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| Career | |
|---|---|
| Launched: | 19 June 1943 |
| Built By: | New England Shipbuilding Corp |
| Class/Type: | EC2-S-C1 / Liberty Ship |
| Fate: | museum |
| General Characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 14,245 tons |
| Length: | 441 ft 6 in |
| Beam: | 57 ft |
| Draft: | 27 ft 9 in |
| Speed: | 11 knots |
| Engine: | 3-cylinder, reciprocating triple expansion steam |
| Armament: | 8 x 20mm anti-aircraft gun, 1 x 3 in gun, 1 x 5 in gun |
In June 1943, the Liberty Ship S.S. Jeremiah O'Brien slid down the ways at the New England Shipbuilding Corporation in South Portland, Maine. Shortly thereafter she entered service, operated by Grace Line for the War Shipping Administration. Named for the first American to capture a British naval vessel during the Revolutionary War, the O'Brien made seven World War II voyages, ranging from England and Northern Ireland to South America, to India, to Australia. She also made eleven crossings of the English Channel carrying personnel and supplies to the Normandy beaches in support of the D-Day invasion. After the war, she was "mothballed" and laid up in the Reserve Fleet at Suisun Bay, north of San Francisco.
Thirty-three years later, skillful maneuvering by a U.S. Maritime Administration official (himself a former Liberty ship sailor) saved the Jeremiah O'Brien from the scrap yard. In 1979, after hundreds of hours labor by volunteer crew members to remove thick layers of preservatives, the O'Brien headed for San Francisco to be restored. No other ship ever has steamed out of the mothball fleet under her own power.
Following dry-docking, generous donations of money and supplies by numerous individuals and companies, and thousands of hours of restoration work by her volunteer crew, the old ship entered service on San Francisco Bay in like-new condition. She is a steaming memorial to the seamen of the U.S. Merchant Marine who served on Liberty ships in World War II, to their Navy gun crews, and to the civilian men and women who built the largest single class of ships in history.
In 1994, the Jeremiah O'Brien steamed through the Golden Gate, down the west coast, through the Panama Canal, and across the Atlantic to England and France, where the O'Brien and her crew (a remarkable collection of old salts whose average age was 70, and a few cadets from the California Maritime Academy), participated in the 50th Anniversary of Operation Overlord -- the Allied invasion at Normandy that turned the tide of World War II in Europe. Of the more than 5,000 ships that formed the original D-Day armada, the O'Brien was the only ship to return 50 years later
The Jeremiah O'Brien is approved by the American Bureau of Shipping, certified by the U.S. Coast Guard, and fully seaworthy -- the only active Liberty Ship in original configuration. Operated as the National Liberty Ship Memorial, she is moored at Pier 45, Fisherman's Wharf and open to the public most days. Virtually the entire ship from engine room to flying bridge can be seen by visitors. Boilers are "lit off," and the 2500-horsepower, triple-expansion reciprocating steam main engine is operated on Steaming Weekends (normally the third Saturday and Sunday of each month) so visitors can see the engine plant in action. Several San Francisco Bay cruises are scheduled each year, with occasional longer voyages to west-coast ports such as Sacramento.
The ship relies on the work of her hundreds of volunteer crew members, funding from individual and corporate donations, and revenue from the thousands of visitors she hosts each year.
