SS Red Oak Victory

|+SS Red Oak Victory

{{Infobox ship image

|Ship image=RedOakVictory-2013-07-20.jpg

|Ship caption= SS Red Oak Victory

}}

{{Infobox ship career

|Hide header=

|Ship country=United States

|Ship flag={{shipboxflag|United States|naval}}

|Ship name=Red Oak Victory

|Ship namesake=The city of Red Oak, Iowa

|Ship owner=

|Ship operator=

|Ship registry=

|Ship route=

|Ship ordered=

|Ship builder=Permanente Metals Corporation, Richmond, California

|Ship original cost=

|Ship yard number=Yard No.1

|Ship way number=

|Ship laid down=9 September 1944

|Ship launched=7 November 1944

|Ship acquired=5 December 1944

|Ship commissioned=5 December 1944

|Ship decommissioned=21 May 1946

|Ship completed=

|Ship christened=

|Ship maiden voyage=

|Ship in service=

|Ship out of service=19 December 1969

|Ship struck=19 July 1946

|Ship identification=*Hull symbol: AK-235

{{IMO Number|5291331}}
Callsign: KYVM

|Ship fate=Released from the National Defense Reserve Fleet, 19 September 1998 for restoration at the Richmond, California, Museum of History

|Ship status=Museum at Richmond, California

|Ship notes=

}}

{{Infobox ship characteristics

|Hide header=

|Header caption={{cite web | url=http://www.navsource.net/archives/09/13/130235.htm | title=USS Red Oak Victory (AK-235) |website=NavSource | access-date=28 May 2015}}

|Ship class={{sclass|Boulder Victory|cargo ship}}

|Ship type=

|Ship tonnage=

|Ship displacement={{Boulder cargo displacement}}

|Ship length= {{Boulder cargo length}}

|Ship beam= {{Boulder cargo beam}}

|Ship height=

|Ship draft= {{Boulder cargo draft}}

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|Ship ice class=

|Ship power={{Boulder cargo power}}

|Ship propulsion=*1 × Westinghouse turbine

2 × Babcock & Wilcox header-type boilers, 525psi 750°
double Westinghouse Main Reduction Gears
1 × shaft

|Ship speed={{Boulder cargo speed}}

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|Ship troops=

|Ship complement= 99 officers and enlisted

|Ship time to activate=

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|Ship armament=*1 × 5"/38 caliber gun caliber dual purpose gun

1 × 3"/50 caliber gun caliber dual purpose gun
8 × Oerlikon 20 mm cannon anti-aircraft gun mounts

|Ship crew=

|Ship notes=

}}

{{Infobox NRHP

| embed = yes

| name = SS Red Oak Victory

| nrhp_type =

| image = RedOakVictory2.JPG

| caption = SS Red Oak Victory as seen from the dock in 2006, before extensive restoration work was performed

| image_size = 300

| location = Richmond, California

| coordinates = {{coord|37|54|17.3|N|122|21|52|W|display=inline,title}}

| locmapin = California#USA

| map_width = 300

| area =

| built = 1944

| added = 30 January 2000

| refnum = 00001674{{NRISref|2006a}}

}}

SS Red Oak Victory is a U.S. Victory ship of the {{sclass|Boulder Victory|cargo ship}} used in the Second World War. She was preserved to serve as a museum ship in Richmond, California, and is managed by the Richmond Library of History and located near the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park. She was one of 534 Victories built during World War II, but one of only a few of these ships to be transferred from the Merchant Marine to the United States Navy. She was named after Red Oak, Iowa, which suffered disproportionate casualties in early World War II battles.{{cite web

|url=http://www.qsl.net/redoakarc/index.htm

|title=Red Oak Victory Amateur Radio Club

|publisher=Red Oak Victory Amateur Radio Club

|access-date=2007-09-02

|archive-date=2007-08-24

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070824150259/http://www.qsl.net/redoakarc/index.htm

|url-status=dead

}}

{{cite news

|title=Emmet County Leads in War Dead Ratio

|newspaper=Mason City Globe-Gazette

|page=2

|date=3 January 1946

}} Montgomery County ranked third among Iowa counties in World War II casualties per capita.{{cite web |url=http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/wwIIbayarea/red.htm |title=SS Red Oak Victory (victory ship) |work=World War II in the San Francisco Bay Area |publisher=National Park Service |access-date=2007-04-03 |archive-date=2007-02-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070213052023/http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/wwIIbayarea/red.htm |url-status=dead }} The ship was active during World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.

History

Red Oak Victory was built by the Permanente Metals Corporation's Richmond Number 1 Yard in Richmond, California and launched on 9 November 1944. The ship is {{convert|455|ft}} in length, and armed with one five-inch/38 caliber gun; one three-inch/50 caliber gun, and eight 20 mm guns.

The ship was acquired by the United States Navy on 5 December 1944, and commissioned the same day as USS Red Oak Victory (AK-235). Following a fitting-out period, Red Oak Victory was loaded with cargo and departed San Francisco for Pearl Harbor on 10 January 1945. Red Oak Victory departed Hawaii on 10 February loaded with munitions needed in the Marshall and Caroline islands. Sent onward from Enewetak, she arrived in Ulithi on 28 February and then began operating under Commander Service Squadron Ten. Operating out of the Philippines, she issued cargo and ammunition to various fleet ships through the war's end in August 1945. During a hazardous tour of duty in the Pacific, Red Oak Victory handled many tons of ammunition, supplying the fleet without a single casualty.

Red Oak Victory was decommissioned in 1946 and returned to the U.S. Maritime Commission. Red Oak Victory was used by the Luckenbach Steamship Company from 1947 through the 1950s, when the vessel went to Japan, Korea, Cuba, Pakistan, India, Singapore, and Japan again. Red Oak Victory was operated by American Mail Lines for the Military Sea Transport Service from 1966 to 1968, making a dozen voyages to Vietnam, Japan, and the Philippines carrying military supplies loaded at West Coast ports. From 1968 until 1998, she was laid up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet in Suisun Bay.

Destined to be scrapped, Red Oak Victory came to the attention of the Richmond Museum Association in 1993. In 1996 Congress passed legislation authorizing the ship's conveyance to the Museum Association. Red Oak Victory was turned over to the Richmond Museum of History and towed to a new home in Richmond Shipyard 3 (near the location where Shipyard 1 was, where the ship was actually built in 1944) on 20 September 1998. She is being restored and operated by the Richmond Museum of History and is associated with the Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park.

References

{{DANFS|http://www.hazegray.org/danfs/auxil/ak235.htm}}
{{cite web

|url={{NRHP url|id=00001674}}

|title=National Register of Historic Places Registration Form / S.S. Red Oak Victory

|format=pdf

|last=Sampson

|first=Shelby

|publisher=National Park Service

|date=30 June 2000

|access-date=2012-10-16

}}

{{cite web

|url={{NRHP url|id=00001674|photos=y}}

|title=Accompanying Photos

|format=pdf

|access-date=2012-10-16

}}

External links

{{Official website|http://www.redoakvictory.us}}
[https://web.archive.org/web/20071014044114/http://hnsa.org/ships/redoak.htm Red Oak Victory] Historic Naval Ships Association
{{HAER |survey=CA-326-F |id=ca3334 |title=Rosie the Riveter National Historical Park, SS RED OAK VICTORY, Moored at end of Dornan Drive, Pt. Richmond, Richmond, Contra Costa County, CA}}