Posted by Nancy Magoon on November 5, 2012, 9:24 pm
The Navy wrote that my father-in-law had served on this ship,SS Charles Christenson yet I cannot find any information on it. Any ideas where else I can look, I am writing his story for genealogy and future generations. Thank you!
Re: ss Charles Christenson
Posted by Ron Carlson on November 6, 2012, 4:22 pm, in reply to "ss Charles Christenson"
Nancy,
Here are some particulars about SS CHARLES CHRISTENSON.
The ship was constructed by the J.F. Dutrie Company in Seattle, Washington, in 1919, and was originally named WEST HEPBURN. She was one of a number of ships built to the same design at the request and funded bt the U.S. Shipping Board, a federal government agency tasked with seeing that supply ships were built for use in World War I. WEST HEPBURN and a number of other ships were completed too late to serve in that war, and the government sold them or leased them to private shipping companies for commercial operation.
WEST HEPBURN was renamed CHARLES CHRISTENSON in 1927 after being sold to the Sudden and Christenson Steamship Company. Very likely a Charles Christenson was an official of that company and therefore the the ship was named for him.
I have found evidence that CHARLES CHRISTENSON was involved in trade between the West Coast of the U.S. and the Orient prior to World War II, and it is likely that she continued to serve in the Pacific during World War II, carrying cargo for the U.S. war effort. I have been unable to find information on any of her voyages.
Then in 1945, CHARLES CHRISTENSON was one of at least 123 ships that were given or leased to the Soviet Union as part of the Lend-Lease program. Operating for the USSR's merchant marine, she was renamed PLEKHANOV in 1945 and renamed again to PROFESSOR LOBACHEVSKIY in 1949, before being scrapped in 1956.
Thank you for the information, now I can continue on this story. Curious that the Navy doesn't mention the ship on it's websites. Was it a Liberty Ship also?
SS CHARLES CHRISTENSON was not a Liberty ship. Liberty ships were built between 1941 and 1945 specifically for service in World War II.
However, CHARLES CHRISTENSON and thousands of other supply ships were merchant ships, operated by private shipping companies and sailed by civilian merchant mariners, at the direction of the government, but were not U.S. Navy vessels. The ships were never a part of the Navy, therefore the Navy does not mention them in its records.