SS Francis Scott Key was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after Francis Scott Key, an American lawyer, author, and amateur poet from Frederick, Maryland, who is best known for writing the lyrics for the American national anthem "The Star-Spangled Banner".
SS Esek Hopkins was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after Esek Hopkins, the only Commander in Chief of the Continental Navy during the American Revolutionary War. He was also an accomplished merchant captain and privateer. He is noted for his successful raid on the British port of Providence, in the Bahamas, and capturing large stores of military supplies.
SS Henry St. George Tucker was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after Henry St. George Tucker, a Virginia jurist, law professor, and US Congressman (1815–1819).
SS Eleazar Wheelock was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after Eleazar Wheelock, an American Congregational minister, orator, and educator in Lebanon, Connecticut, for 35 years before founding Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. Before founding Dartmouth, Wheelock, in 1754, had founded and run the Moor's Charity School in Connecticut, to educate Native Americans.
SS William Johnson was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after William Johnson, a state legislator and judge in South Carolina, and an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1804 to his death in 1834.
SS James Gunn was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after James Gunn, a delegate to the Continental Congress and a United States senator from Georgia.
SS William MacLay was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after William MacLay, a politician from Pennsylvania during the eighteenth century. Maclay, along with Robert Morris, was a member of Pennsylvania's first two-member delegation to the United States Senate. Following his tenure in the Senate, he served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives on two separate occasions, as a county judge, and as a presidential elector.
SS Reverdy Johnson was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after Reverdy Johnson, a statesman and jurist from Maryland. From 1845 to 1849, Johnson represented Maryland in the United States Senate as a Whig. From March 1849 until July 1850, Johnson was Attorney General of the United States under President Zachary Taylor. He represented the slave-owning defendant in the controversial 1857 case Dred Scott v. Sandford. In 1865, he defended Mary Surratt before a military tribunal. From 14 September 1868 until 13 May 1869, he served as the ambassador to the United Kingdom.
SS John H. B. Latrobe was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after John H. B. Latrobe, an American lawyer and inventor. He invented the Latrobe Stove, also known as the "Baltimore Heater", a coal fired parlor heater made of cast iron that fit into fireplaces as an insert.
SS Richard H. Alvey was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after Richard H. Alvey, an American jurist who served as Chief Judge of the supreme court of the State of Maryland, the Maryland Court of Appeals and subsequently served as the Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia.
SS John P. Poe was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after John P. Poe, the Attorney General of Maryland, from 1891 to 1895. Poe was the nephew of the poet Edgar Allan Poe. Poe was a lawyer as well as a leading member of the Maryland Democratic Party, and served as Dean of the University of Maryland School of Law.
SS Andrew Hamilton was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after Andrew Hamilton, a Scottish lawyer in the Thirteen Colonies, where he finally settled in Philadelphia. He was best known for his legal victory on behalf of the printer and newspaper publisher John Peter Zenger. This 1735 decision in New York helped to establish that truth is a defense to an accusation of libel. Hamilton, in company with his son-in-law, William Allen, purchased the ground, whereon to erect "a suitable building" to be used as a legislative hall, now known as Independence Hall.
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 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 Jonathan Elmer was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after Jonathan Elmer, an American politician and delegate to the Continental Congress three times: 1777 to 1778, 1781 to 1783, and 1787 to 1788. In 1780 and 1784 he represented Cumberland County in the New Jersey Legislative Council. The College of New Jersey made Elmer a trustee in 1782. He served in that position until 1795. The New Jersey Legislature appointed Elmer to the United States Senate for the term of 4 March 1789 to 3 March 1791.
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.
United States
