SS Meredith Victory
{{short description|Victory ship of the United States}}
| {{Infobox ship begin |display title=}}
{{Infobox ship image |Ship image=SSMeredithVictory.jpg |Ship caption=Meredith Victory }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country=United States |Ship flag={{USN flag|1945}} |Ship name=Meredith Victory |Ship ordered= |Ship builder=CalShip, Los Angeles, California |Ship original cost= |Ship yard number=V83 |Ship way number= |Ship laid down=May 1, 1945 |Ship launched=June 23, 1945 |Ship sponsor= |Ship christened= |Ship completed=July 24, 1945 |Ship acquired= |Ship commissioned= |Ship recommissioned= |Ship decommissioned= |Ship maiden voyage= |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship renamed= |Ship reclassified= |Ship refit= |Ship struck= |Ship reinstated= |Ship homeport=Los Angeles |Ship identification={{IMO Number|5232593}} |Ship motto= |Ship nickname= |Ship honours= |Ship honors= Merchant Marine Gallant Ship Citation |Ship captured= |Ship fate=Broken up in China, 1993 |Ship notes= |Ship badge= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship class=Victory |Ship type=VC2-S-AP2 |Ship displacement=15200 tons (at 28-foot draft){{cite journal|author=Culver, John A.|title=A time for Victories|journal=United States Naval Institute Proceedings|date=February 1977|pages=50–56}} |Ship height= |Ship draught= |Ship depth= |Ship hold depth=38 feet (11.5 m) |Ship decks= |Ship deck clearance= |Ship ramps= |Ship ice class= |Ship power=6600shp, 4855 kW |Ship propulsion=2 steam turbines |Ship sail plan= |Ship speed=15 to 17 knots (28 to 31 km/h) |Ship range= |Ship endurance= |Ship test depth= |Ship boats= |Ship capacity=59 total (35 crew members, 12 officers, and 12 passengers) |Ship troops= |Ship complement= |Ship crew= |Ship time to activate= |Ship sensors= |Ship EW= |Ship armament=*1 × 5 inch (127 mm)/38 caliber gun as Victory ship |Ship armour= |Ship armor= |Ship aircraft= |Ship aircraft facilities= }} |
The SS Meredith Victory was a United States Merchant Marine Victory ship, a type of cargo freighter built for World War II. Under the leadership of Captain Leonard LaRue, Meredith Victory is credited with the largest humanitarian rescue operation by a single ship,http://www.usmma.edu/about/news/feature.asp?StoryID=344 {{dead link|date=March 2013}} evacuating more than 14,000 refugees in a single trip during the Korean War. The vessel has often been described as the "Ship of Miracles" as it was designed to carry only 12 passengers with a 47-person crew.{{Cite web |url=http://www.msc.navy.mil/sealift/2013/September/korea.htm |title=msc.navy.mil, Ship of Miracles |access-date=2017-01-09 |archive-date=2017-01-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170110090924/http://www.msc.navy.mil/sealift/2013/September/korea.htm |url-status=dead }}
History
{{Main article|Hungnam evacuation}}
The SS Meredith Victory was named after Meredith College, a small women's college in North Carolina.{{cite web |url=http://www.shipofmiracles.com/6.html |title="Ship of Miracles" documentary film by RJ McHatton}} The ship was built to transport supplies and equipment overseas during World War II. During that war, it was operated by American President Lines. In 1950, it was laid up at Olympia, Washington, as part of the National Defense Reserve Fleet. The ship was then deployed in the Korean War.
File:Refugees during the Hungnam evacuation, 1950.jpg
In December 1950, United Nations Command (UNC) troops were executing a tactical withdrawal from the Chosin Reservoir against the People's Volunteer Army (PVA) and Korean People's Army forces. Over 100,000 UNC soldiers were to evacuate the city of Hungnam on 193 ships bound for the southern port of Pusan. News of the evacuation spread, and nearly an equal number of civilians also gathered at the port, hoping to board as well.
On December 20, after arriving at the port of Hungnam, U.S. army colonels went on board and explained the current grave situation and proposed rescue of refugees. Captain Leonard LaRue decided to evacuate as many refugees as possible. Boarding went on from the afternoon of December 22 until the next morning.{{cite news |title=Obituaries: Brother Marinus |author=Dan van der Vat |author-link = Dan van der Vat|newspaper=The Guardian |date=December 19, 2001 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/dec/19/guardianobituaries1}} Using booms and makeshift elevators, the crew filled the five cargo holds and the entire main deck. Although the ship was built to accommodate only 12 passengers, besides the crew and staff, more than 14,000 Korean civilians were crammed aboard. Meredith Victory departed shortly after 11 am on December 23 for Pusan, about {{convert|450|nmi}} away,{{cite journal |last1=Fohn |first1=Rosanne |date=November–December 2002 |title=Voyage of Mercy: Merchant mariners rescue 1400 Korean refugees facing death |journal=USAA Magazine |url=http://www.vos.noaa.gov/MWL/spring_03/voyage.shtml }} as bombardment from UNC ships and explosives destroyed the port to deny its use to the enemy. The ship had no escort or means of self-defense.
Years later, LaRue would reflect on that trip:{{cite web|url=http://www.koreamonitor.net/print_it.cfm?upccode=BGA6638D73-9 |title=A Miracle |publisher=koreamonitor.net |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723173718/http://www.koreamonitor.net/print_it.cfm?upccode=BGA6638D73-9 |archive-date=2011-07-23 }}
I think often of that voyage. I think of how such a small vessel was able to hold so many persons and surmount endless perils without harm to a soul. And, as I think, the clear, unmistakable message comes to me that on that Christmastide, in the bleak and bitter waters off the shores of Korea, God's own hand was at the helm of my ship.
Despite the fact that the refugees were "packed like sardines in a can" and most had to remain standing up, shoulder-to-shoulder, in freezing weather conditions during the entire voyage, there were no injuries or casualties on board. There was very little food or water, and the people were virtually unable to move. J. Robert Lunney, Staff Officer on the ship and a navy veteran of World War II, stated:
There's no explanation for why the Korean people, as stoic as they are, were able to stand virtually motionless and in silence. We were impressed by the conduct of the refugees, despite their desperate plight. We were touched by it.
First Mate D.S. Savastio, who only had first aid training, delivered five babies during the three-day passage to safety. The ship arrived in Pusan on Christmas Eve, but no one was allowed off except a few wounded and those identified as communist sympathizers. Meredith Victory had to travel another {{convert|50|mi}} to Geoje Island before it could debark its passengers on December 26.
Among the passengers were the parents of Moon Jae-in, the 12th (19th election) president of South Korea. He was born on Geoje Island two years after the evacuation.{{cite news |url= https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/opinion/2017/05/197_229057.html |title= Moon Jae-in: From Geoje to Cheong Wa Dae |first= Ned |last= Forney |work = The Korea Times |date= May 9, 2017}}
Captain LaRue remained in command until the ship was decommissioned in 1952. He left the sea and became a Benedictine monk of Newtown Abbey, New Jersey. On March 25, 2019, Bishop Arthur Serratelli, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Paterson opened the canonization cause for LaRue, known as Brother Marinus, OSB.{{cite web|url=https://www.osb.org/2019/04/02/bishop-of-paterson-new-jersey-usa-opens-sainthood-cause-of-brother-marinus-larue-osb/|title=Bishop of Paterson, New Jersey (USA) Opens Sainthod Cause of Brother Marinus LaRue OSB|year=2019|access-date=2019-08-16|archive-date=2019-08-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190816150811/https://www.osb.org/2019/04/02/bishop-of-paterson-new-jersey-usa-opens-sainthood-cause-of-brother-marinus-larue-osb/|url-status=dead}}
After the Korean War, the ship sat in the harbor of Bremerton, Washington, as part of the "mothball fleet" until it was put back in service in 1966 for some missions during the Vietnam War, for which she was converted to a troop ship.
In 1973, the ship was laid up in Suisun Bay. In 1993, it was towed to China and scrapped.{{cite web |url=http://www.mariners-l.co.uk/vicshipsM.html |title=Victory Ships - M |website=mariners-1.co.uk}}
Awards and distinctions
File:Geoje HuengNam Retreat Memorial Tower.jpg Memorial at Geoje POW camp.]]
After the war, the South Korean government honored Captain Leonard LaRue with the Gold Star Eulji - Order of Military Merit (1955)[https://newslibrary.naver.com/viewer/index.naver?articleId=1955122400329203032&editNo=1&printCount=1&publishDate=1955-12-24&officeId=00032&pageNo=3&printNo=3104&publishType=00020 華府(화부)서乙支勳章授與(을지훈장수여) 興南撤收(흥남철수)에有功船長(유공선장)] and the ship's crews with the Presidential Citation (1958).[https://theworldview.co.kr/archives/15215 6·25 한국전쟁과 흥남철수작전의 메시지: 생명의 항해]
On August 24, 1960, the United States Merchant Marine awarded the ship's all crew the Merchant Marine Meritorious Service Medal, its highest honor.{{cite news |title=A Tale of Salvation |author=Jennifer Goldblatt |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 11, 2004 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/11/nyregion/a-tale-of-salvation.html?pagewanted=1}} and the SS Meredith Victory was conferred the title of "Gallant Ship" by a special act of the U.S. Congress that was signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
The Department of Transportation declared it "the greatest rescue in the history of mankind". Guinness World Records has described it as "the largest evacuation from land by a single ship".{{cite web |url=http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/3000/largest-evacuation-from-land-by-a-single-ship |title=Largest evacuation from land by a single ship |date=25 December 1950 |publisher=Guinness World Records |access-date=March 12, 2013}}
Depictions
The documentary film Ship of Miracles, describes the events of the rescue.{{IMDb title|qid=Q128789823|title=Ship of Miracles}}{{cite web |url=http://www.shipofmiracles.com |title="Ship of Miracles" documentary film by RJ McHatton |publisher=shipofmiracles.com (official documentary site)}}
The SS Meredith Victory is featured prominently in the 2012 historical novel Hope in Hungnam.{{Harvard citation no brackets|Watts|2012|p=}}
The drama film Ode to My Father begins with the Hungnam evacuation in 1950 and shows the evacuation process by the ship in detail.
The evacuation and the SS Meredith Victory play a part in the finale of the TV series Timeless (episode "The Miracle of Christmas - Part 1").
See also
- {{SS|Lane Victory}}
Citations
{{Reflist}}
References
- {{cite book |last=Watts|first=David Watts| title = Hope in Hungnam|year=2012| publisher = CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform| isbn= 9781434829665 }}
External links
- [http://www.shipofmiracles.com Ship of Miracles]
- [http://www.meredithvictory.com/ MEREDITH VICTORY MEDIA COMPANY]
{{MARCOMships}}
{{WWII US ships}}
{{Victory ships}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meredith Victory}}
Category:World War II merchant ships of the United States
Category:Vietnam War merchant ships of the United States
Category:Cargo ships of the United States