Rare are the commercial vessels that have a right to an obituary. Most have gone into hiding to die, demolished in the shelter of the glances in Bangladesh, India or Pakistan, and then sold in pieces over the course of the scrap. But the American Victory is a special case. Since 1942, this ship was known, under eight different names, all the upheavals of american history : battles at sea, glory, fatal accidents, crises. A 76-year-old, the hero faltered and finally to the case. During the tow to Aliaga, in Turkey, there must be dismantled in the coming months. For the time being, ” it is a memorial floating “, in the words of the former captain Bryan Rydberg.
The saga, which details the association Robin des bois, in his bulletin on the case published on 31 July, starts in June, 1942 in the shipyard of Sparrows Point (Maryland). This is where the navy built this oil tanker, intended to resupply the american forces. It enters into service in February 1943, under the name of USS Neshanic, and finds herself at the heart of the war in the Pacific.