October – November & December 2023
DID YOU KNOW? When The “Waycross Victory” Ruled The High Seas
Waycross and Ware County men and women did more than their share to aid the effort in World War II. A little-known chapter in that effort was the building of the “Waycross Liberty.” Many Ware Countians drove daily to Brunswick to work in the Brunswick Shipyards, but the city’s namesake wasn’t built in Brunswick, but in Baltimore.
The namesake of Waycross on the high seas, the S. S. Waycross Victory, 456 feet long, a sleek and speedy cargo ship vessel later to be converted to a troopship, will soon be ready to take her place on sea lanes to our armed forces overseas.
The “Waycross Victory” which was built at the Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard, Baltimore, Md., successfully passed a series of ridged tests on her trial trip in Chesapeake Bay.
For 9 ½ hours the “Waycross Victory” was put through her paces by a trial crew from the Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard. A painstaking crew of technical experts were continuously busy recording data taken from various measuring devices aboard the ship while a “show me” group of Maritime Commission inspectors passed on the performances indicated. When the ship finally rode into the shipyard dock around 4:30 p.m., she bore the stamp of approval of the Maritime Commission’s trial board.
Included among the multitude of tests the “Waycross Victory” was called to execute were: a six-hour endurance run, a “crash” stop which puts the ship’s turbine engines in reverse immediately following a full speed ahead, anchor tests, rudder steering tests, and a full speed astern performance.
Capt. Carl Norman, who will command the “Waycross Victory” was aboard the vessel during its recent trial run and was a most interesting passenger.
The ship was the first of a series of Victory ships, which are now being named for towns with a population of 10,000 or over.
Capt. Norman, Swedish by birth, does not retain any accent of his native tongue. He has been to sea since he was 11 years old and has been through a number of harrowing experiences. During World War II he was 2nd officer of the first ship officially known to have been torpedoed off the Atlantic Coast. (continued)
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