VENUS AK 135

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.

Crater Class Cargo Ship Keel Laid 5 July 1942 as SS WILLIAM WILLIAMS Launched 21 August 1942 Delivered to Isthmian Steamship Lines 8 September 1942 WILLIAM WILLIAMS (Cargo Ship) Delivered to Isthmian Steamship Lines, 8 September 1942 for operation under contract to the War Shipping Administration Acquired by U.S. Navy 6 November 1943 and renamed USS VENUS AK-135 Commissioned 26 September 1944 - Decommissioned 18 April 1946 Struck from Naval Register 19 February 1948 Laid up 27 February 1948 in National Defense Reserve Fleet, Suisun Bay Sold 21 August 1961 for scrap

 

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. USS Venus AK-135 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

 

Locy Type 2#

1946-01-24

From the Richard F. Hoffner collection.

 

Locy Type 2z*

1944-10-09

N/A

This cancel is not identified with the ship, so the cover was posted either on another ship or ashore.

 

Other Information

NAMESAKE - William Williams (April 23 1731 – August 2 1811)
Williams was a merchant, and a delegate for Connecticut to the Continental Congress in 1776, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence

NAMESAKE - (VENUS) One of the major planets of the solar system, Venus moves in an orbit between Earth and Mercury and, at its brightest, is far more brilliant than any fixed star, often being visible in full daylight

SS William Williams - USS Venus earned the Combat Action Ribbon, the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal w/ 1 Battle star, the World War II Victory Medal and the Philippine Liberation Medal during her Naval career.

 

---

 

If you have images or information to add to this page, then either contact the Curator or edit this page yourself and add it. See Editing Ship Pages for detailed information on editing this page.

 

---

Copyright 2024 Naval Cover Museum