Beloved Liberty Ship SS Jeremiah O'Brien To Be Made Sea-Worthy Again
SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) -- Docked at San Francisco's Pier 45 is a 441-foot-long, navy gray, hulking monument to World War II. The SS Jeremiah O'Brien has beaten the odds to survive these nearly 80 years since a historic battle.
The ship's most recent brush with Davy Jones' locker came the night of May 23rd, 2020. A huge fire had engulfed a warehouse on the pier, putting the O'Brien in grave danger. Flames silhouetted the cargo and transport ship, eerily reminiscent of its battle-tested days at the beaches of Normandy, France.
Capt. Cevan LeSieur told me, like the cavalry, San Francisco firefighters aboard the Saint Francis fireboat arrived armed with water cannons. "They positioned the fireboats in location on the bow and the stern and basically created an umbrella of water to preserve the ship and to keep the heat off as much heat as possible on the vessel," said LeSieur.
The next day it was clear the O'Brien, named after an American Revolutionary War ship captain, would survive. "I knew that the ship was going to be saved at that point," he said. "There will be long-term damage, but immediately this ship can be saved."
But Liberty Ship Memorial Executive Director Matt Lasher says the dedication to saving this piece of history begs some context.
"The SS Jeremiah O'Brien was at Normandy and is very much entwined in the history of the American merchant mariner," said Lasher.
The O'Brien was one of 2,700 Liberty ships built to support the allies' war effort against the Germans. Each ship took only weeks to build. The idea was to mass-produce them faster than the German U-Boats could sink them. Typically Liberty ships only survived one voyage.
But the Germans were never able to touch the O'Brien and she made 11 crossings of the English Channel, carrying personnel and supplies to prepare for the D-Day invasion.
After the war the O'Brien and her antiquated, but remarkably reliable, 2,500 horsepower steam engine were retired, only to slowly rust away as part of the "mothball fleet" in Suisun Bay.
In 1979 she was rescued from the potential of the scrapyard, painstakingly restored, and eventually sailed under her own power back to Normandy for the 50th anniversary of D-Day.
Now, she is now the only remaining, fully functioning Liberty ship in existence. But, as the saying goes, rust never sleeps. And the O'Brien is in need of restoration yet again
This latest restoration began before the 2020 fire with a complete replacement of the ship's original steam engine boiler tubes.
Hundreds of rusty two-inch and four-inch steel pipes had to be slowly and individually replaced.
"One by one they had to be shuffled into the boiler room and the debris ones, the ones pulled out, had to come out," said chief engineer Jon Eaton.
But out of necessity comes opportunity and those rusty old pipes are being cut, rounded off, banded and offered to the public for a donation.
"We've retained the tubing," Lasher said, "And what we're doing is taking a piece of that cross-section of that and people that give us a donation of $100 or more towards our dry dock this year, we're going to send you a piece of tube. This tube was original to the O'Brien during World War II and it was actually at Normandy."
After dry dock, where the O'Brien gets taken completely out of the water for inspection and further repairs, she'll be fit to sail once again.
"We want her out on the water," said Lasher. "We want to bring folks from all across the country out to see her, to experience the engine room. Experience being on a World War II Liberty ship while she's underway.
"To recognize that, you know, there were 600 American ships sunk in World War II and, like, 8,000 men died," said Eaton. "This is a piece of history that you can't replicate."
After spending 30 days in dry dock in November, the O'Brien will be sailed back to Pier 45 and will be open to the public again for tours and cruises.
To donate to the Jeremiah O'Brien restoration, visit ssjeremiahobrien.org/pages/how-you-can-help
