Joseph Michael Haid - USN - served on 4 liberty ships during WWII - ????
Posted by Chad Carpenter on July 10, 2012, 11:42 pm
I was talking to my mother the other day ... we were discussing my grandfather Name above and his USN service during WWII. I remembered that he served on Merchant ships (Liberty Ships) and she thought a Naval vessel fighting ship etc etc. In talking to my grandmother she still had his discharge paper and it listed four ships, SS Harry Lane, SS Moses Austin, SS William Lloyd Garrison and SS Turner's Gap. I am curious about any and all of them, but the last one for sure I haven't been able to find it listed anywhere on the Internet. Anyone who can help this 40+ year old grandson of a WWII vet out it would be an honor to send emails / posting back and forth. I have found out so much in just the last couple of days looking that I am sure there is a lot more to uncover. God bless all of our WWII vets and there spouses still living today. They truly are our GREATEST Generation.
Re: Joseph Michael Haid - USN - served on 4 liberty ships during WWII - ????
SS MOSES AUSTIN Constructed in 59 days in February-April 1943 by Tood Houston Shipbuilding, Houston, TX; sold to a private shipping company 1947, scrapped 1969.
Rick Pitz has the information on SS TURNER'S GAP exactly correct.
If you're interested in obtaining photographs of the three Liberty ships, Please see this web page for sources of photographs of World War II-era merchant ships: http://www.usmm.org/photosource.html. The best starting place would be Mr. William Hultgren, whose photographic collection concentrates on Liberty ships. I know enough about his collection to know that Mr. Hultgren apparently has images of HARRY LANE and MOSES AUSTIN, but not of WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. Mr. Hultgren is quite elderly but at last report was actively managing his collection.
A source for WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON may be the Mariners Museum in Newport News, Virginia. However, the second link for the Mariners Museum as displayed on the page I identify above is no longer valid. Instead, for help finding photographs and other materials held by the museum's library, contact library@marinersmuseum.org.
Both Mr. Hultgren and the Mariners Museum will charge for copies of their photographs but I don't know how much.
For still more information about all four ships, go to the EXCELLENT website ConvoyWeb and do a "Ship Search" at http://www.convoyweb.org.uk/hague/index.html for the name of the ship(s) in question. It will show the whereabouts of a ship, assuming it is their database, by location, date, originating and destination ports. There will be no information on the crew, but if you know when your grandfather served in each ship, you will know where he was turning that period. ConvoyWeb is not as complete for ship movements in the Pacific as in the Atlantic and Mediterranean but you may find something.
A similar website is www.warsailors.com which has a search box on the home page. Convoyweb is the more comprehensive of the two sites but warsailors.com sometimes has more extensive information about an individual convoy than does Convoyweb, so search them both. Both sites appear to be better on ship movements in the Atlantic, the Caribbean and the Mediterranean than in the Pacific.
Additionally, Internet searches of the name of the ship are sometimes fruitful. Search on the name of the ship preceded by "SS" (meaning steamship) rather than just the name of the ship, so as to avoid pages that discuss just the namesake of the ship. Therefore search for "SS HARRY LANE" rather than "HARRY LANE."
More to come.
Ron Carlson, Webmaster Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website www.armed-guard.com
Re: Joseph Michael Haid - USN - served on 4 liberty ships during WWII - ????
Searching for information on your grandfather, I found the following. Below is the Armed Guard detachment aboard MOSES AUSTIN on a voyage from New York to Antwerp, Belgium, and returning to New York. The ship departed New York on or about January 13, 1945, arrived Southend, England, on February 5, 1945, arrived Antwerp on February 6, 1945, departed Antwerp February 21, 1945, arrived Southend, England, February 22, 1945, and arrived New York March 14, 1945. The outbound convoys were HX-332 (New York/Southend) and TAM-71 (Southend/Antwerp), while the returning convoys were ATM-71 (Antwerp/Southend) and ON-287 (Southend/New York).
Your grandfather was listed as a seaman 1st class (S1/c) and had reported to the ship as of December 28, 1944. The size of the Armed Guard detachment (36 men including two officers) leads me to believe that MOSES AUSTIN sailed on at least this voyage as a troop ship rather than as a more common cargo-only Liberty ship. The usual Armed Guard complement on a Liberty was about 27 men and one officer. Troop ships carried more defensive weapons, therefore needing more Armed Guard gunners.
Harvell Dalton Akins Roger Joseph Allarie Waddington B Aspin Albert Basillo Harold Herbert Beatty William Beaverson Marcus A Bennett William P Bergen Cloyd Blankenship Wilber Henry Bowles John Harwood Bunce Salvatore N Catalano Leonal J Chalifoux Dale Rockwell Chappell Lawrence A Chiarucci Louis Chrzanowski James Layton Cloutman George Alpheus Conner William A Connolly William L Cresswell Joseph Philip Diblasi Lauriston H Goddard Joseph Michael Haid William M Kinnamon ENS, Armed Guard officer Lorentz H Martinson LT(jg), Armed Guard commanding officer Rolland L Messier Ruel R Mick Joseph W Mickiewicz John Walsh Moore Jack Lawrence Norman John M Squicciarino Henry Clinton Stallman Albert Joseph Torsney Charles R Wahrer Woodford S Wells Charles H Wilson
I have no idea whether any of these men are still living, nor would I have contact information on any who are. You may wish to do a search of the Social Security Death Index (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=3693) for the more unusual names, thereby identifying those who are deceased. Of the remaining names, search an online telephone directory such as www.whitepages.com to find possibly matches among living crew mates. Searches for the more common names would be pointless because so many individuals share the same name.
Additionally there were another 43 merchant marine (civilian) crewman aboard for this voyage.
Ron Carlson, Webmaster Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website www.armed-guard.com
Re: Joseph Michael Haid - USN - served on 4 liberty ships during WWII - ????
The Turner's Gap was a type T2-SE-A1 Tanker, not a Liberty Ship. Don't have much data on her, but she was built by Sun Ship company with Hull #487 of the T-2 Tankers. Her keel was laid on 5-Mar-45 and she was delivered on 16-Jun-45. She was sold to ESSO in 1948, and became the "Stanvac Bangkok". She was scrapped in 1963. There are a couple of pictures of her and some general information at this link: http://www.aukevisser.nl/others/id551.htm.
This should help you with that one.
Rick
Re: Joseph Michael Haid - USN - served on 4 liberty ships during WWII - ????
Thanks for the help on the Turner's gap. Great information. I as a veteran myself (Army 93-95 medical discharge for diabetes) have been doing lots of pondering about the veterans in our family on both my mother's and fathers sides. My grandpa "Pete" Haid was quite a character and had arms as big as Popeye the Sailerman and the tattoo's to go with it!!! Just a great man whom I have some of the fondest memories as a kid growing up in Southwestern Pennsylvania. I hope to make a trek to see the SS John Brown and take my mother on the cruise in his honor...... someday real soon!!! God bless and thanks for the help!!! Anyone else who might be able to help on the other 3 ships or any other places to look for info about this great ships there cruises etc. I would love to do a recreation of his active service (11/43 thru 1/1946).