SS Marine Marlin

SS Marine Marlin

History
Operator	War Shipping Administration (1945–1946) United States Lines (1946–) Green Bay (1965–1972)
Builder	Kaiser Shipyards
Yard number	511
Launched	1945
Completed	October 1945
Maiden voyage	Bremen-New York, 7–16 September 1946[1]
Fate	Scrapped 1972
General characteristics
Type	C4-S-A3 troop transport (1945–1946) Passenger ship (1946–) Dry cargo ship (1965–1972)
Tonnage	12,410 GRT
Length	523 ft (159 m)
Beam	71.7 ft (21.9 m)
Capacity	3,485 troops (1945–1946) 926 tourist class passengers (1946–1949)

SS Marine Marlin was a type C4-S-A3 ship built in 1945 by Kaiser Shipyards, Vancouver, Washington, as a troop transport ship. She had a capacity to carry 3,485 troops and was built for operation by the War Shipping Administration. The ship's first voyage from Portland, Oregon on 5 December 1945 to Yokohama, Japan was followed by a shift to the Atlantic arriving at New York on 26 February 1946. From then the ship operated as a transport to Puerto Rico and Jamaica to New York and Charleston.^[2]

After the war, she, along with many of her sister ships, spent a few years ferrying refugees and repatriating soldiers from the war.^[3] In 1946 she was chartered to the United States Lines and fitted to carry 926 tourist class passengers. She made her first voyage, from Bremen to New York City, 7–16 September 1946, carrying "more than 500 Jewish immigrants from the United States zone of Germany" including "ten orphaned Jewish children...brought... under the sponsorship of the United States Committee for the care of European Children".^[4]

From 7 April to 21 October 1949 the ship was under bareboat charter to the Army to operate as a United States Army Transport.^[5] She completed her last Bremen to New York crossing, on 17 July 1949, on which passengers were mostly from Stuttgart, Germany, and were of Armenian descent.^[6][7] This ship completed a Bremerhaven to New York crossing on August 20, 1949 with Displaced Persons from Ulm an der Donau, Darmstadt Germany.

In 1952 she was intended to be transferred to the U.S. Navy as a transport but was not acquired.

In 1965 she was converted to a dry cargo ship for Central Gulf Steamship Corp. and renamed Green Bay. On 17 August 1971, she was sunk in Qui Nonh harbor after an underwater explosion caused by Viet Cong frogmen while discharging military supplies. On 1 September 1971, she was refloated and towed to Hong Kong where she was scrapped in 1972.

References

1. A passenger on the maiden voyage
2. Charles, Roland W. (1947). Troopships of World War II (PDF). Washington: The Army Transportation Association. p. 211. LCCN 47004779.
3. "Photograph of SS Marine Marlin, 1946-1949 | Pier 21". pier21.ca. Retrieved 2020-04-03.
4. "Over 500 Jewish Refugees Will Arrive Here Today on S.s. Marine Marlin". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 1946-09-16. Retrieved 2020-04-03.
5. Maritime Administration. "Marine Marlin". Ship History Database Vessel Status Card. U.S. Department of Transportation, Maritime Administration. Retrieved 8 June 2021.
6. "Ship Descriptions – M". The Ships List.
7. "Kaiser Vancouver, Vancouver WA". Large Wartime Shipbuilders. Shipbuilding History.