Ship Types
Victory class merchant ships
Information on the Victory class:
By 1943 the Maritime Commission was planning the production of a number of new types of ships, including a fast type of cargo ship which eventually became known as the Victory Ship. The initial designation was EC2-S-AP1.
Designed to use either the Lentz engine, turbines or diesel, its expected speed would be 15-17 knots compared to the Liberty ships at 11 knots. The hull lines were changed to accommodate the higher speeds, design features were added to prevent hull fractures and the auxiliary equipment would be electric powered instead of steam. In April 1944 the prefix was changed to VC2 and the general title Victory Ship was adopted.
The first Victory ship was the United Victory being delivered by the Oregon Shipyard on 28 February, 1944 making her first voyage the following month.
Initial deliveries were slow and, by May 1944, only fifteen of the ships had been delivered. On 14 August 1945, the commission cancelled the contracts for 132 vessels, including 42 Victory ships. The Maritime Commission constructed 414 Victory cargo ships and 117 Victory transports, a total of 531 ships, plus 3 more converted to carry passengers as well as cargo.
Fort and Parks types
The British and Canadian ships of the Victory class were called "Forts" or "Parks". They were slower and only managed speeds of 11 knots, compared to 15 knots for a "true Victory" ship. These ships also different in appearance to the other Victory ships in that they had a split superstructure and they were riveted, not welded. The Forts were coal powered while the Parks, were oil powered. These ships were all built in Canada. 353 ships were built of these two types, some of them had both types of names as they were interchangeable between the types. Their displacement was 7,375 GRT. The third subtype was the North Sands type.
Below are the merchant vessels of the Victory class:
You can click on any of the header below to sort by that header.
| Loss date | Name of ship | Tons | Nat. | U-boat | Commander | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 Jan 1944 |  | Fort Bellingham (d.) | 7,153 |  | U-360 | Klaus-Helmuth Becker |
| 26 Jan 1944 | | Fort Bellingham | 7,153 | | U-957 | Gerd Schaar |
| 15 Feb 1944 | Fort St. Nicolas | 7,154 | | U-410 | Horst-Arno Fenski |
Legend:
(d.) means the ship was damaged in the action.
3 instances of Victory class ships hit by U-boats.
If you miss a certain ship from this listing please let us know, we probably just mislabeled her class.