USS Liberty (PY 278)

USS Liberty (PY 278)

Early years

This fishing trawler was built in 1937 for Mr. Frederic Gonzales, Jr., by the Campbell Machine Company of San Diego, California, and christened the "Fishing Vessel FV Liberty". Although during World War II its crew was told it had “once belonged to Seymour and Alice DuPont, of the Wilmington, Delaware, chemical company, who had named her the "Alcie" in their honor and utilized her as a pleasure yacht,” there is currently no evidence that this was actually the case, as it is known to the U. S. Navy that the ship was used as a tuna fishing vessel by Mr. Gonzales. Whether it was common during this war for sailors to be provided false information about their craft in order to boost their morale is unknown. It is also possible that Mr. Gonzales was an agent of the DuPont family, raising the question of what the DuPonts would do with a boat designed only for catching and refrigerating tuna.

Acquisition by the U.S. Navy during World War II

The "Liberty" was acquired for wartime use by the U. S. Navy in 1942 and designated "Yard Patrol Craft USS Liberty YP-278". In 1942, the U. S. armed services under Rear Admiral C. H. Cobb, responding to widespread complaints about armed service food, recognized the need to provide its servicemen in the southwestern Pacific theater with fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, and condiments. The "Liberty" was one of only a few private yachts seized by the Navy and converted to ocean-going refrigerator ships in order to enable the War Department to distribute food supplies from Australia and New Zealand rather than from the more distant U. S. mainland. Once they began receiving better food, troops in the region were noted to be in better spirits. Thus the "Liberty" was one of the war’s most popular ships, its commander and crew lauded from one end of the southwest Pacific to the other.

Wartime service, 1942-46

From 1942 until 10 August 1945, when the atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, ended the war, the "Liberty", under the command of Capt. Harry J. Conway (until December 1944) and Lt. (j.g.) D. Dudley Bloom (December 1944-July 1945), ran food supplies to ports along the northern coast of Papua New Guinea (until February 1945) and to those Philippine islands safely under Allied control (March-August 1945).

Post-war use as a fishing vessel

After it was decommissioned on 16 January 1946, the ship was returned to Mr. Gonzales, its owner, until 1948, when Gonzales sold her to the Sun Harbor Packing Company, which renamed it the "Fishing Vessel FV Sun Splendor". In 1965, another tuna packer, J. B. Vattuone, purchased the "Sun Splendor", renamed her the "Fishing Vessel FV Invader", and trawled the oceans with her until she had finally outlived her usefulness.

Final disposition

On 9 July 1979, the former "USS Liberty (PY 278)" was sunk by collision at sea at 29.28 degrees latitude north and 117.12 degrees longitude west, 125 miles off the coast of the town of San Julio, Baja California, Mexico.

ources

(1) United States Navy Historical Center, Washington, D.C.

(2) [http://www.navsource.org]

(3) Ballantine, Duncan, and Carter, Worrell. "Naval Logistics During World War II, 2 vols". Washington: Naval War College, 2001.