JUSTIN IX 228

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.

Keel Laid 1944 as Liberty ship SS Gus W. Darnell Completed 31 May 1944 GUS W. DARNELL (U.S. Liberty Ship) Operated by J.H. Winchester & Co., Inc., Houston, TX Hit by a Japanese aircraft torpedo off Leyte 23 Nov 1944 and was beached to prevent sinking Quickly refloated but was extensively damaged Acquired by the U.S. Navy on 2 September 1945 for use as self-propelled floating storage USS JUSTIN IX-228 Commissioned 4 September 1945 - Decommissioned 23 January 1946 Struck from the Naval Register 25 February 1946 Transferred to the U.S. Maritime Commission (MARCOM) GUS W. DARNELL (Commercial Service) Owned by MARCOM. No indication of what company was contracted to operate the ship Official Number: 245723 Ownership changed to "United States Department of Commerce" c1951 Sold for scrapping 25 May 1954 and broken up

 

Conflicting History Data

There is disagreement as to what happened to the ship after WWII:

NavSource says:
     Transferred to the Maritime Commission for lay up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet, Suisun Bay, Benecia, CA.
     sold for scrapping, 25 May 1954.

Wikipedia says something similar:
"...turned over to the War Shipping Administration.
She was placed in the National Defense Reserve Fleet at Suisun Bay, California, until being sold 25 May 1954"
This matches the history given by Naval History and Heritage Command (DANFS).

However, Shipscribe says the ship went into commercial service after WWII until it was scrapped in 1954.
This version is supported by Lloyd's Register of Shipping which has entries for GUS W DARNELL in the 1948 to 1955 editions.
Although not proof positive, the entries in Lloyd's would seem to contradict the assertion by NavSource, Wikipedia, and DANFS that the ship
was laid up in reserve, especially considering the change in listed owner from MARCOM to the Department of Commerce around 1951.

 

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     (DATE RANGE)

 

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

 

US NAVY 18759 BR Postmark

1945-10-30

Ship had no postal facilities; postmarked from ashore.

 

Other Information

USS JUSTIN earned the China Service Medal, the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, the World War II Victory Medal and the Navy Occupation Service Medal with Asia clasp during her Naval career.

 

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