San Francisco was our destination yesterday and we had a full day of sailing on the bay. Our ship was the SS Jeremiah O’Brian, a Liberty ship, built and sailed during WWII. This tiny vessel held a little over 800 passengers for a cruise around the bay, lunch and then an air show.
Part of the cruise took us up the Oakland Estuary; home for companies that load containers onto the towering container ships that have taken the place of lowly freighters like the O’Brian. We couldn’t help but notice how insignificant the O’Brian looked when compared to these ships. And yet, 60 plus years ago, sailors took the Liberty ships around the world, at a steady 10 knots per hour; just as fast as they could go.
Interesting story; Alex, our good friend and guide for this trip was a radio officer on a similar Liberty ship and he told us that they had delivered a full shipload of bombs to the US forces on Tinian Island. But the Navy/Army brass decided that the unloading of the bombs could wait. For thirty days, the ship sat offshore; the crew not allowed off of the ship to visit the island which boasted a PX and recreation facilities. It was explained that since the crew was a ‘civilian’ one, no one would be allowed on the island. When the ship finally ran out of food, the captain told the officers in charge of the island that he was going to off load the bombs into the water of the port if they didn’t come and take his cargo. The Navy responded within an hour, the cargo was unloaded and the Liberty ship was finally able to steam away for friendlier waters and food.
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