My Dad Edward E. Morgan Jr. Wisconsin served on the Cape Meredith During WWII... Any chance there may be folks who have direct knowledge, information or pictures of the ship, time, or even him>
I have found one record of your father sailing aboard SS CAPE MEREDITH.
Your father is recorded as Edward E. Morgan. He joined the crew of CAPE MEREDITH on June 29, 1945, in San Francisco. The ship sailed from San Francisco on or about July 7, 1945. I cannot tell from the record the ship's initial destination although my guess would be the Philippines or Australia. No later than November 30, 1945, the ship was in Yokohama, Japan. She sailed from Yokohama on an unspecified date, arriving in San Francisco on December 17, 1945. Presumably the ship's initial destination was NOT Yokohama since as of the date of her departure from San Francisco the war with Japan was still ongoing.
Your father sailed on this voyage as a wiper, which is an entry-level position in the engine room. He is recorded as being age 17 (therefore a birth year of 1927 or 1928; a specific birth date is not indicated) and was 5'9" tall. He had not been a member of the crew on the ship's previous voyage. Your father was one of 50 crewmen under the command of Alfred J.M. Prien, the master (captain). Many of the crewmen, especially the less senior, were in their teens or early twenties. I searched for other instances of your father sailing aboard CAPE MEREDITH but found nothing.
My source for the above information is the subscription website Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com) which contains, among many other records, information on passengers and crew who arrived in certain U.S. ports from a foreign port. If you wish you could obtain a short-term subscription to Ancestry.com to make the same search I did. Ancestry.com often offers a 14-day free trial subscription, so you could possibly make the same search and end up paying nothing for the subscription. Information on subscriptions is available on the Ancestry.com homepage.
CAPE MEREDITH was owned by the U.S. War Shipping Administration and operated under contract by the Pacific-Atlantic Steamship Company of Vancouver, Washington, so technically your father was an employee of that company during the voyage. It is typical for merchant seamen to draw their pay and leave the ship at the end of a voyage so this may have been the only time he sailed in this ship.
You may be able to obtain a copy of your father's merchant marine service record via the U.S. Coast Guard. The Coast Guard was and is responsible for maintaining certain records about and issuing certain documents to U.S. merchant mariners. Please see this page on the website I manage, http://www.armed-guard.com/searchmil.html, in particular section II.A.2 - Records of Individuals - Merchant Marine. You will have to contact the Coast Guard's National Maritime Center in West Virginia, providing as much identifying information as possible. There may be a fee involved although I don't know for sure.
Good luck.
Ron Carlson, Webmaster Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website www.armed-guard.com
My Great Uncle was the Ch. Elec on the SS Cape Meredith in 08/10/1944. His name was Alexander Gordon Brown born Sept 12th, 1902 in Scotland. Became a Nat American. Does anyone have any actual photos of that vessel?
My Dad was on the Cape Meredeth WWII He still living at 91 years old .he was reassigned to the Joseph Lane 4-30-1045 Jack Murray has a detailed account of there different destinations.