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Ship - S. S. Fort Jupiter

Posted by Diane Dumas Watson on May 19, 2010, 8:25 am

Does anyone know anything about the S.S. Fort Jupiter? I believe it was a tanker. My great Uncle was on this ship for three months - Aug. 1945 through Nov. 1945. I cannot seem to find any information on this ship anywhere on the Internet. Would appreciate any help at all!
Thank you!

Re: Ship - S. S. Fort Jupiter

Posted by Ron Carlson on May 19, 2010, 10:36 am, in reply to "Ship - S. S. Fort Jupiter"

Diane,

SS FORT JUPITER was a class T-2 tanker, perhaps the most common of the tankers built for service in World War II. Between 1942 and 1945, four shipyards constructed 533 T-2 tankers.

FORT JUPITER was constructed for the U.S. Maritime Commission by the Sun Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, Chester, Pennsylvania. Her keel was laid April 10, 1945, she was launched July 6, 1945, and was completed on July 31, 1945, 112 days after keel-laying. She was sold to a private shipping company in 1947 and renamed STANMORE before being scrapped in 1960. See http://www.shipbuildinghistory.com/history/shipyards/1major/inactive/sun.htm and scroll to hull number 490.

Presumably your uncle was aboard on the ship's maiden voyage.

For a little more information about FORT JUPITER, including photographs of the ship (as STANMORE), see http://www.aukevisser.nl/t2tanker/id605.htm
To learn more about T-2 tankers, although there is no further information about FORT JUPITER than noted above, see http://www.t2tanker.org/.

Ron Carlson, Webmaster

Re: Ship - S. S. Fort Jupiter

Posted by Diane Dumas Watson on May 19, 2010, 10:57 am, in reply to "Re: Ship - S. S. Fort Jupiter"

Another question, Ron. Do you happen to know where I can get a picture of the S.S. Thorstein Veblen and the S.S. Henry Wynkoop? These are the other two ships my uncle was on.
Thank you for your help.

Re: Ship - S. S. Fort Jupiter

Posted by Ron Carlson on May 19, 2010, 12:04 pm, in reply to "Re: Ship - S. S. Fort Jupiter"

Diane,

See this webpage for possible sources of photographs of World War II U.S. merchant ships:

http://www.usmm.org/photosource.html

Good luck.

Ron Carlson, Webmaster

Re: Ship - S. S. Fort Jupiter

Posted by Diane Dumas Watson on May 19, 2010, 12:05 pm, in reply to "Re: Ship - S. S. Fort Jupiter"

Thank you Ron!

Re: Ship - S. S. Fort Jupiter

Posted by Diane Dumas Watson on May 19, 2010, 10:45 am, in reply to "Re: Ship - S. S. Fort Jupiter"

Thank you so much Ron for the information! My great uncle, Frank Dumas, was on board the Fort Jupiter from Aug. 1945 to Nov. 1945. Something happened to my uncle in the military that affected his lungs and he died in Aug. 1946. He got off the Fort Jupiter on Nov. 21 and was sent home on leave on Nov. 24 for rehabilitation. Family legend has it that his ship was bombed or something and he was in cold water for such a long period of time that it affected his lungs and this is what eventually caused his death. I have researched the first two ships he was on and nothing happened on either of these ships. So it must have been something on the Fort Jupiter. Someone suggested that maybe he contracted some kind of tropical disease or malaria. I have gotten all his military records and medical records but nothing shows up in them. My aunt (his sister) says he did not want the navy to know just how sick he was. It is a puzzle that I am trying to solve. Especially for his sister.

Re: Ship - S. S. Fort Jupiter

Posted by Ron Carlson on May 19, 2010, 11:54 am, in reply to "Re: Ship - S. S. Fort Jupiter"

If he was aboard FORT JUPITER in August-November 1945, he would not have been in combat ("Family legend has it that his ship was bombed...") since the war was over. (For the same reason it is interesting that an Armed Guard sailor was aboard a ship after the war ended, although I understand skeleton crews of Armed Guard sailors were kept aboard ships to maintain the guns until they were eventually removed by the Navy.)

Likewise FORT JUPITER sailed for many more years so there is no clear explanation (like the ship being sunk) for your uncle to have been in the water during this voyage.

Does the family have a copy of his death certificate and, if so, does that indicate anything?

This is entirely speculative but being aboard a tanker, a crewman might be subject to toxic fumes, with physical damage possibly becoming apparent only at a later date.

Ron Carlson, Webmaster

Re: Ship - S. S. Fort Jupiter

Posted by Diane Dumas Watson on May 19, 2010, 12:05 pm, in reply to "Re: Ship - S. S. Fort Jupiter"

I did get a copy of his death certificate and it says his death is due to undetermined causes. My aunt said his sickness with his lungs came and went. He was sick right after he was discharged in Jan. 1946 and stayed in California a little while with his sister. Then when he got back home he went back to work in the ship yards 80 miles away, but would get sick from time to time. Then in August he got sick on a Monday and on Friday he died. My aunt said he was throwing up and coughing something horrible. She said it looked like he was coughing up part of his lungs. It is all so strange! The toxic fumes thing sounds like that might be a possibility. I might never know what actually happened. My aunt said he was the type to keep sickness to himself.

Re: Ship - S. S. Fort Jupiter

Posted by Rick Pitz on May 20, 2010, 2:52 pm, in reply to "Re: Ship - S. S. Fort Jupiter"

Hi Dianne.

Earlier, you had told me that your uncle had worked at the ship yard. Since we have been unable to find any evidence of the ships he was on having been attacked, damaged, or sunk, it is possible that he contracted something related to his work at the shipyard. There is a lot of information around about asbestos related health problems for people who worked at ship yards, especially in the engine rooms.

I thought that sort of thing took a while to show up, but given the information on lung related illness, this is something to consider. Might be totally unrelated to the ships he was on.

Rick

PS: I re-sent the request to the Archives for the information I was trying to get for you. Keep you posted.

Re: Ship - S. S. Fort Jupiter

Posted by Diane Dumas Watson on May 20, 2010, 3:14 pm, in reply to "Re: Ship - S. S. Fort Jupiter"

Thank you, Rick. I just don't know. He did work for the shipyard before he joined the Navy and then once he got discharged. But my aunt says he was sick at the time of discharge or shortly there after and so stayed in California with his sister till he felt well enough to travel back to Alabama. Of course he could have gotten something before he joined the Navy and it just did not manifest until later. It's just such a mystery! I am beginning to think I may never find out exactly what the problem was!
Diane

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