JEREMIAH O'BRIEN - Liberty ship at Chatham 11th June 1994.

Jumbo derrick.....what was her SWL?
Nice picture by the way.

Hi MarEng,
I sailed in two Liberty ships - Sampep -MOWT - Houlder Bros. Managers..
City of Ely ex Samarina - Ellerman Line..
They had a 50 ton derrick on foremast and a 30 ton derrick on mainmast..
I am sure that all Liberty ships had the same..
Stan

Stan you have just reminded me of a friendly discussion that seemed to go on everytime the jumbos were mentioned on the Ivybank(Sam Yorke), We (the crew) termed the location the same as you,foremast and mainmast,however the mate termed the aft jumbo (between 4-5 hatches)as being on the Mizzen mast,and he would wind up the bosun by asking"ok if thats the mainmast, what do you call the mast in the middle"I think he just did it to get a rise out of the old bosun, take care H

Hi Stan,
Thanks for the information.
I was a bit curious considering the weight of a Sherman tank of about 35 tons, and I expect that during the war such a heavy lift may have been handled by the 30 tons derrick as well.
Regards, Jan.

Hi Jan,
I was in Sampep a few weeks after the war in Europe ended.
We were engaged in returning Army tanks and vehicles from Antwerp to Tilbury so the
two jumbo's were in constant use at both ports...the maintenance of both of them was
a priority as we were only a few hours at sea between ports...
Sampep took part in the Normandy invasion and was designated MT 1 -Motor Transport 1.
She was the first merchant ship in the first convoy to arrive there...Convoy Commodore ship..
As she then delivered tanks and trucks to the beachheads on her many visits there - she was
now engaged in returning some of them to the UK...
The tanks exceeding 50 tons were taken to Normandy by LST 's -Landing Ship Tanks..
Regards
Stan

Hi Stan,
Thanks for the interesting additional information about a part of Your sea going career.
Regards, Jan