I picked up that 350 scale Jerimiah O'Bien last year for a song. Were they ever used in an Attack cargo role; more specifically carrying troops to battle and releasing them in LCVP's?

Steve,
I don't think so. Attack cargo ships (AKA's) and Attack transports (APA's) were based on the Victory ship design, that were bigger (7-8 000 tons) and faster (16+ knots) powered by a steam turbine.
I remember a similar thread posted months ago (probably when the kit first came out)
They were used as cargo ships (AK's)
Hope to have been of some help
Tom

Ahoy, Mates!

Here's something that I have on file for the O'brien...


A Brief History of the S.S. Jeremiah O'Brien


Before World War II, shipbuilding in the U.S. was not a major industry. But with German U-boats sinking ships off the east coast within sight of land, England on her knees, and the Japanese conquering Asia and the Western Pacific, it was absolutely essential to build a large, strong U.S. Merchant Marine to carry combat supplies and materials to Allied fighting forces.

The U.S. became the "Arsenal of Democracy". Typwriter firms built rifles, auto makers turned out tanks, and millions of American migrated to the West Coast to build Liberty Ships in yards springing up near major cities.

The liberty design was a modification of an earlier British hull. Economical and simple to build, it ushered in the era of prefabricated mass production. Eighteen yards built Liberty ships and one third of the workforce were women. Without these ships the war simply would not have been won.

Built in 1943 in 56 days in So. Portland, Maine, the S.S. Jeremiah O'Brien was launched on June 19th, 1943.

From July 1943 to October 1944, she made four voyages between the U.S. and Great Britian traveling as part of a convoy, a proven and effective deterrent to submarine attack.

On her fourth voyage she was diverted into a shuttle run between England and the newly taken Omaha and Utah beacheads at Normandy. She completed 11 such trips before returning to the States. Crewmen report her guns engaged enemy aircraft and that she was the target of at least two bomb attacks and one torpedo.

Her fifth voyage, begining in October 1944, went from New York through the Panama Canal to Chile and Peru, returning to New Orleans. Her sixth was a quick trip to the Phillipines and back to San Francisco.

The gallant ship's seventh voyage took place from July 1945 to January 1946. Sailing from San Francisco, she went to Australia, Calcutta, Shanghi, Manila and back to San Francisco. On her return she carried Australian war brides to the U.S. to join their new American husbands.

With the war over there were far more ships than needed for peacetime. In Feburary 1946 she joined hundreds of her sisters in a reserve fleet near San Francisco. As time passed, some were sold to foreign countries or went into commerical service under the U.S. flag. Others were scrapped or sunk as artifical fishing reefs.

In the 1960's, a plan was conceived to save a Liberty Ship for posterity. In 1978, the National Liberty Ship memorial, Inc., a California non-profit corporation was formed to restore, preserve, maintain and present to the public, an original, unaltered Liberty Ship. They chose the O'Brien, which met all those criteria and was in excellent condition. She returned to service in 1979.

Since then an enormous amout of work, mostly by volunteers, has gone into restoring and preserving the ship. The first annual cruise was on May 21, 1980 and she has been sailing ever since.

In 1994, the volunteer crew of the O'Brien returned the ship to the beaches of Normandy for D-Day +50 years. The Commemorative Voyage was made in honor of all those,in the war zones, and on the home front, whose sacrifices were vital to the war effort.

In order to return to ocean steaming the ship had to be recertified. That was accomplished only through the devotion of the volunteers and the cooperation and support of various maritime and government agencies. Our voyage could not have been accomplished without the generosity of our faithful members and friends.

The voyage, from April 18, to September 23, 1995, included 14 port calls. On the morning of June 6, 1994, the O'Brien was at anchor off Pointe du Hoc, a visible reminder of the fleet of over 6,000 ships in the 1944 invasion armada. The O'Brien was the only Normandy 1944 ship to return for the Commemoration Ceremonies.

Upon return, the O'Brien moved to a new berth at Pier 45, Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco. Once again, the ship welcomes visitors from 9-4 every day.

Good stuff, don't you think?
~Gunny

Tom's exactly right, and there was a similar thread some time back. I've got quite a bit of reference material at home to include all the old "Ships and Aircraft of the US Fleet" which were published in the late 30's and 40's, which indicates the actual type of ship design used for all the various auxiliary classes.

What's happened to all those old threads, are they archieved somewhere?

Tom

I pretty got the answer I was looking for. I thought that perhaps I could make some minor modiifications, but thanks to the answers realize that they are totally different ships. Thanks to all.

You can still do a Liberty in naval colors, as a few were operated by the Navy and not by the Maritime Commission.

In the Dec. 05 issue of FSM, I painted the Trumpeter kit as the USS Sculptor, AK-103.

There's several choices beyond the overall gray scheme...Graded Measure 22, overall Measure 21, or several Measure 3X dazzle schemes.

Jeff

Thanks Jeff. I'm going to have to see if I can dif the Dec '05 issue of FSM out of my closet.

Does anyone know of any other articles or websites that deal with the construction of Trumpeter's Jeremiah O'Brien? I also just picked it up for a song ($5.00) and am anxious to start building but could use some guidance.

Thanks.

Brian

My father-in-law served on what he called a converted Kaiser ship :-) in the 1950's called the USS Searcher. She was a radar picket ship built on the Liberty hull. They converted one of the holds to a movie theater and the other one was for basketball and other recreation activities. They were at sea for over 200 days, so they made life as nice as possible. He said one of the big hits was when a seagull would fly in front of the massive radar and would get nuked and drop like a stone to the deck. Cooked thru and thru. :-). Anyway....another use of the Liberty ship.



Gonna build one using the Trumpeter kit.

Reminds me of a project I'd like to work on someday. In the mid-80s the Navy had a converted WW II LST, which had been re-designated as the ARL-24, USS Sphinx. An ARL is an amphibious/auxiliary repair ship, light, and during Vietnam, she actually served as a floating HQ for various small craft involved in Brown Water Operations. One of the modifications made was the addition of a helicopter landing pad on a raised structure amidships.

I had the occasion to visit the USS Sphinx for a liaison visit while she was operating out of Rodman Naval Station in the Panama Canal. Her function at that time was actually as an intellegence gathering ship, ostensibly against the drug trade but mostly keeping an eye on things going on in Nicarauga at that time.

I believe she is one of the last LSTs from WW II still around and there is an effort to save her as a memorial.

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4442/is_200503/ai_n16057243

I'd love to find a good 1/350 LST but she'd need extensive modifications especially to the bridge area which was much improved over the simple structure from WW II.

Anyone have a good lead on getting plans??

Tom