PAUL BUCK T-AOT 1122
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.
Built in 1985 by American Ship Building Co., Tampa, FL Built for Ocean Product Tankers of Houston, Texas for long-term time charter to Military Sealift Command (MSC) Delivered July 7 1985 to MSC |
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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.
- Covers Page 1 (1998)
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.
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Postmark Type |
Date From to Date To |
Thumbnail Link To Postmark Image |
Thumbnail Link To Cover Image |
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USPS |
1998-06-11 |
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M/V Paul Buck AOT-1122. The medal is the Merchant Marine Distinguished Service Medal.
Other Information
NAMESAKE - Captain Paul Buck, Merchant Marine, CO of the Liberty Ship SS Stephen Hopkins.
Capt. Buck and his civilian crew of 40 and 15 U.S. Navy gunners had taken on a professional, fully manned German warship STIER, and sent it to the bottom on Sept. 27, 1942. For his heroic actions, Capt. Buck was honored in 1944 with the posthumous award of the Merchant Marine Distinguished Service Medal. This award is equal in status to the Medal of Honor.
Merchant Marine Academy cadet Edwin Joseph O'Hara posthumously received the Merchant Marine Distinguished Service Medal also. O'Hara single-handedly fired the last shots from the ship's 4-inch gun. O'Hara was the second cadet to win this award, and the first to win it posthumously. Navy reservist Lt. (j.g.) Kenneth Martin Willett, gun boss for the 4-inch gun, was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross.
The Liberty ships SS Paul Buck, SS Edwin Joseph O'Hara, and SS Richard Moczkowski, and the destroyer escort USS Kenneth M. Willett (DE-354) were named in honor of crew members of the Stephen Hopkins, and SS Stephen Hopkins II in honor of the ship itself.
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.
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