This afternoon Paula, Mary and I attended the annual meeting for the San Pedro Historical Society (See http://sanpedrobayhistoricalsociety.com/)
The meeting was held at the Limani Taverna (previously known as Papadakis Taverna).
After lunch and brief business meeting we got to hear from Capt. Greg Williams, US Merchant Marine (ret). The subject was the US Merchant Marine in WW2 in general and the SS Lane Victory.
During WW2, the merchant marine was called upon to transport most of the supplies needed to run the war. Sometimes, new Liberty ships would not get far out of harbor before being sunk either by mines or German Uboats.
Capt Williams told us the during the war, the press was prohibited from writing about the loss of Merchant Marine ships at sea. Indeed, the loss was great. The fatality rate in the Merchant Marine far exceeded that of the other services. Over 700 merchant ships were sunk during WW2.
Click here for the wikipedia article on the Merchant Marine.
The SS Lane Victory is the last operational Victory ship in existance. The Lane Victory saw service in WW2, Korea, and Vietnam providing the delivery of much needed supplies to our armed services. It is moored at pier 49 in San Pedro.
The Victory ships were much like their predecessors the Liberty shops. They were mass produced in shipyards around the country. The Victory ships were faster than the Liberty ships (making 15-17 knots) and had a longer range. This made them less vulnerable to Uboat attacks. Click here for the Wiki.
The Lane Victory is open for tours six days a week (closed on Thursday). Admission is $5 for and adult and $2 for children. The Lane Victory runs several day cruises around LA Harbor each year. Donations and volunteers are much appreciated. It costs a lot of money to keep the ship operational.
Every five years, the ship goes into dry dock for inspection, bottom cleaning and painting. The Lane Victory is scheduled for dry dock in 2014 and they have a ways to go to raise the $900K for the overhaul and inspection.
For additional info, click here for the Lane Victory web site.
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Location:San Pedro
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