Posted by Michael Blanchard on September 28, 2014, 7:08 pm
I am trying to locate a photograph of the SS William H. Ashley, a Liberty Ship in the Pacific.. I've looked all over the internet with no luck. My grandfather, Henry H. Beasley, S1C, was part of the armed guard aboard the Ashley although his records don't say exactly when he was aboard. I'm hoping to use this in a Christmas Present for my Uncle, who knows very little about his Dad's time in the Navy. Any help would be appreciated. The Ashley has been a hard ship to find out any info about.
Re: SS William H. Ashley
Posted by Josef A Codr on September 16, 2020, 4:36 pm, in reply to "SS William H. Ashley "
I have an original life ring from the boat that I bought at An antique fair years ago.
Re: SS William H. Ashley
Posted by Joe Sparano on October 2, 2014, 2:43 pm, in reply to "SS William H. Ashley "
Be careful! I ordered a picture of my ship, Charles A. Wickliffe, sight unseen, and was very disappointed that the picture I received was of the ship in a bad state of disrepair in drydock. Please inquire as to the status of the ship before ordering the picture!
You're welcome! Didn't want you to pay the $ and then be disappointed - can't return them for a refund. Enjoy your weekend, Joe
Re: SS William H. Ashley
Posted by Ron Carlson on October 1, 2014, 2:16 pm, in reply to "SS William H. Ashley "
Michael,
Good news for you.
To obtain a wartime photograph of WILLIAM H. ASHLEY, please see this web page: http://usmm.org/photosource.html. I refer you in particular to Mr. Hultgren, the second source on the list, as his collection specializes in Liberty ships. I know enough about his collection to be able to say that he apparently has an image of this ship. My understanding is that Mr. Hultgren charges $15 for an 8x10 photograph. Mr. Hultgren is quite elderly but at last report he was still actively managing his collection. He does not have e-mail or Internet capability, so you will need to call him or send him a letter.
As to the ship itself, WILLIAM H. ASHLEY was constructed by the Oregon Shipbuilding Company, Portland, Oregon, in 24 days in September-October 1943. She survived the war and was turned over to the U.S. Navy in 1956, and scrapped in 1972 in Philadelphia. See http://www.shipbuildinghistory.com/history/shipyards/4emergencylarge/wwtwo/koregon.htm and scroll to hull number 778. Also see http://www.mariners-l.co.uk/LibShipsW.html#WilDH and scroll to the name of the ship. The ship was named after William H. Ashley (1778-1838), a fur trader, explorer and congressman. He was a leader in the fur trade in Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming and Utah, and served as a Congressman from Missouri (1831-1837).
Additionally, I discovered that Henry Hammond Beasley was a seaman 1st class (S1/c) in a 26-man Armed Guard unit aboard WILLIAM H. ASHLEY from February 7, 1945, through at least October 23, 1945. During that period WILLIAM H. ASHLEY made a lengthy Pacific voyage, departing San Francisco on or about February 7, 1945. I am unable to reconstruct the entire voyage including all ports but the ship apparently stopped (in some order) at least in Manila, Philippines; Hollandia, New Guinea; and Noumea, New Caledonia, before returning to Seattle on October 23, 1945. With World War II well over by then (Japan formally surrendered on September 2, 1945), there was no need for a continued Armed Guard presence on merchant ships and your grandfather may have left the ship at that time. However, skeleton crews of Armed Guard personnel remained aboard ships to maintain the guns until the weaponry was finally removed and returned to the Navy.
For your information, my source for the above information about your grandfather was www.ancestry.com, a subscription website more commonly used for genealogical research but which contains names of crew and passengers arriving in certain U.S. ports of entry following a foreign voyage.
Good luck. I hope this information is useful.
Ron Carlson, Webmaster Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website www.armed-guard.com
Mr. Carlson: Thanks for the tip regarding the photos - I am now in possession of a photo of the Ashley following a lengthy and informative conversation with Mr. Hultgren. If I could impose upon you for one more thing: does ancestry.com also capture information about "domestic" departures and arrivals? I am wondering if it is worthwhile to try to explore ancestry.com to find out about Henry H. Beasley's service about the SS John Carroll if it exists.
The records that I have researched at Ancestry.com to answer your questions and similar questions from others are actually immigration forms. They were required by the Immigration and Naturalization Service under a 1917 law that required owners, agents or masters of vessels to document any aliens among their crew or passengers. The forms were filed with an immigration inspector who met the ship upon arrival at a port. (Fortunately for our modern-day purposes, the forms listed ALL crew and passengers, not just aliens, with the nationality of each person indicated.)
For ships making domestic voyages (sometimes referred to as sailing "coastwise") between U.S. ports, there would be no need to file these forms. Any aliens among crew and passengers would already have been identified upon their initial entry into the United States in the past. Such individuals would be no more immigrating into the country than if they had made the same trip by highway or rail.
On the other hand, there must have been some record somewhere of the crew lists of vessels making domestic voyages, if only in the records of the shipping companies that owned the ships and employed the sailors. Most of those companies no longer exist, unfortunately, and who knows what became of their records. Possibly they exist in Ancestry.com but I don't know where and I've never come across any. Or they may exist in the endless records of the National Archives, which is actually the source of the Ancestry.com records. Contacting the Help feature at Ancestry.com may be a place to start.
Good luck.
Ron Carlson, Webmaster Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website www.armed-guard.com
Further to the above message: I realized that you were asking about SS JOHN CARROLL, a name that had not come up in your other messages. So let me add to my answer in that context.
JOHN CARROLL was a Liberty ship built by a Kaiser Permanente shipyard in Richmond, California, in April-June 1943. She survived the war. From what I can tell from other sources, JOHN CARROLL may have operated primarily and possibly exclusively in the Pacific during the war. I can find records in Ancestry.com of JOHN CARROLL arriving in San Francisco, Seattle, and Astoria, Oregon, in 1944 and 1945, for example. In each case she arrived from Australia, Hollandia, Guam or other Pacific destinations. Point being, she did not operate on domestic routes only, if at all. However searches for "Beasley" and "JOHN CARROLL" in the period 1941-1945 for these three ports turn up nothing.
But that's not conclusive. For one thing, I doubt that the ship arrived only in these three ports and Ancestry.com records are sketchy for some ports. In any case I don't find the ship arriving anywhere in the last six months of 1943, when she was operational. More to the point, my experience with Ancestry.com records for ship arrivals at West Coast ports is that in many cases the records list the merchant marine crew but NOT any Armed Guard crew, although surely Armed Guard crews were aboard many or most ships on these voyages. I don't know the reason for this apparent lapse in record keeping but it is annoying. In short, Ancestry.com may not help you in this case.
All is not lost. In my earlier message I noted that records may exist in the National Archives. In fact I know that the Archives holds "Armed Guard officers' reports" that detail activity related to Armed Guard crews aboard many, many ships, regardless of the area in which they operated. The reports vary in quality, depending upon the diligence of the Armed Guard commanding officer on each voyage, but certainly a full roster of Armed Guard personnel aboard a given ship would be expected in each report.
These Armed Guard officers' reports are held at a major National Archives facility in College Park, Maryland, specifically in the Modern Military Records Unit. You may be able to obtain research assistance from the Archives staff to find records for JOHN CARROLL. The sticking point may be to determine when Henry Beaseley was aboard the ship. Presumably that would have been prior to February 7, 1945, when I found him aboard WILLIAM H. ASHLEY. You say his records do not indicate what dates he was aboard what ship but this narrows it down somewhat.
If you want to pursue this angle and request records for JOHN CARROLL in hopes of finding Henry Beaseley, write to the following address:
Modern Military Records Unit (NWCTM) National Archives and Records Administration 8601 Adelphi Road College Park, MD 20740-6001
In your letter, include the name of the ship; the name of the person about whom you are seeking information (or just ask for copies of all voyage reports prior to February 7, 1945); the date/time period of interest; your full name, address, and telephone number; and as much other detail as possible about the information you would like to obtain. Due to the volume of requests received and the time needed to identify appropriate records, response time may be lengthy.
A charge will be imposed for research, reproduction and mailing of the records. However do not send any cash/check/charge card information with your initial inquiry. Archives staff will review your request and mail to you an estimate of the cost and payment information. Follow the directions contained in that letter to order the desired records.
Thank you so very much for this information. I am completely floored! I will certainly put this information to good use. Thank you for your kindness in looking this up - I appreciate you going above and beyond.