Navy Vessels / SS Red Oak Victory

One very interesting Navy vessel tour is available in the San Francisco Bay Area and is well worth a visit to. A complete tour of the historic SS Red Oak Victory is available to visitors during normal business hours
from 10:00am to 3:00pm on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturday and Sundays.


SS Red Oak Victory History

SS Red Oak Victory

The SS Red Oak Victory is among navy vessels that saw service during World War Two and whose service spanned through the Vietnam War era. Over the years the SS Red Oak Victory was operated by various companies for various purposes, was put into storage until it was retrieved in 1998 from the Suisun Bay Ready Reserve Fleet in Suisun Bay, California. 

The ship would have been scrapped eventually but fortunately for us the Richmond Museum Association put together plans to save the vessel and restore it as a historical exhibit. The ship now is on permanent display at the old Port Richmond Shipyards in Richmond California, across the bay from San Francisco.The SS Red Oak Victory is now operated by the  Richmond Museum Association and is is part of the Rosie the Riveter/ World War Two Home Front National Historical Park.


MCV-544 was christened SS RED OAK VICTORY and was officially launched at 10:00 am on November 9th, 1944 by Mrs. Edna Reiley, the wife of W.S. Reiley, M.D., Mayor of Red Oak, Iowa. The ship was commissioned on December 5th, 1944 and was assigned to the 8th Service Squadron of the United States Pacific Fleet. 

SS Red Oak Victory Bridge

The ships naval career was a bit short. The naval vessel was decommissioned from the United States Navy on May 21st, 1946. Records for the ship indicate that it operated from 1966 to 1968 as a U.S. military cargo carrier in support of the Vietnam War from U.S. Pacific Northwest ports to Southeast Asian ports. The vessel made a dozen trips to Southeast Asia during this two year period.

Western Trips photo articles on two additional ship tours available in the San Francisco area are the World War Two submarine USS Pampanito and the Jeremiah O'Brien Liberty Ship. Both are on permanent display in San Francisco's Fishermans Wharf area.  

Another Western Trips photo article you'll enjoy is a Tour of the Balclutha, the historic three masted tall ship moored at the San Francisco National Maritime Museum.

You may also enjoy Helicopters on the USS Midway

Mackay Radio Direction Finder

Touring the Bridge

Touring the SS Red Oak Victory is a lot of fun and you'll learn much about it's service history, especially it's assignments while serving the military. One of the most interesting areas of the ship to tour is the bridge area.

The bridge of the SS Red Oak Victory is currently set up as it would have been during it's operational years. You'll see some amazing and historic equipment including numerous electronic navigation equipment that today, in the GPS world, would be outdated but during it's time were state of the art.

Mackay Radio Direction Finder

One interesting piece of navigation found on the SS Red Oak Victory is the Mackay Radio Direction Finder. The radio direction finder essentially homes into distant radio signals to chart the ship's direction and position. The radio beacons located on land serve in a way as a lighthouse would.

Scott Marine Radio SLRM Receiver

Scott marine Radio SLRM Receiver

Another vintage piece of radio equipment found on the SS Red Oak Victory's bridge is the Scott Marine Radio SLRM Receiver. This brand name may not be the most recognizable. Scott Radio Labs. actually had several different versions of an innovative receiver for marine use.  The vintage World War Two Scott marine receiver like the one shown here was designed to have very low local oscillator radiation. This helped the ship to avoid detection via the enemy's use of radio direction finding gear. When the equipment was produced, the priority for their use was on ocean going vessels. It's believed they were found on some lake craft after the war. The Scott marine Radio unit shown on this page received LW, AM and 3 SW bands and were 120V AC/DC units. 

The next piece of equipment on the SS Red Oak Victory bridge is the Echo Depth Recorder. This particular piece of marine equipment dates to the mid 1950's. The Echo Depth Recorder operates by sending a signal from the bottom of the vessel to the sea floor. 

Echo Depth Recorder

The sound waves are reflected back by the sea floor and the time taken from transmission to reception is measured. The speed of sound in water is 1500 m/sec. 

The sea depth can then be calculated which will be half the distance traveled by sound waves. The entire theory behind the depth recorder is that water is an excellent medium for transmitting sound waves. A pulse will bounce off a reflecting layer. The sound pulse simply returns to it's source as an echo. The same principle was applied to submarine detection during World War Two.


The next piece of marine navigation found on the SS Red oak Victory bridge dates back to 1943 and involves the automaker Dodge. As most know, the federal government banned the production of civilian automobiles beginning in February 1942 when the United States entered World War Two. Automakers were then involved producing jeeps, trucks, tanks and a variety of war materials. 


The Dodge Division of the Chrysler Corporation was given a contract to produce gyro compasses. Dodge ended up producing some 5,500 Sperry Gyro-Compass marine navigation units. They also produced  repeater dial motors like the one shown here as well as spare parts for the U.S. Navy Bureau of Ships. A gyro repeater is essentially a gyro compass under the control of a gyroscope that indicated true north.

The gyro repeater like the 1943 model shown in this article was made by the Dodge Division of the Chrysler Corporation with licensing from Sperry.

Touring the Bridge of the SS Red Oak Victory

The navigation equipment shown in this article represents only a few of the total on display on the bridge of the SS Red Oak Victory. There's a lot to see and learn on this type of tour. If you find yourself on a San Francisco vacation or weekend trip, I would highly recommend a stop and tour of this historic old naval vessel.

The SS Red Oak Victory is located at 1337 Canal Blvd., Berth 6A Richmond, CA. From I-580, take the Canal Blvd. Exit and continue on Canal Blvd to 1337 Canal Blvd.


                  


Refer to the map below for location.

(Photos from author's private collection)

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