SS Marine Marlin explained
| -- commercial vessels --> | +SS Marine Marlin| Ship Operator: |
| | Ship Builder: | Kaiser Shipyards | | Ship Yard Number: | 511 | | Ship Launched: | 1945 | | Ship Completed: | October 1945 | | Ship Maiden Voyage: | Bremen-New York, 7–16 September 1946[1] | | Ship Fate: | Scrapped 1972 |
| Ship Type: |
| | Ship Length: | 523feet | | Ship Beam: | 71.7feet | | Ship Capacity: | - 3,485 troops (1945–1946)
- 926 tourist class passengers (1946–1949)
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SS Marine Marlin was a
type C4-S-A3 ship built in 1945 by
Kaiser Shipyards,
Vancouver, Washington, as a
troop transport ship. She had a capacity to carry 3,485 troops and was built for operation by the
War Shipping Administration. The ship's first voyage from Portland, Oregon on 5 December 1945 to Yokohama, Japan was followed by a shift to the Atlantic arriving at New York on 26 February 1946. From then the ship operated as a transport to Puerto Rico and Jamaica to New York and Charleston.
[2] After the war, she, along with many of her sister ships, spent a few years ferrying refugees and repatriating soldiers from the war.[3] In 1946 she was chartered to the United States Lines and fitted to carry 926 tourist class passengers. She made her first voyage, from Bremen to New York City, 7–16 September 1946, carrying "more than 500 Jewish immigrants from the United States zone of Germany" including "ten orphaned Jewish children...brought... under the sponsorship of the United States Committee for the care of European Children".[4]
From 7 April to 21 October 1949 the ship was under bareboat charter to the Army to operate as a United States Army Transport.[5] She completed her last Bremen to New York crossing, on 17 July 1949, on which passengers were mostly from Stuttgart, Germany, and were of Armenian descent.[6] [7] This ship completed a Bremerhaven to New York crossing on August 20, 1949 with Displaced Persons from Ulm an der Donau, Darmstadt Germany.
In 1952 she was intended to be transferred to the U.S. Navy as a transport but was not acquired.
In 1965 she was converted to a dry cargo ship for Central Gulf Steamship Corp. and renamed Green Bay. On 17 August 1971, she was sunk in Qui Nonh harbor after an underwater explosion caused by Viet Cong frogmen while discharging military supplies. On 1 September 1971, she was refloated and towed to Hong Kong where she was scrapped in 1972.
Notes and References
- A passenger on the maiden voyage
- Book: Charles, Roland W. . Troopships of World War II . 1947 . Washington . The Army Transportation Association . 47004779 . 211 .
- Web site: Photograph of SS Marine Marlin, 1946-1949 Pier 21. pier21.ca. 2020-04-03.
- Web site: Over 500 Jewish Refugees Will Arrive Here Today on S.s. Marine Marlin. 1946-09-16. Jewish Telegraphic Agency. en-US. 2020-04-03.
- Web site: Marine Marlin . Maritime Administration . Ship History Database Vessel Status Card . U.S. Department of Transportation, Maritime Administration . 8 June 2021.
- Web site: Ship Descriptions – M. The Ships List .
- Web site: Kaiser Vancouver, Vancouver WA . Large Wartime Shipbuilders . Shipbuilding History.
