Bessemer (T-AG-186)
1966
Bessemer, an industrial city in Jefferson County, Alabama, honoring Sir Henry Bessemer, the Englishman who invented a steel manufacturing process.
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Bessemer Victory, a VC2-S-AP2-type cargo vessel [Victory Ship] was laid down on 28 May 1945 at Los Angeles, Calif., by the California Shipbuilding Corp.,, under a Maritime Commission contract (M.C.V. Hull 806), and after completion was turned over to the War Shipping Administration at 3:00 p.m. on 30 August 1945, over a fortnight after World War II ended, to be operated under a general agency agreement by the Hammond Shipping Co., Ltd..
Bessemer Victory then changed hands over a year later, when Waterman Steamship Corp. received the vessel under a bareboat charter at the port of New York, at 12:01 a.m. on 14 December 1946. She sailed under that house flag into 1949, under a general agency agreement beginning at Mobile, Alabama, beginning on 13 October 1948 at 12:01 a.m., then a second period under bareboat charter beginning ten days later at 12:01 a.m. on 23 October 1948.
She began operating under the flag of the Pan-Atlantic Steamship Corp. under a bareboat charter on 20 January 1949, but returned to the Waterman fleet at Mobile under a general agency agreement beginning at 28 February 1950 at 4:00 p.m. She entered the Reserve Fleet at Mobile, however, a short time later, on 2 March 1950 at 2:10 p.m.
Bessemer Victory returned to active service In the wake of the outbreak of hostilities in Korea in the summer of 1950, with the South Atlantic Steamship Line under a general agency agreement at 3:50 p.m. on 21 July 1950. Remaining under the South Atlantic flag under a bareboat charter at 12:01 a.m. on 1 August 1950 at Mobile, she entered the Reserve Fleet, James River berthing area, at 11:40 a.m. on 1 August 1952, where she remained until being taken over by the Alcoa Steamship Co. under a general agency agreement at 4:55 p.m. on 30 March 1953. She returned to the Reserve Fleet, this time to the Hudson River group, at 11:00 a.m. on 2 October 1953.
After being inactive for a year and a half, Bessemer Victory was taken from the Reserve Fleet Hudson River group at 10:00 a.m. on 13 April 1955 to be operated by A. L. Burbank & Co., Ltd. for the Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS). The cargo vessel changed hands less than a year and a half later, when Lykes Brothers Steamship Co. took her over under a bareboat charter at Brooklyn, N.Y., at midnight on 3 August 1956. Lykes Brothers, under a general agency agreement at Mobile at midnight on 18 September 1957, subsequently began preparing the merchantman for deactivation. She entered the Reserve Fleet at 1:15 p.m. at Mobile on 2 October 1957.
While Bessemer Victory lay in reserve, she became one of 12 VC2-S-AP5-type ships selected for transfer from the National Defense Reserve Fleet to MSTS for cargo-carrying service during the Vietnam War. Although assigned the name Bessemer and the designation T-AG-186 on 1 February 1966, the ship never served with MSTS because the program was canceled.
Bessemer Victory emerged from the Reserve Fleet at Mobile, however, to be operated under a general agency agreement at 9:30 a.m. on 19 July 1966, by Isthmian Lines, Inc., for MSTS. She carried cargoes for almost two years until being returned to the Maritime Administration (the former Maritime Commission) at New York at midnight on 16 April 1968. Bessemer Victory soon began operations with the South Atlantic & Caribbean Lines, under a general agency agreement of the following day [17 April], taking effect at 12:01 a.m. She then steamed in Southern Asian waters, supporting operations in the Republic of Vietnam under MSTS, and spent periods of time in the James River reserve group (25 February-27 May 1969, and again from 13 December 1969-26 October 1970), concluding the latter period with preparations for a drydocking and inactivation. She was returned to the Reserve Fleet at 1230 hours on 13 November 1970.
Sold on 28 September 1989 to Exxon Shipping Co. along with ex-Mountrail (LPA-213), Santa Barbara, and Halaula Victory, traded out to the Exxon firm as partial exchange for Exxon Lexington, were resold immediately to a Delaware-based firm, Rivson International, Inc., that had been nominated by Gulfmar Shipping, C.V., a Netherlands corporation, to scrap the ships in either India, Thailand, or Pakistan.
On 11 October 1989, the Maritime Administration approved the resale of Bessemer Victory to Ocean Steel Co., Ltd., a Thai firm, to be broken-up in Thailand. One week later, on 18 October 1989, she was withdrawn at 1215 from the James River group for the last time, to begin the long voyage, at the end of a towline, to Thailand. The well-traveled "Victory" was "completely scrapped" by 30 March 1990.
Robert J. Cressman
Updated 14 October 2021
