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The restored World War II Liberty Ship,
Jeremiah O'Brien cruises the Bay with visitors on deck. Note the gun at the stern. Less obvious is the gun tub at the bow for a dual 20 m.m. anti-aircraft gun. Built principally to haul cargo from the U.S. and Canada to the European theater in the war, the Liberty Ships also saw action in the Pacific theater.
Jeremiah O'Brien is named for American Revolutionary War ship captain Jeremiah O'Brien (1744–1818).
O'Brien is a rare survivor of the 6,939-ship armada that stormed Normandy on 6 June, 1944 and one of only two currently operational WWII Liberty ships afloat of the 2,710 built during the war (the other being the SS
John W. Brown based in Baltimore).
Built in just 56 days at the New England Shipbuilding Corporation in South Portland, Maine, and launched on 19 June 1943, this class EC2-S-CI ship not only made four perilous round trip wartime crossings of the Atlantic and served on D-Day, the vessel later saw sixteen months of service in both the South Pacific and the Indian Ocean calling at ports in Chile, Peru, New Guinea, the Philippines, India, China, and Australia.
The end of the war caused most of the Liberty ships to be removed from service in 1946 and many were subsequently sold to foreign and domestic buyers. Others were retained by the U.S. Maritime Commission for potential reactivation in the event of future military conflicts. The
O'Brien was mothballed and remained in the National Defense Reserve Fleet in Suisun Bay for 33 years. In the 1970s, however, the idea of preserving an unaltered Liberty Ship began to be developed and, under the sponsorship of Rear Admiral Thomas J. Patterson, USMS, (then the Western Regional Director of the U.S. Maritime Administration) the ship was put aside for preservation instead of being sold for scrap. In a 1994 interview printed by the Vintage Preservation magazine "Old Glory," Patterson is alleged to have claimed the ship was steamed to her anchorage in the mothball fleet (unlike the many that were secured as unservicable and towed into storage), and frequently placed at the back of the list for disposal, which undoubtedly contributed to her survival.
Possession of the
O'Brien was taken in 1979 by the National Liberty Ship Memorial, an all volunteer group, to be restored; at which point she was virtually the last Liberty at the anchorage. Amazingly, those who volunteered to resurrect the mothballed ship were able to get the antiquated steam plant operating while the vessel remained in Suisun Bay, and after more than three decades of sitting in rusting idleness, the O'Brien's boilers were lit; and on 21 May 1980, the ship left the mothball fleet—the only similar vessel ever to do so under her own power for San Francisco Bay, drydocking, and thousands of more hours of restoration work. The ship then moved to Fort Mason, on the San Francisco waterfront just to the west of Fisherman's wharf. There the O'Brien became a floating museum dedicated to the men and women who built and sailed the ships of United States Merchant Marine in WWII. Licenced to carry tours around San Francisco bay, it was suggested that the ship be restored to ocean going specification, and after efforts in securing sponsorship this was accomplished in time for the 50th "D-Day" Anniversary Celebrations in 1994. The ship makes several passenger-carrying daylight cruises each year in the San Francisco Bay Area, and occasional voyages to more distant ports such as Seattle and San Diego. Footage of the ship's engines was used in the 1997 film Titanic to depict the ill-fated ship's own engines.
Built in just 56 days at the New England Shipbuilding Corporation in South Portland, Maine, and launched on 19 June 1943, this class EC2-S-CI ship not only made four perilous round trip wartime crossings of the Atlantic and served on D-Day, the vessel later saw sixteen months of service in both the South Pacific and the Indian Ocean calling at ports in Chile, Peru, New Guinea, the Philippines, India, China, and Australia.
In 1994 the
O'Brien, in its eighth voyage, (the previous seven were during World War II) 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 its crew (a volunteer crew of veteran World War II-era sailors and a few cadets from the California Maritime Academy) participated in the 50th Anniversary of Operation Overlord, the allied invasion of Normandy that turned the tide of WWII in Europe — the only large ship from the original Normandy flotilla to return for the 50th anniversary celebration.
The SS
Jeremiah O'Brien was designated a National Historic Landmark, and is docked at Pier 45 at Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco aft of the restored World War II submarine
Pampanito.
Seen from le balcon Chez la Vache are the four towers of the Embarcadero Center, San Francisco. The buildings are outlined with lights during the holiday season each year the effect resembling the outlines of four giant books on a shelf.
