SS Benjamin Chew

Last updated

History
US flag 48 stars.svgUnited States
NameBenjamin Chew
Namesake Benjamin Chew
Owner War Shipping Administration (WSA)
Operator Calmar Steamship Corp.
Orderedas type (EC2-S-C1) hull, MCE hull 58
Awarded14 March 1941
Builder Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard, Baltimore, Maryland [1]
Cost$1,075,732 [2]
Yard number2045
Way number7
Laid down15 June 1942
Launched10 August 1942
Sponsored byMrs. Andrew L. Jorgensen
Completed21 August 1942
Refitconverted to EC2-S-8a, July 1956
Identification
Fate
Flag of the United States.svgUnited States
NameBenjamin Chew
OwnerMilitary Sea Transportation Service
Operator United States Lines Co.
Cost$1,079,000 (refit cost)
Acquired22 August 1956
In service22 August 1956
Out of service31 October 1958
Fate
  • Laid up in the James River Reserve Fleet, Lee Hall, Virginia, 31 October 1958
  • Laid up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet, Mobile, Alabama, 21 July 1969
  • Sold for scrapping, 28 October 1971, withdrawn from fleet, 8 February 1972
General characteristics
Class and type
TypeEC2-S-8a (1956-) (refit)
Tonnage
Displacement
Length
  • 441 feet 6 inches (135 m) oa
  • 416 feet (127 m) pp
  • 427 feet (130 m) lwl
Beam57 feet (17 m)
Draft27 ft 9.25 in (8.4646 m)
Installed power
  • 2 × Oil fired 450 °F (232 °C) boilers, operating at 220 psi (1,500 kPa)
  • 2,500 hp (1,900 kW)
  • 6,000 hp (4,500 kW) (refit)
Propulsion
Speed
  • 11.5 knots (21.3  km/h; 13.2  mph)
  • 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph) (refit trial)
Capacity
  • 562,608 cubic feet (15,931 m3) (grain)
  • 499,573 cubic feet (14,146 m3) (bale)
Complement
Armament
NotesNew cargo handling gear installed during refit

SS Benjamin Chew was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after Benjamin Chew, a fifth-generation American, a Quaker-born legal scholar, a prominent and successful Philadelphia lawyer, head of the Pennsylvania Judiciary System under both Colony and Commonwealth, and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Province of Pennsylvania. Chew was well known for his precision and brevity in making legal arguments as well as his excellent memory, judgment, and knowledge of statutory law. Chew lived and practiced law in Philadelphia, four blocks from Independence Hall, and provided pro bono his knowledge of substantive law to America's Founding Fathers during the creation of the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Contents

Construction

Benjamin Chew was laid down on 15 June 1942, under a Maritime Commission (MARCOM) contract, MCE hull 58, by the Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard, Baltimore, Maryland; she was sponsored by Mrs. Andrew L. Jorgensen, the wife of a yard employee, and was launched on 10 August 1942. [1] [2]

History

She was allocated to Calmar Steamship Company, on 21 August 1942. [5]

On 20 May 1948, she was laid up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet, Astoria, Oregon. On 2 June 1952, she was laid up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet, Wilmington, North Carolina. On 27 November 1954, she was withdrawn from the fleet for test conversion to steam turbine power. Ira S. Bushey & Sons, Inc., Brooklyn, New York, performed the conversion and she was reclassified EC2-S-8a. She had her reciprocating steam engine removed and a 6,000 shp (4,500 kW) steam turbine, connected directly to the ship's propeller through double reduction gear, installed. At trials she ran above the requested 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph). [4]

After conversion she was transferred to the Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS). She was operated by United States Lines under a bareboat charter on the same route as another converted Liberty ship, SS Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson had been refit with diesel engines in order to compare efficiencies of various conversions. While both ship were able to run on Bunker C fuel oil, Thomas Nelson consumed less than half of Benjamin Chew while traveling at a higher speed and carrying more cargo. [4]

On 31 October 1958, she was laid up in the James River Reserve Fleet, Lee Hall, Virginia. She was removed from the fleet on 3 September 1966, for use by the MSTS. On 21 July 1969, she was laid up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet, Mobile, Alabama. She was sold for scrapping on 28 October 1971, to Union Minerals & Alloys Corp., along with three other ships, for $127,500. She was removed from the fleet, 8 February 1972. [5]

Related Research Articles

SS Samuel Chase was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after Founding Father Samuel Chase, an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court and a signatory to the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of Maryland.

SS Thomas Nelson was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after Thomas Nelson, an American planter, soldier, and statesman from Yorktown, Virginia. He represented Virginia in the Continental Congress and was its Governor in 1781. He is regarded as one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He signed the United States Declaration of Independence as a member of the Virginia delegation and fought in the militia during the Siege of Yorktown.

SS Thomas Ruffin was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after Thomas Ruffin, an American jurist and Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court from 1829 to 1852 and again from 1858 to 1859. He was Chief Justice of that Court from 1833 to 1852.

SS Samuel Johnston was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after Samuel Johnston, an American planter, lawyer, and statesman from Chowan County, North Carolina. He represented North Carolina in both the Continental Congress and the United States Senate, and was the sixth Governor of North Carolina.

SS William Patterson was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after William Patterson, a businessman, a gun-runner during the American Revolution, and a founder of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.

SS Luther Martin was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after Luther Martin, a politician and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, who left the Constitutional Convention early because he felt the Constitution violated States' rights. He was a leading Anti-Federalist, along with Patrick Henry and George Mason, whose actions helped passage of the Bill of Rights.

SS William Tilghman was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after William Tilghman, the Chief United States circuit judge of the United States Circuit Court for the Third Circuit and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

SS Jared Ingersoll was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after Jared Ingersoll, an American Founding Father, lawyer, and statesman from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was a delegate to the Continental Congress and a signatory of the Constitution of the United States.

SS John Sergeant was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after John Sergeant, an American politician who represented Pennsylvania in the United States House of Representatives. He was the National Republican Party's vice presidential nominee in the 1832 presidential election, serving on a ticket with Senator Henry Clay.

SS William Paca was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after William Paca, a signatory to the United States Declaration of Independence from Maryland, a delegate to the First Continental Congress and the Second Continental Congress from Maryland, Governor of Maryland and a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland.

SS Benjamin Rush was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after Founding Father Benjamin Rush, a signatory to the United States Declaration of Independence and a civic leader in Philadelphia, where he was a physician, politician, social reformer, humanitarian, and educator as well as the founder of Dickinson College. Rush attended the Continental Congress. He served as Surgeon General of the Continental Army and became a professor of chemistry, medical theory, and clinical practice at the University of Pennsylvania.

SS Joseph Stanton was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after Joseph Stanton, an American military officer during the American Revolutionary War, raising to the rank of major general, in the Continental Army, in command of the Rhode Island Militia. He was a delegate to the Rhode Island Constitutional Convention in 1790, which ratified the United States Constitution and enabled Rhode Island, to be the last of the 13 colonies to join the Union. He was elected by the General Assembly to serve as one of the first two US Senators from Rhode Island, and served from 12 June 1790 to 3 March 1793, as a member of the Anti-Administration Party. He was later elected to the United States House of Representatives, where he served from 4 March 1801 to 3 March 1807, as a member of the Jeffersonian Democrat-Republican Party.

SS Benjamin Hawkins was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after Benjamin Hawkins, an American planter, statesman, and US Indian agent. He was a delegate to the Continental Congress and a United States senator from North Carolina. Appointed by George Washington as General Superintendent for Indian Affairs (1796–1818), he had responsibility for the Native American tribes south of the Ohio River, and was principal Indian agent to the Creek Indians.

SS Ralph Izard was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after Ralph Izard, an American politician. He was appointed commissioner to the Court of Tuscany by the Continental Congress in 1776, but was recalled in 1779. He returned to America in 1780, and pledged his large estate in South Carolina, for the payment of war ships to be used in the American Revolutionary War. He was a member of the Continental Congress in 1782 and 1783. In 1788, he was elected to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1789, to March 4, 1795, serving as President pro tempore of the United States Senate during the Third Congress.

SS James Caldwell was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after James Caldwell, a Presbyterian minister who played a prominent part in the American Revolution. Caldwell was an active partisan on the side of the Patriots, and was known as the "Fighting Parson". He was killed on 24 November 1781, by an American sentry in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, when he refused to have a package inspected. The sentry, James Morgan, was hanged for murder on 29 January 1782 in Westfield, New Jersey, amid rumors that he had been bribed to kill the chaplain.

SS Nicholas Biddle was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after Nicholas Biddle, an American financier who served as the third and last president of the Second Bank of the United States. He also served in the Pennsylvania General Assembly. He is best known for his role in the Bank War.

SS Grace Abbott was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after Grace Abbott, an American social worker who specifically worked in improving the rights of immigrants and advancing child welfare, especially the regulation of child labor.

SS Cardinal Gibbons was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after Cardinal Gibbons, an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as Apostolic Vicar of North Carolina from 1868 to 1872, Bishop of Richmond from 1872 to 1877, and as ninth Archbishop of Baltimore from 1877 until his death in 1921. Gibbons was elevated to the rank of cardinal in 1886.

SS Cotton Mather was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after Cotton Mather, a New England Puritan minister, prolific author, and pamphleteer.

SS Will Rogers was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after Will Rogers, an American stage and film actor, vaudeville performer, cowboy, humorist, newspaper columnist, and social commentator from Oklahoma.

References

Bibliography