SS American Victory (Tampa, Florida) | place with historical importance, NRHP - National Register of Historic Places, museum ship

 place with historical importance, NRHP - National Register of Historic Places, museum ship

The SS American Victory is a 1945-built Victory ship which has been preserved as a fully operational museum ship along the waterfront in Tampa, Florida.

Laid down on March 30th, 1945 as a type-VC2-S-AP2 cargo ship, commonly known as "Victory Ships" at the California Shipbuilding Corporation's Los Angeles Shipyard, the American Victory was built, launched, outfitted and delivered for service in 82 days, activating for service with the War Shipping Administration on June 20th, 1945. Immediately tasked with transporting wartime cargo into the Pacific Theatre, the American Victory called at several Allied staging areas before the cessation of hostilities with Japan in August of 1945 changed the scope of her operations. Calling at both Calcutta and Port Said in the immediate postwar period, the ship loaded military equipment and shaped a course for the US East Coast, where upon her arrival she was transferred out of the War Shipping Administration's fleet and chartered to American Export Lines for civilian duty.

Spending the period from June 1946 through November 1947 engaged in regular shuttle work between the US and Europe transporting food and machinery to war-ravaged nations as part of the Marshall Plan, the ship was returned to the US government and subsequently placed into reserve in the Jones Point Reserve Fleet in New York's Hudson River where she would remain until 1951. Chartered once again by a civilian shipping line and tasked with transporting wartime cargo, the American Victory carried cargo between the US and Yokosuka and Sasebo Japan in support of Korean War operations through 1954. Returned to US government ownership and idled once again, the ship was placed into reserve in the Beaumont Reserve Fleet in Texas where she would remain through 1966, when wartime shipping needs once again brought the ship into action.

Chartered to the Hudson Waterways Corp. as part of their large fleet of Second World War-era cargo ships carrying supplies and munitions of all kinds to Southeast Asia in support of the Vietnam War, the American Victory spent three years criss-crossing the Pacific Ocean before her role was supplanted by more modern vessels in 1969 and she was once again returned to government ownership. Laid up in the James River Reserve Fleet thereafter, the ship would remain idle until 1985 when she was one of several Victory Ships selected for a Cold War pilot project aimed at evaluating the feasibility of quickly overhauling and reactivating the large number of Victory Ships then in reserve for use if the Cold War should go hot. Though the project went nowhere, the American Victory was overhauled in Norfolk and put to sea for trials for the first time in over a decade before returning to the mothballs.

Remaining inactive until the late 1990's, the American Victory was one of only a few mothballed Victory Ships in sound enough condition to be offered to preservation groups by the US Maritime Commission prior to being sold for scrapping, and in October of 1998 the American Victory Ship Mariners Memorial Museum was officially awarded custody of the aging ship. Towed to Tampa in September of the following year, the ship has been under continual restoration and has been returned to fully operational condition. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002, the ship is open year-round for guided and self-guided tours and makes regular cruises around Tampa Bay.

www.americanvictory.org/
www.hnsa.org/ships/amvic.htm