An Ugly Duckling Turns Warrior by William H. Langenberg
P
er haps the best known, and certainly the most numerous, merchant vessels serving the United States during World War II were the ungain ly Liberty ships, the "ugly ducklings" of the sea. Over 2, 700 of them were constructed in 18 shipyards around the US between 1940 and 1945. They became the ocean transportation workhorses of World War II and comprised the largest standa rdi zed fleet the world has ever seen. During World War II many of these cargo carriers were fitted with defensive armament. While the crews of American Liberty ships were normally civilian merchant seamen, the armament was mostly manned by US Navy personnel called the Armed Guard. Their presence did not convert an "ugly duckling" into a formidable warship; the Armed Guard's function was primarily defensive. On one occasion in 1942, however, a Liberty ship did indeed transform itself into a proud warrior. That vessel was the SS Stephen Hopkins, which encountered the heavily armed German auxiliary cruiser Stier in the South Atlantic and engaged h er in a short but internecine duel. The results of that presumably foreordained one-sided engagement are both fascinating and surprising.
America's Liberty Fleet The Merchant Marine Act of 1936 was passed by Congress during the depths of the Great D epression to rejuvenate the moribund US merchant marine. It asserted an aggressive new policy to "foster and encourage development of a strong Merchant Marine for the national defense and development of foreign and domestic commerce. " The US Maritime Commission was created to implement this policy. As a first step, the new governmental bureaucracy instigated an American shipyard construction program, which during 193 7-4 1 increased from 10 to 40 the number of yards capable of building large merchant ships. From these shipyards, Maritime Commission-designed and -subsidized merchant vessels began to be launched in 1939. Despite some claims to the contrary, the Liberty-ship des ign was adapted from that of a British tramp steam er ofl879. She was 441' 6" long and could carry up to 10,000 32
tons of cargo. Old-fashioned triple-expansion steam engines (easier to produce in wartime than the high-tech turbines used in wars hips) drove her at a rarely-achieved maximum of 11 knots. A Liberty ship usually carried a 4- or 5-inch gun left over from World War I in the stern, plus a 3-inch antiaircraft gun forward and a variety oflighter weapons. Only toward the end of the war were more modern guns provided. T he guns were manned by a Naval Armed G uard of 12-27 enlisted men led by an ensign or lieutenant (jg). The Stephen Hopkins, Mari time Administration hull number 247, was an early Lib- An unlikely candidate to sink a German warship, the SS erty ship co mpl eted in early Stephen Hopkins fits out at the Kaiser Shipyard in Richmond, California. It is the spring of1942, and the ALlies are 1942. She carried only one Losing the war as theJapanese sweep through the Pacific and obsolescent 4-i n ch g un , the German army strikes deep into Soviet Russia. The mounted aft, as her main arH opkins and her sisters helped turn the tide ofwar around mament. T his was eked out the world-but none ever came near her feat in sinking with a twin37mm (1.5'') gun Stier. (US Naval Historical Center) forward, .50-caliber machine guns port and starboard near the bridge, three missions: to upset enemy merchant and .30-caliber machine guns on each side shipping sch edules, to scatter British naval aft. H er first master was Captain Paul forces attempting to locate and sink them, Buck. H e and his civilian crew were joined and to destroy enemy merchant ships, by an Armed G uard crew headed by Ensign wherever they might be found, by guns, mines, torpedoes, or scuttling charges. If Kenneth M. Willett, USNR. On 27 September 1942, the H opkins possible, enemy merchant ships carrying was steaming eight days out of Cape Town, valuable cargoes were taken in to custody South Africa, on only her second voyage, by prize crews and sailed back to Germany, this one in ballast to Paramaribo in Durch or sometimes to her ally Japan. G uiana. T he trip had been uneventful, and All 11 German auxiliary cruisers active during earl y morning the sea was calm. At in World War II were converted merchant about 0850, two unidentified vessels, seem- vessels pressed into service by the German ingly merchant ships, suddenly appeared Navy (Kriegsmarine). They we re painted in out of a bank of fog off the starboard bow. drab colors of gray, brown or black, withAn engagement unique in the annals of out any relief of white striping in order to naval warfare was about to begin. avoid detection at night. Their deception was to play the role of an innocent merThe German Auxiliary Cruiser Stier chant ship plodding the sea lanes under Germany operated surface auxiliary cruis- whatever flag was most appropriate at the ers in both World Wars I and II. Thedefeat time. Other than perhaps a raked bow of France in June 1940 opened Atlantic suggesting speed capability above the ordiOcean ports to the Germans for the first nary, the raiders displayed no outward chartime, greatly facilitating access to the high acteristic that differed from any of hunseas by these raiders. Auxiliary cruisers had dreds of British or neutral merchant vessels.
SEA HISTORY 91 , WINTER 1999-2000