Posted by Julian Bailey on January 26, 2012, 6:25 pm
My late father, Julian Wooten Bailey, a Pearl Harbor survivor, spoke fondly of this ship. He said it was a captured German vessel with an odd diesel engine that had to be stopped and restarted in the opposite direction to reverse the ship. He was either an Ens. or J.G. when he was assigned to help take that ship from England to North Africa with an Armed Guard unit. Is anyone familiar with this story?
Re: MS Blenheim
Posted by Julian Bailey on December 8, 2014, 7:12 pm, in reply to "MS Blenheim"
My late father, Jullian Wooten Bailey, a Pearl Harbor survivor, spoke fondly of this ship. He said it was a captured German vessel with an odd diesel engine that had to be stopped and restarted in the opposite direction to reverse the ship. He was either an Ens. or J.G. when he was assigned to help take that ship from England to North Africa with an Armed Guard unit. Is anyone familiar with this story?
Re: MS Blenheim
Posted by Ron Carlson on January 30, 2012, 10:39 am, in reply to "MS Blenheim"
Julian,
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
Re: MS Blenheim
Posted by Julian Bailey on January 30, 2012, 1:58 pm, in reply to "Re: MS Blenheim"
Words are insufficient to express my gratitude for your having taken the time to so fully respond to my inquiry. Following the voyage describe by you, my father was in Washington and learned that the navy was looking for blimp pilots. He went thru flight training and spent the remaining years of the war in LTA. He returned to So. Calif. and stayed in the reserves doing his active duty time at the Tustin LTA base in Orange County. When the navy scrapped its use of blimps in the mid 1950's he retired as a LCDR with 18 years of service. In later years I know he wished that he had stayed those last 2 years and received the additional benefits. He got his commission from a program I believe called V-7. He left UCLA without graduating and went to Northwestern University for 90 days. Shortly after that he found himself aboard the Nevada as a 21 year old ensign when Pearl Harbor was attacked. My sister, brother and I are now in our 60's and cherish the memories of our parents. Thanks for helping fill in some gaps in our family's history. JB San Clemente, CA
Re: MS Blenheim
Posted by Jim on January 27, 2012, 9:36 am, in reply to "MS Blenheim"
I found this under a google search.
MS BLENHEIM [Sorry I don’t have a picture for this freighter] ------------------------------------------- T he MS Blenheim was a 5,097 gross ton freighter that was built in 1923 in Hamburg, Germany and was taken over by the WSA [War Shipping Administration]...and being operated by Waterman Steamship Co. The Blenheim’s home port was New Orleans, LA. On November 17th 1944 the Blenheim, mastered by Axel Carl B. Lindgren, 37 crewmen, and 18 U.S. Naval Armed Guard, sailed from New York to Antwerp, Belgium. On January 3rd 1945 the freighter tied up to Pier 123 in Antwerp and began discharging her 4,000 lbs of general cargo. The Blenheim stayed tied up to the Pier 123 after her discharge of cargo. On January 8th a German V-2 rocket exploded on the quay about fifty feet off the starboard side. The explosion caused extensive damaged to the ship.....The concussion broke and cracked all the bulkheads in the cabins and forecastle, blew off or damaged the doors, broke water pipes, and ripped radiators and bunks from the bulkheads. The destruction from this explosion did not stop with the above....it also blew in all the port holes, both port and starboard, wrecked the Armed Guards quarters and every cabin on the starboard side, and destroyed three of the four life boats. The blast injured twenty individuals....five of these were hospitalized for serious injuries...but all survived. It was reported that several U.S. Army personnel and 18 civilians were killed Even with all the above damage the MS Blenheim returned to the U.S. under its own power, she was repaired and returned to service. ----------------------------------------------- Author: Bud Shortridge Sources: A Careless Word....A Needless Sinking By: Captain Arthur R. Moore U.S. Merchant Vessel War Casualties of World War II