VICTORIA T-AK 281

Ship Name and Designation History

This section lists the names and designations that the ship had during its lifetime. The list is in chronological order.

Norwalk Class Cargo Ship Laid down January 20 1944 at Kaiser Richmond CA No. 2 Yard; Launched April 20 1944 ETHIOPIA VICTORY (U.S. Victory Ship) Delivered to War Shipping Administration July 17 1944, for operation by Agwilines Inc. (Atlantic, Gulf & West Indies Steamship Inc.) Transferred to A. L. Bank & Co. August 10 1948 for deactivation Laid up July 28 1950 in National Defense Reserve Fleet Wilmington, N.C. Reactivated and chartered by Marine Navigation Co. August 24 1950 Deactivated and laid up in National Defense Reserve Fleet, Olympia, WA. September 4 1952 Reactivated and chartered by Olympic SS Corp. March 26 1953 Deactivated and laid up in National Defense Reserve Fleet, Hudson River, N.Y. October 6 1953 Reactivate and chartered by American Export Lines February 6 1957 Deactivated and laid up in National Defense Reserve Fleet, Hudson River, N.Y. September 25 1957 Acquired by U.S. Navy August 18 1964 Renamed and designated May 22 1965 USNS VICTORIA T-AK-281 Placed In Service October 1965 - Out of Service August 18 1984 Laid up in National Defense Reserve Fleet, James River Group, Lee Hall, VA Struck from Naval Register March 31 1986 Sold October 15 1987 to An-hsiung-Iron Steel Co. for scrap

 

Conflicting History Data

NavSource and Wikipedia differ in several places and sometimes within themselves

1. Both mention that, when launched, the ship was owned by the Maritime Commission and operated under contract by Agwilines Inc. (Atlantic, Gulf & West Indies Steamship Inc). Wikipedia then contradicts itself by saying that the ship was "delivered to her operator, Waterman Steamship Corporation on 17 July 1944." NavSource says the ship was "Chartered by Waterman SS Corp., 19 July 1946 To A. L. Bank & Co., 10 August 1948, for deactivation" which indicates that Waterman SS Corp took over from Agwilines Inc. after the end of WWII.


2. When the ship was taken out of reserve on August 24, 1950, NavSource says it was "chartered by Marine Navigation Co" while Wikipedia says the ship "served as merchant marine ship, by the American President Lines" and then "Her next chartered operator was the Marine Navigation Company."


3. Later on, NavSource goes on to say that the ship was "Renamed and designated USNS Victoria (T-AK-281), 22 May 1965" and "Placed in service in October 1965". Wikipedia agrees with this but then adds the supremely confusing "She was placed into service with Military Sealift Command (MSC) as USNS Victoria (T-AK-281) on 30 December 1963". The "30 December 1963" date doesn't seem to agree with anything else in either source.


4. Finally, NavSource says the ship was "Placed out of service, 18 August 1964,..." but this appears to just be a typo with the year. The correct year for being placed out of service is 1984 - as noted by Wikipedia

 

Naval Covers

This section lists active links to the pages displaying covers associated with the ship. There should be a separate set of pages for each name of the ship (for example, Bushnell AG-32 / Sumner AGS-5 are different names for the same ship so there should be one set of pages for Bushnell and one set for Sumner). Covers should be presented in chronological order (or as best as can be determined).

Since a ship may have many covers, they may be split among many pages so it doesn't take forever for the pages to load. Each page link should be accompanied by a date range for covers on that page.

1. Covers Page 1     (1973)

 

Postmarks

This section lists examples of the postmarks used by the ship. There should be a separate set of postmarks for each name and/or commissioning period. Within each set, the postmarks should be listed in order of their classification type. If more than one postmark has the same classification, then they should be further sorted by date of earliest known usage.

A postmark should not be included unless accompanied by a close-up image and/or an image of a cover showing that postmark. Date ranges MUST be based ONLY ON COVERS IN THE MUSEUM and are expected to change as more covers are added.
 
>>> If you have a better example for any of the postmarks, please feel free to replace the existing example.

 

Postmark Type --- Killer Bar Text	Postmark Date	Thumbnail Link To Postmark Image	Thumbnail Link To Cover Image

 

USPS Slogan Machine Postmark Zip Code 234, VA

1974-08-27

The ship had no postal facilities.

 

Other Information

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons...
National Defense Service Medal

NAMESAKE...Named for the city of Victoria, TX

 

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