SS Red Oak Victory
One of three remaing Victory Ships
Richmond, California
Starboard Bow
Starboard, Looking Toward Stern
Panorama of SS Red Oak Victory
This is a big W-I-D-E photo.
SS Red Oak Victory
Picture from the port side 03 level observation platform. The exact same spot I took several pictures from, during heavy seas, while on the Michelson, some 40 years ago. It was very very weird, eery, I really felt like I'd been transported back in time. I almost expected to see green water coming over the bow.
SS Red Oak Victory
Another from the same spot.
View from the Bridge
On the bridge, looking out a forward porthole.
The Ship's Bell
Sure had a nice loud ring to it!
The Ship's Bow
The bow of the ship, we so fondly called "the pointy end".
Starboard Life Boat Davits
Number Three Hold
Looking aft, the top of cargo hold #3 is visible.
The Poop Deck
Aft observation deck (also known as the poop deck) looking foward on the port side.
Holds Nos. 2 and 3
Looking aft from the forward upper deck, just in front of hatch cover of hold #1.
Port Lifeboats, Looking Forward
Built in Richmond
Permanente Metals was one of Kaiser's companies. Kaiser had tens of thousands of people working for him. He realized he had to take care of their medical needs. See where Kaiser Permanent comes from?
Richmond Shipyards
A painting of the original Kaiser shipyard in Richmond during it's heyday.
Merchant Marine Medals
I don't know if these are medals in general, or one's the red oak victory received. I'll have to go back and look again!
Cutaway View of the Ship
Deck Log
An unused deck log book from the era.
Deck Log
Same log book, inside.
For Celestial Navigation
HF Receiver
An old Hallicrafters radio... that worked!
Another HF Receiver
Another working marine radio... strangely the radio station was Japanese. I think it was Tokyo Rose talking.
RDF
An original radio direction finder, for navigation.
Sonar Depthfinder
A strip chart depth sounding fathometer.
The Galley
Main galley, still used every other Sunday for a pancake breakfast.
The Galley
The original oil fired grill is still used! That's George, a WWII Army Vet who gave me a tour of the ship. He was in his 80's. Loved talking about the ship and his time in WWII. He moved up and down the ship's ladders like I did when I was 20!
Secondary Galley
Looks like food warming station and cleaning.
Passageway
Passageway
Crew Stateroom Near Fantail
Engineers' Stateroom
Crew Quarters
Shower
Bad picture.
Captain's Stateroom
On the 02 level, below the bridge.
Guages in the Engine Room
This is the throttle board.
Engine Room Pressure Guages
This is the main steam board.
Engine Room Machine Shop
In the machine shop... wrenches of every size!
Metal Lathe
They made many of their own spare parts.
DC Generator
The business end of a large DC generator. All those brushes are needed for the high current There were two of these side by side, each powered by a steam turbine.
DC Generator
You can't read it in this view, but this is spec plate for the DC generator: 300KW 1250 amps at 240V DC. I remember the one's we had on the Michelson were larger: 1500 amps at 600 V (900KW).
DC Generator Spec Plate
Steam Tubes
These sit above the boilers. Distilled water enters the steam tubes and is flashed to steam at 900F and 600 psi.
One of the Two Boilers
The boilers are started on regular #2 oil, equiv to diesel oil, then once the boilers are up to temp, they switch to heavy bunker oil, which is only a notch or two above crude.
Engine Room Steam Distribution
Henry Kaiser may have hired Rube Goldberg as an engineering consultant. They were contemporaries.
The Shaft Alley
Number Three Hold
Just below the main deck.
Number Three Hold
Just below the main deck.
Number Three Hold
Audience seating.
Number Three Hold
Four pics stitched together. This is the first level of the #3 hold, where the Navy crew quarters would be on the TAGS. One level down was NIC, below that was SONAR.
Another big W-I-D-E picture.
Number Four Hold
Aft, used for storage. They had thousands of marine charts from all over the world; all were dated 1950 to 1955.