Presentation Date: March 26, 1998
Bob Burnett
S.S. Jeremiah O'Brien, History and Restoration Project S.S. Jeremiah O'Brien, History and Restoration Project
In the Number Two hold, Golden Gate Wing members and guests sat for a sold out dinner meeting to hear the amazing story of the Liberty cargo ships which carried the war across the oceans to the enemy.
The S.S. Jeremiah O'Brien was one of thousands of ships in the armada that steamed across the English Channel on June 6th, 1944. The O'Brien made eleven round trips to the Utah and Omaha beaches, and the port of Cherbourg, and is now the only self-propelled National Historical Landmark.
After the meeting, guests took guided tours of Jeremiah O'Brien, from her 3" bow gun to the depths of the engine room, six stories below. Many marveled at the antique steam engine technology and at the well-preserved navigation equipment.
Bob Burnett, of the Golden Gate Wing, and a member of the Jeremiah O'Brien restoration team, says the origins of Liberty ships can easily be traced to WWI's emergency shipbuilding program, when 500 standard cargo ships were launched. In 1936, Congress passed the Shipbuilding Act to build 500 standard ships within ten years. Over the next couple years, that goal had swollen to 2000 ships.
When Great Britain made a call for more ships in 1940, there was quick realization "we need something quick, dirty, cheap and simple that can be built by the hundreds." Since steam turbines were going into warships, and there was insufficient supply of reduction gears, it was decided to power Liberty ships with 1914 vintage reciprocating steam engines. Built to carry about 10,000 tons of cargo, fuel, water and consumables, Liberty ships were not designed to last beyond the war's end. They were operated by merchant marines (civilian seamen) and defended by Navy gunners.
At the height of production, Liberty ships slid down the ways at a rate better than two a day. The O'Brien launched in South Portland, Maine in June, 1943, 45 days after construction began, and was delivered eleven days later. That same month, another Liberty ship was launched in Portland, Oregon, in 10 days and delivered a week later. That record was shattered in November of 1942 with the launching of the Robert E. Perry in four days, 15 hours, 26 minutes, and delivered less than three days later. Reportedly, one Liberty ship was launched, loaded and steamed out to Guadalcanal within 14 days ( it usually took 14 days alone to load one single Liberty ship cargo hold! ).
The O'Brien made a series of voyages between New York and the United Kingdom before becoming part of the D-Day armada, and carrying troops and supplies to Normandy. After D-Day operations, the O'Brien steamed to war in the Pacific, and was headed to India when the Japanese surrendered. Mothballed in 1946, she waited for 33 years until her restoration.
It took $2.6 million and thousands of volunteer hours to make the S.S. O'Brien seaworthy, and Captain Walter Jaffee says meeting Coast Guard specs was a job that continued long after steaming through the Golden Gate to begin the journey to Normandy for the 50th Anniversary of D-Day.
Jaffee spoke of the many emotions of that voyage. Every vessel that passed the Liberty ship saluted with a whistle blast and received a whistle salute back from the O'Brien. The Liberty ship steamed through the Panama Canal and crossed the Atlantic to Portsmouth and Southampton, England. Of the many things that happened while docked in England, the O'Brien became "airshow central" for a Navy Days celebration, and foot traffic from self-guided tours wore painted blue lines and arrows completely off the decks in many places.
As the O'Brien made her way under heavy grey skies to cross the Channel to Normandy, a solitary Spitfire flew over, leading the way to the Solent and the Channel. Burnett says that after the D-Day ceremonies, the O'Brien sailed up the Seine River, to be part of "L'Armada L'Liberte" in Rouen. On the way, as many as six million cheering people lined the riverbanks to watch the flotilla of tall ships, modern warships and the S.S. O'Brien, and there were signs and banners in many languages. Yet, the most poignant message for Burnett were the words, written in English in the left bank, "Thank You."
17,000 miles later, the O'Brien returned to the U.S., to cheering crowds in New York and San Francisco. During the war, 200 Liberty ships were lost to enemy torpedoes, bombs, the weather...to all causes. Eight thousand merchant seamen died on these ships, carrying weapons, supplies, and troops to and from the battlefields of Europe and the Pacific. The S.S. Jeremiah O'Brien is another piece of living history helping us to remember the worldwide struggle for freedom.