records of Individuals - Merchant Marine. You will have to contact the U.S. Coast Guard's National Maritime Center to request a copy of the merchant mariner’s service record. (The Coast Guard was and is responsible for providing documentation for U.S. merchant mariners, which may include the ships in which a mariner served and the applicable dates.) You will have to provide as much identifying information as you have available, such as name, date of birth, Social Security number, address, and Z or service number. (The service number or "Z number" is a serial number that appears on a merchant mariner's identification card; it begins with the letter Z, hence the name.) Of course this number may not be available to you.
Would you be willing to share the name of the merchant mariner whom you are assisting? Knowing his name may help in searching for other information.
Good luck.
Ron Carlson, Webmaster Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website www.armed-guard.com
Re: Looking for information on SS Sweepstakes in WWII
Thank you so much for the reply. The Merchant Marine's name is Vincent Albert Fitzgerald. He was raised in the Sheepshead Bay area on Long Island and enlisted in that area. He was barely 16 when he signed up. Vinnie lost his discharge papers along the way so we have been working through the VA, Coast Guard, etc to try to get a copy of his papers. All this work actually started last year and after 6 months of searching and lots of help,we got the DD Form 214 (Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty) which states that it establishes active duty service for the purpose of VA benefits. That document is where we got the name of the ship SS Sweepstakes. It says he served on that ship from March 23, 1945 to May 15, 1945. The problem is that this one ship does not establish the 90 of active service that he needs to qualify for benefits but it is a starting point. There is a family story that we are hoping will lead to another ship he served on before March 1945. The way the story goes, Vinnie was sitting "high and dry" on an ammo ship in Antwerp getting ready to be blown sky high if Patton hadn't broken through. Since that march happened in early 1945, Vinnie would have had to be in service before then to be sitting on a ship in Antwerp. The family thinks he went in sometime in 1944 and if we can establish that he was on a ship in early 1945, that would prove that he had more than 90 days of service and that he was definitely in a war zone. If any of the story sounds familiar, all help would be greatly appreciated. Besides Alzheimer's, Vinnie's kidneys are failing so we are trying as quickly as we can to get him help. Thank you again so much for taking the time to answer me.
