C-Class
C-Class Freighter
- Scale: 1:96
- Release: 2000
- Limited Edition: 15
- Model Size: 55”L x 10”W x 15”H
- Base Type: Black Walnut
- Base/Case Size: 61.5”L x 13.5”Wx 16”H
- Availability: Sold Out
C-Class Freighter
As beautiful as the victory ships of late World War II were, many of them looked even better after the war when they were sold to private carriers. For more than thirty post-war years they sailed the world’s oceans as the ubiquitous C-class freighters.
In 1941, the U.S. Maritime Commission undertook an emergency cargo shipbuilding program, from which more than 2,700 wartime Liberty ships were produced. Concurrently, the demands of forward planning required not only more ships, but faster and more sophisticated ones; thus came the Victory ships, the sequel to the Liberty ships, designed not only for immediate needs, but for service in the aftermath of war. These were designed to be fast ships, both as auxiliary vessels for the wartime fleet as well as commercial vessels.
These wartime ship designs were designated as types C1 (up to 399 feet); C2 (400-449 feet) and C3 (450-499 feet), etc. The victory ships (with a V type prefix), at 455 ft. 3 in. overall, were type C3. Types of machinery were indicated by a separate code; e.g., S for steam and M for motor. Among the steam-powered ships, those with a 6,000shp turbine were designated AP2 for 16.3 knots and those with the 8,500shp were AP3s, good for up to 19 knots. Of the 534 victory ship hulls completed, 272 were of the VC2-S-AP2 type and 141 were of the VC2-S-AP3 type, while one was of the VC2-M-AP4 type (with diesel propulsion), 117 were of the VC2-S-AP5 type (transports), and three of the VC2-S1-AP7 type (entering service in 1947 as combined passenger-cargo ships).
Beginning in August 1946, the Maritime Commission conducted a great sale of the new surplus of victory ships. Of the VC2-S-AP3s, 41 were transferred to US owners, including seven (7) to the States Steamship Company, seven (7) to Victory Carriers Inc., six (6) to the American President Lines, four (4) each to Moore-McCormack Lines, States Marine Corporation and Pope & Talbot Inc., three (3) to Pacific Far East Lines, two (2) to the American Export Line, and one (1) each to four (4) other companies. Thirty-three others were sold to foreign flag purchasers, four went to the US Army, and the remainder went to the National Defense Reserve Fleet, better known as the mothball fleet. These were laid up in eight different sites and then reactivated for such emergencies as the Korean War, the closing of the Suez Canal, Vietnam, or as special project ships for NASA research and missile or capsule recovery. Later they were scrapped as they became unsuitable for reactivation due to their advancing age.
Fine Art Models
As a companion to the SS Lane Victory, Fine Art Models built fifty (50) Victory Class cargo ships, as they appeared after the war, sailing for these private carriers. Our first model is of the ship completed as S.S. Brown Victory in March 1945 by the Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation’s yard at Portland. During her maiden voyage, while transporting supplies for US troops, a kamikaze hit her and she suffered extensive damage. Repaired, the Moore-McCormack Lines bought her in 1947 and for the next 23 years, she sailed as S.S. Mormacpine to South American and European ports. In 1970, after a final trip home from Uruguay, she again loaded a military cargo and sailed back across the Pacific one more time – this time for Saigon, and then on to Kaohsiung, Taiwan, where she was broken up.
Our limited edition series includes the Moore-McCormack’s colorful Mormacpine, her sister Mormacfir, as well as Mormacelm and Mormacoak.
