Am looking for anyone with info on SS Abram S Hewitt. My father-in-law (since deceased) was on it. I'd like to find out more about the voyages of this ship and it's contribution to the war.
Re: SS Abram S Hewitt
Posted by Ron Carlson on November 8, 2011, 10:52 am, in reply to "SS Abram S Hewitt"
Nancy,
SS ABRAM S HEWITT was one of more than 2,700 Liberty ships built before and during World War II. She was constructed for the U.S. Maritime Commission by the Kaiser Permanente Shipyard #2 in Richmond, California, in December 1943/January 1944. Her keel was laid December 15, 1943, she was launched January 5, 1944, and she was completed and delivered for service on January 13, just 29 days after keel-laying. (Her construction time of 29 days was far from a record, by the way. One Liberty ship was built in four days, 15 hours. Yes, four days.) She probably had an uneventful wartime career as I can find no unusual mentions of her online. In 1947 the federal government sold the ship to a private shipping company in Italy and she was renamed QUEMAR. Later the same year she was renamed again to ITALO MARSANO, and was renamed yet again in 1957 to GOLFO DI TRIESTE. On December 14, 1964, she developed a leak while in a storm at sea, and sank in the South China Sea, midway between Vietnam and the Philippine Islands. There were no casualties among the crew.
ABRAM S HEWITT apparently spent most or all of the war operating in the Pacific, making voyages carrying supplies and troops between the United States and such destinations as Guadalcanal, Bouganville, Espiritu Santo, New Caledonia, New Guinea, and the Philippine Islands. I do not have detailed information on her operational history.
She was named after Abram S. Hewitt (1822-1903), a steel manufacturer, philanthropist, Congressman from New York (1875-1887) and mayor of New York City in 1886.
A photograph of the ship may be available from one of the sources listed at http://www.usmm.org/photosource.html. Mr. Hultgren is a particularly good source in that he specializes in photographs of Liberty ships. Mr. Hultgren is quite elderly but at last report was still actively managing his collection.
Best wishes.
Ron Carlson, Webmaster Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website www.armed-guard.com
Re: SS Abram S Hewitt
Posted by Nancy Magoon on December 11, 2011, 1:01 pm, in reply to "Re: SS Abram S Hewitt"
Seems to me I remember reading where some of the Libety Ships carried hazardous material..can anyone verify this? Or point me in the right direction?
Re: SS Abram S Hewitt
Posted by Ron Carlson on December 12, 2011, 11:54 pm, in reply to "Re: SS Abram S Hewitt"
Nancy,
You're absolutely correct. Think of it this way: during World War II, cargo ships, including Liberty ships, carried everything needed to fight a war in locations around the world. What do you need to fight a war? Among many other things, ammunition, bombs, gasoline, fuel oil and other petroleum products of all kinds, chemicals of all kinds. Any number of those items are hazardous and often deadly, then and now.
Two examples come quickly to mind. The Liberty ship PAUL HAMILTON, carrying a load of high explosives and 580 unlucky troops and crewmen, was destroyed instantaneously when struck by a single German aerial torpedo on April 20, 1944, while in convoy in the Mediterranean. The ship literally disappeared, with pieces of the ship raining down on other vessels in the convoy. There were no survivors and only one body was ever recovered.
The Liberty ship RICHARD MONTGOMERY sank in shallow water at the mouth of the Thames River in Britain in August 1944 after going aground. There were no casualties among the crew. The ship carried thousands of tons of explosives, including large bombs. Some of the cargo was salvaged before the ship broke apart but much of it remains in place to this day, too dangerous and expensive to remove, in water shallow enough that the ship's masts remain visible above the water. There are serious concerns about public safety if the explosives were to detonate, even after so many years, as the ship and its cargo disintegrates. It has been estimated that if the cargo were to detonate spontaneously, it would send a column of water 1,000 feet wide as much as 10,000 feet into the air and generate a wave 16 feet high. Every window in the nearest city would be broken and many buildings damaged. An exclusion zone has been established around the ship, which is monitored around the clock, to minimize the possibility of collision with other vessels.
Less notorious examples are widespread. Many World War II vessels, whether cargo ships or warships, were lost in relatively shallow waters around the world, while containing fuel tanks filled with oil and with cargoes of various kinds still in the holds. As these ships rust away, they will eventually release the chemicals and explosives still trapped within them into the sea. The battleship USS ARIZONA, lost in a spectacular explosion when attacked at Pearl Harbor, continues to leak fuel oil into the waters of the harbor. Where the wrecks lie close to a shore, significant local environmental damage and threats to public safety and health may result without warning. See this newspaper article: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Fuel+seeping+from+sunken+vessels/5482177/story.html.
Ron Carlson, Webmaster Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website www.armed-guard.com
