4. Although women helped build Liberty ships, only one was named for a woman
The earliest Liberty ships usually were christened with the names of signatories of the Declaration of Independence, a list rapidly exhausted. All but one of the ships were named for deceased Americans. The exception, SS Francis J. O’Gara, bore the name of a man believed dead, having lost his life in the sinking of another Liberty ship, SS Jean Nicolet. O’Gara served as a crewmember in Jean Nicolet when a Japanese submarine torpedoed and sank it in the Pacific. He survived the attack and spent the rest of the war in a Japanese prisoner of war camp, a fact discovered at war’s end. No other living soul was honored by having a Liberty ship christened in his or her name. Some places were so honored though. SS Stage Door Canteen honored the USO facility of that name which served military personnel in Manhattan’s theater district throughout the war.
Seventeen African Americans were namesakes for Liberty ships. The first, SS Booker T. Washington, entered service in 1942. Besides being the first major ocean-going ship named for an African American, the ship carried an integrated crew. The first African American to earn a Master’s license from the United States Merchant Marine, Hugh Malzac, commanded the vessel. Christened by Marian Anderson, Booker T. Washington served in both the Atlantic and Pacific during the war, and in the operation to return American troops which followed. The only Liberty ship named for a woman also bore the name of a noted African American. SS Harriet Tubman, launched in June 1944, served for the rest of the war. Like nearly all Liberty ships, after the war, the ship sat in mothballs for decades before eventually being sold for scrap.