My Richmond Ramblings: S.S. Red Oak Victory

A Richmond Treasure

SS Red Oak Victory is a World War II Victory ship preserved as a museum ship in Richmond, California. It 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. It was named after Red Oak, Iowa, which suffered a disproportionate number of casualties in early World War II battles. Red Oak is a community firmly rooted with rich traditions of growing industry, embracing worthwhile projects, celebrating history and caring for fellow citizens. Organized in 1869 and named for the numerous oak trees that lined the banks of a small stream known as Red Oak Creek, the Red Oak of today boasts 6,000 residents and is nestled along the Nishnabotna River. The ship was active during World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.

The Red Oak Victory was built by the Permanente Metals Corporation's Richmond Number 1 Yard in Richmond, California and launched on November 9, 1944. Many Rosies recounted how important their jobs were in welding these ships and how careful they were in doing it. They realized the lives of their husbands; brothers and sons depended on the cargoes delivered by these ships. Victory ships were not supposed to last long--but the welds of the Red Oak Victory are still intact after 60 years. The ship is 455 feet (138 m) 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 December 5, 1944 and commissioned the same day as USS Red Oak Victory (AK-235). Following a fitting out period, the Red Oak Victory was loaded with cargo and departed San Francisco for Pearl Harbor on January 10, 1945. Red Oak Victory departed Hawaii on February 10 loaded with munitions needed in the Marshall and Caroline islands. Sent onward from Enewetak, she arrived in Ulithi on February 28, 1945, and then began operating under Commander Service Squadron Ten. Operating out of the Philippines, the vessel issued cargo and ammunition to various ships in the fleet through the end of the war in August 1945. During a hazardous tour of duty in the Pacific, the USS Red Oak Victory handled many tons of ammunition, supplying the fleet without a single casualty.

The vessel 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, during which time 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, the vessel was laid up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet in Suisun Bay.

Captain’s Cabin Cartographer's room

Richmond Museum Association

Doomed to be scrapped, the Red Oak Victory came to the attention of the Richmond Museum Association in 1993. In 1996 Congress passed legislation authorizing the conveyance of the ship to the Museum Association. Red Oak Victory was turned over to the Richmond Museum of History and returned to a new home in Richmond on September 20, 1998. It is being restored and operated by the Richmond Museum of History, and is part of the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park.

The Richmond Museum Association has as its mission the preservation and restoration of the SS Red Oak Victory as an operational vessel. The SS Red Oak Victory, a National Memorial
Ship, will be developed into a maritime museum focused on the wartime contributions of the residents and workers of the City of Richmond and the shipbuilding ingenuity of Henry J. Kaiser.

As an operational museum the SS Red Oak Victory will provide a unique perspective on the history-making achievements of the City of Richmond and the Richmond Shipyard workers. As a community resource, the vessel will be a site for local events, service to the children and youth of the community and an intriguing family recreation and entertainment destination. Finally, the SS Red Oak Victory will be a ceremonial ship to recognize and honor those who served with valor in the armed forces, the merchant marine and home-front facilities such as the Kaiser Richmond Shipyards.

The SS Red Oak Victory is the site of many community events such as World War II film festivals; benefits and fundraisers for cultural groups and humanitarian causes; national and veteran ceremonial events; civic, professional and private organization meetings, parties, symposiums, and dinners; weddings and other events

The SS Red Oak Victory also provides services to children of the

community such as Grade school through high school camp and

educational programs (e.g., naval history, mechanical science,

marine engineering, navigation and leadership training); programs

involving sea cadets, boy and girl scout groups, church and other

youth groups; and teacher education, seminars and symposiums

SS Red Oak Victory as a Ceremonial Ship: Supports the activities of the Navy’s Fleet Week and Merchant Marine activities, and conducts special events on National and Patriotic Holidays including the 4th of July, Memorial Day and Veterans Day.

Pancake Breakfast

SS Red Oak Victory www.ssredoakvictory.com

1337 Canal Blvd, Richmond, CA 94804 (510) 237-2933

The SS Red Oak Victory, part of the National Park Service's Rosie the Riveter--World War II Home Front National Historical Park, is located at 1500 Dornan Dr., Terminal One, Point of Richmond, in Richmond. The ship is owned by the non-profit Richmond Museum Association, which is restoring the ship with volunteer help. The ship is open from 11:00am to 4:00pm, Tuesday-Sunday; there is a suggested donation. To schedule a guided tour, please call 510-237-2933.

Monday, February 27, 2006

Radio Club Transmits History

Steve Hawkes, center, listens to Morse code, above, as Charles Jackson, left, Sharon Primbsch and Larry Fitzsimons talk Sunday in Richmond. About 30 members of the Red Oak Victory Amateur Radio Club demonstrated code transmission.

Vintage radio equipment from World War II crackled back to life Sunday as the Red Oak Victory Amateur Radio Club hosted a demonstration of the ship's original radio equipment, which included a Morse code transmission to historical maritime radio station KPH, west of the small Marin County town of Bolinas.

The demonstration was held in addition to regular guided tours of the Victory ship, which was built nearby at Kaiser shipyard number one.

World War II’s Effect On Richmond

Real life ``Rosie the Riveter'' turns 100

Ernia Blackmon Jones has made her home in Richmond since arrival here in 1943 from her native Texarkana, Texas. Jones and her husband, the late Elbert Jones, had already been married more than 20 years when they came to work at Kaiser Shipyard No. 3 during World War II. Ernia Jones, an original Rosie the Riveter who has kept her home on Third Street not far from the shipyards, was with family April 7 when she celebrated her 100th birthday at Creekside Care Center in San Pablo After she left the shipyards at the end of the war, Jones worked at the Del Monte cannery in Emeryville until retiring in 1968. She has been an active member of Christian Home Baptist Church on Barrett Avenue since joining the congregation in 1949. (Contra Costa Times by Chris Threadway, 4/11/2009)

Kaiser yards 1, 2 and 3 in 1943

California’s Second Gold Rush

This little article in the Contra Costa Times brought home to me the importance of World War II on the City of Richmond. Wartime upheaval affected all of the U.S., but changed California and the San Francisco Bay Area profoundly. Some historians have called the WWII-era California's "Second Gold Rush" for its role in transforming the population, economy and even physical landscape of the state. No city felt these effects more than Richmond, which went from a small town to a booming city hosting the largest number of defense industries and war housing projects in the country. To fill these industrial jobs, employers needed to hire a broader range of workers, including women and people of color. Women of all ages and ethnicities came to Richmond to find new, better-paying jobs throughout the war. Their labor on "Liberty" and "Victory" ships played a role inAmerica's remarkable productivity during the war years.

African American women were some of those most affected by the need for women workers. It has been said that it was the process of whites working along blacks during the time that encouraged a breaking down of social barriers and a healthy recognition of diversity.  African-Americans were able to lay the groundwork for the postwar civil rights revolution by equating segregation with Nazi white supremacist ideology.

Former Richmond Naval shipyard welder Phyllis McKey Gould's original ID badge. 

The Greatest Internal Migration In the Nation’s History 

Thus began the greatest internal migration in the nation's history. More than 1.2 million Southern black workers migrated to Western and Northern cities for industrial defense jobs. More than 46,000 African Americans moved to the Bay Area between 1941 and 1945. No city in the U.S. was more affected than Richmond, a small town with a population of 23,000 people before the war started. By war's end, the city grew to 100,000. Industry grew virtually overnight as well. In response to the war, industrialist Henry J. Kaiser decided to build four shipyards from scratch in Richmond. Eventually, the Richmond Kaiser shipyards employed 90,000 people. Nearly one-third were women.

Kaiser grew famous for introducing mass-production techniques, reducing the fourteen-month time period it took to build a cargo ship to eight weeks. Workers at the four Richmond Kaiser shipyards built 747 ships for the United States Navy and Merchant Marines, outperforming every other shipyard in the country.

After 1941, shipyards and factories operated around the clock, with workers organized into one of three eight-hour shifts. The last one from midnight to morning was called the swing shift. Recreation changed as well. Movie theaters, nightclubs, and restaurants stayed open as well. Companies instituted cafeterias and on-site food service programs. Kaiser built on-site day care centers and health maintenance organization for his employees.

By 1945, more than 18 million U.S. women worked in defense industries and support services. Shipyards in the San Francisco Bay Area employed more than 240,000 people. By wars end these shipyards built 4,600 ships-nearly half of all the cargo vessels and warships delivered for the war effort.

Although Rosie the Riveter was a fictitious character, the image of a muscle bound woman in overalls became an enduring wartime icon, embodying the nation's can-do spirit, and was popularized in posters, war- bond promotions and the 1942 song, "Rosie the Riveter."

But in Richmond, Rosie was real. "After they bombed Pearl Harbor, the next thing you heard was, `There's shipbuilding in California,' " said Bethena Moore, now 83, who moved from Derrider, La., where she had been a laundry worker, to become a welder. A diminutive 110 pounds, she was given the dangerous task of climbing down a narrow steel ladder, tethered to a welding machine, four stories into the ships' double-bottoms.

Wendy the Welder

The sight of women donning overalls and hoisting heavy equipment inspired the 1942 song "Rosie the Riveter," a nickname for female workers that spread across the country. Northern California newspapers referred to their

own shipyard-working women as "Wendy the Welder."

The War Profoundly Changed Richmond

The war also profoundly changed Richmond (population 94,000), one of the Bay Area's least-affluent communities. It was transformed practically overnight from a sleepy rural community of 23,600 to an industrial metropolis of more than 100,000, where the wartime production included tanks and torpedoes.

Over the years the city has suffered from a variety of urban ills, including high poverty and crime rates, and industrial pollution. The closing of the shipyards after the war left a host of issues with which the city is still grappling. Fifteen percent of the city's population, which is 44 percent African-American, 36 percent white and 12 percent Latino, lives below the poverty level.

"In some respects," notes Charles Wollenberg, a historical consultant with The Oakland Museum, "It's taken Richmond until now to recover from World War II."