Waterbury Victory

Waterbury Victory in Baltimore fitted out for troopship duty.

One of the 97 Victory (VC2) hulls that were completed as troop transports, Waterbury Victory retained all its cargo handling gear for eventual use as a cargo vessel. Four of the five holds were turned into austere accommodations for about 2000, including berthing, heads, food storage and dining entirely separate from those of the ship's crew. Additional entrances to the holds were added and multiple life raft launchers installed. Named for the city of Waterbury, Connecticut, the ship was launched in Baltimore on July 26, 1945. Original plans for the Victory ship cargo/troopship version exist on the web here.

During 1945-46 Waterbury Victory was hauling German POWs home and returning American GIs stateside. Steaming through the English channel, the ship ran into some submerged wreckage, putting a three foot hole through the hull. It was able to reach Bremerhaven, where repairs were made in dry dock.

There, in early March 1946, Waterbury Victory took on GIs heading home, one of whom was my uncle Ed Sanborn, an officer in the US Army Corps of Engineers. His unit had come ashore in Normandy just after D-Day in 1944 and followed the battles across France and Germany, building roads and repairing bridges.

Going by way of Antwerp, the trip across the North Atlantic was very rough with high winds and 60-foot waves but finally reached New York safely.

Uncle Ed took the following three photos of Waterbury Victory:

Waterbury Victory at a pier in Bremerhaven, Germany in March 1946.

The North Atlantic in early 1946.

American GIs headed home from war aboard Waterbury Victory.

In July of 1946, Waterbury Victory picked up members of the celebrated "Go for Broke" 442nd Regimental Combat Team, in New York bound for Honolulu by way of the Panama Canal. The most decorated unit in WW II, the 442nd was composed of Japanese Americans, largely from Hawaii. Its veterans were (and are) highly regarded in the Islands, many going on to careers in business, law and politics, including one who became a US Senator.

Returning Japanese-American troops lining up at the rails of Victory Ship SS Waterbury Victory, Honolulu, Hawaii, August 9, 1946. Aloha Tower is at the upper right.

The 442nd Regimental Combat Team arrives in August 1946 aboard Waterbury Victory.

Aloha !

An account of this and other voyages of Waterbury Victory by a member of the merchant marine crew can be found here. After service as a troopship it was restored to cargo ship configuration and sold to foreign operators in 1947. It kept on steaming until broken up on Taiwan in 1973.
 

SS Muiderkerk (ex-Waterbury Victory) was operated as a cargo ship by Dutch steamship company Vereenigde Nederlandsche Scheepvaartmaatschappij (VNS) from 1947 to 1965.