Alabama Coast Liberty Ships

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OysterBoot74

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Messages
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Location
Mobile, AL
# of dives
50 - 99
The Alabama Coast Liberty ships are called Sparkman, Wallace, Allen, Edwards, and Anderson. The Liberty Ship records call them Noah Webster, Oran M Roberts, Robert Mills, William T Barry, and Daniel Huger. Does anyone know which name goes to which reef? Or am I confused...lol
 
Can't help ya there, but wouldn't mind hearing about the results if you can figure it out :)
 
I definately will. No luck yet but it is interesting that the names would have been changed. I'm very surprised that no one here that has viewed the thread has known. Like George Carlen used to say.."these are the kinds of ideas that kept me out of the really good schools..." ha!
 
Update...I placed a call to the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commision and spoke to James R. Ballard, Sport Fish Restoration/Aquatic Invasives Coordinator. He wasn't immediately aware of how to cross reference the reef site names to the ship names but said he would do some research and call me back. That was extremely nice of him. Maybe we'll learn something.
 
Update...Mr. Ballard called back and revealed that in Alabama, the state renamed the ships after major fundraisers or other influentials and such that helped get the ships processed and placed. He hopes to have a cross reference for us early next week that allows us to identify the specific hull with maritime records.
 
Whoa, sweet. Good work, and kudos to dude for going through this stuff for ya!
 
Here is the latest I have on the Liberty Ship question from Alabama DNR. Looks like this is going to be one of those "how bad do you want to know? " things. Good thing I'm hardheaded. lol. On we go! Everyone I've spoken to or heard from with these agencies have been fantastic and more than willing to help. Thanks Kevin.

Mr. Keahey,

I received the phone call from James Ballard regarding your original inquiry to the GSMFC. As you are aware about 35 years has passed since the Liberty ships were deployed off Alabama. No one who worked for the Marine Resources Division during the deployment activities currently work for the MRD. I checked with a few current MRD employees who assist in compiling and archiving recent artificial reef deployments and/or are familiar with the artificial reef program but they did not have the information you are seeking. I called a retired employee who worked for MRD during the deployments and another retired employee who began employment with MRD immediately after the final Liberty ship was deployed as an artificial reef. Both could not associate an original Liberty ship name with the artificial reef name. In addition, they did not even know if that information was ever written down by MRD partly due to the fact that the ships were officially handed over to the State when they settled on the bottom. Nonetheless, they suggested some places to look. One of those suggested places were correspondence files from the Mrd Director at the time. Those files were destroyed during Hurricane Katrina. The second suggestion was for you to check with MARAD, the governmental agency responsible for storage and transfer of vessels to interested states. A final place to look, but the least promising, would be for you to contact the Mobile shipbuilding company who was contracted (by MARAD) to prep the ships prior to deployment and deliver to the reef site. Unfortunately, they could not remember which company that was. Scuttling of each ships was performed by U.S.Navy demolition teams. Possibly, records may exist there. Hopefully, one of these other avenues will work out for you as we will not be able to fulfill your request.

I was curious about these specific Liberty ships and performed a little research on these vessels. I knew prior to the search that the Liberty ship program was created to help supply Britain prior to the U.S. entering the war. After Pearl Harbor the Liberty ships (over 2,700 in all) were used to transport food goods, military equipment, supplies, and troops. I was pleased to discover the Daniel Huger and William T Barry received two Battle Stars each for service during World War II. Interestingly, the Oran Roberts was delivered to the U.S government on this day 56 years ago. I too would be interested to find out which vessels are associated with current artificial reefs and would apreciate it if you would pass on your findings. If I can be of any further assistance please do not hesitate to ask.

Kevin Anson, Biologist III
Alabama Marine Resources Division
P.O. Drawer 458
Gulf Shores, AL 36547
 
Success!!! Well, mostly. Thanks to Dana Austin from the US Department of Transportation Maritime Administration, and several others, we have made some progress. These matches should still and will be confirmed with the scuttle dates but the info I've been able to gather makes me pretty freaking confident in the matches below. Here are the basics. If anyone is interested in dates, hull numbers, construction yard, drawings, yadda yadda yadda, send me a personal message and I'll email the data or send you a link.

Sparkman - Daniel Huger hull# 129
Anderson - Noah Webster hull# 776
Wallace - Oran M Roberts hull# 1940
Edwards - Robert Mills hull# 2498
Allen - William T Barry hull# 1980

:dancingsnoopy:
 
Dang, Excellent work there.
 
Excerpt from World War II US Navy Armed Guard and World War II US Merchant Marine, "The Mediterranean" :

...There was action and excitement enough for anybody during the hour
that convoy MKS21 beat off an air attack the evening of 13 August
1943. The ships were crawling along peacefully a little south of
Almeria, Spain, when an estimated 20 to 50 planes roared in less
than 50 feet above the water and attacked with torpedoes, bombs, and
parachute mines.

"The planes were so thick," said a seaman on the Nathaniel Greene,
"they looked like a flock of geese." To Ensign George Robbins of the
William T. Barry they looked more like "many blackbirds skimming the
water."

The convoy put up a furious fire, and an estimated 15 planes were
shot down, although in the excitement of battle gunners were prone
to overestimate their success. The William T. Barry claimed three...
 

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