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USS Murzim (AK-95)
Encyclopedia
The USS Murzim (AK-95) was an ammo station ship working in the Pacific Ocean
during World War II
, named after Murzim
, the star in constellation Canis Major
. The auxiliary ship Murzim was manned by United States Coast Guard
personnel, supplying ships with a variety of ammunition.
In light of the Mount Hood tragedy, which involved the complete explosion of another ammunition ship, the , it became clear that those on the Murzim and other ammo ships were running the risk of nearly instantaneous death by catastrophic explosion at every moment of their stint in the Pacific Theater
. Nevertheless, the crew worked even under the threat of air attack warnings, transferring their cargo to other fighting ships.
Originally named SS Brigham Young, she was laid down under a Maritime Commission
contract by the California Shipbuilding Company
in Wilmington, California
on July 10, 1942 and launched August 17, 1942 as a liberty ship
. She was renamed Murzim on 17 March 1943 and was acquired by the Navy
under bareboat charter
from the Maritime Commission on 8 April 1943.
She was then converted for use as a naval cargo ship by the Los Angeles Shipbuilding & Drydock Corporation in Los Angeles, California
and commissioned 14 May 1943 with Lieutenant
J. E. King, USCGR
, in command and Lieutenant Rodney W. Norman, USCGR, serving as communications officer. Another seaman on the Murzim was Alex Haley
, who would later gain fame as the writer of Roots: The Saga of an American Family
. Her crew bears distinction for being the only US Navy ship crew in wartime to be ordered to "abandon ship" while at dockside due to an onboard fire while fully loaded with ammunition. The fire was controlled, averting catastrophe.
For almost two months the Murzim operated along the west coast of the United States
under the 11th Naval District
; thence, after loading general cargo, she departed from San Francisco 8 July 1943 and arrived at New Caledonia
on August 5. She then began cargo shuttle runs among American bases in the South Pacific
and during the next year, she delivered supplies from ports in Australia
, New Zealand
, and New Caledonia to the New Hebrides
, the Fiji Islands
, and the Solomon Islands
. She carried out several voyages between Nouméa
and Guadalcanal
, and in the spring of 1944 she extended her runs northward along the Solomon chain to Bougainville
, New Georgia
, , and the Russells
.
In mid-June she sailed from the Solomons via New Guinea
to the Admiralties
where she discharged cargo at Manus
. After steaming to Australia for a cargo of ammunition, she returned to New Guinea 24 August. For almost two months, Murzim supplied antiaircraft ammunition to ships at Hollandia
preparing for the invasion of the Philippines
. After filling her holds with ammunition from Brisbane
and Sydney
Australia, she sailed without escort for the Philippines 24 October. Arriving Leyte Gulf
29 October, she began duty as an ammo station ship.
During the next 3 months she supplied ships from cruiser
s to LSTs with a variety of ammunition which ranged from 6-inch to 20 mm. Despite numerous air alerts, her crew carried out the dangerous business of transferring ammunition to ships alongside. During an enemy air attack 27 November, her 20 mm guns splashed a Japan
ese plane attacking the cargo ship from starboard. Between January 27, 1945 and February 4, Murzim steamed in convoy to Manus where she replenished her holds with ammunition. Thence, after joining a convoy at Hollandia, she returned to Leyte 22 March and resumed ammo station duty in Leyte Gulf. During the closing weeks of the war against Japan, she delivered cargo to Manus and cruised to the Philippines with additional supplies of ammunition.
Following the Japanese surrender, the Murzim was authorized for use in atomic tests in the Marshalls, and was ordered to transfer to joint Task Force 1, 25 February 1946. However, she was assigned to the 14th Naval District
for inactivation 11 March and she decommissioned at Pearl Harbor
7 June.
She remained at Pearl Harbor until March 1947 when she was towed to San Francisco. Her name was struck from the Navy List
23 June. The Murzim was transferred to the Maritime Commission 5 August 1947, and entered the National Defense Reserve Fleet
at Suisun Bay
where she remained berthed into 1969.
The Murzim received one battle star for World War II service.
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, named after Murzim
Beta Canis Majoris
Beta Canis Majoris is a star in the constellation of Canis Major. It has the traditional name Murzim, Al-Murzim or Mirzam....
, the star in constellation Canis Major
Canis Major
Canis Major is one of the 88 modern constellations, and was included in the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy's 48 constellations. Its name is Latin for 'greater dog', and is commonly represented as one of the dogs following Orion the hunter...
. The auxiliary ship Murzim was manned by United States Coast Guard
United States Coast Guard
The United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven U.S. uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency...
personnel, supplying ships with a variety of ammunition.
In light of the Mount Hood tragedy, which involved the complete explosion of another ammunition ship, the , it became clear that those on the Murzim and other ammo ships were running the risk of nearly instantaneous death by catastrophic explosion at every moment of their stint in the Pacific Theater
Pacific Ocean theater of World War II
The Pacific Ocean theatre was one of four major naval theatres of war of World War II, which pitted the forces of Japan against those of the United States, the British Commonwealth, the Netherlands and France....
. Nevertheless, the crew worked even under the threat of air attack warnings, transferring their cargo to other fighting ships.
Originally named SS Brigham Young, she was laid down under a Maritime Commission
United States Maritime Commission
The United States Maritime Commission was an independent executive agency of the U.S. federal government that was created by the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, passed by Congress on June 29, 1936, and replaced the U.S. Shipping Board which had existed since World War I...
contract by the California Shipbuilding Company
California Shipbuilding Corporation
California Shipbuilding Corporation built 467 Liberty and Victory ships during World War II, including Haskell-class attack transports. California Shipbuilding Corporation was often referred to as Calship...
in Wilmington, California
Wilmington, Los Angeles, California
Wilmington is a district of Los Angeles, with industry as its primary economic activity. It lies adjacent to the Port of Los Angeles, San Pedro, and Harbor City. Wilmington is the site of Banning House and Drum Barracks, or Camp Drum, the only major American Civil War landmark in California. The...
on July 10, 1942 and launched August 17, 1942 as a liberty ship
Liberty ship
Liberty ships were cargo ships built in the United States during World War II. Though British in conception, they were adapted by the U.S. as they were cheap and quick to build, and came to symbolize U.S. wartime industrial output. Based on vessels ordered by Britain to replace ships torpedoed by...
. She was renamed Murzim on 17 March 1943 and was acquired by the Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
under bareboat charter
Bareboat charter
A bareboat charter is an arrangement for the chartering or hiring of a ship or boat, whereby no crew or provisions are included as part of the agreement; instead, the people who rent the vessel from the owner are responsible for taking care of such things....
from the Maritime Commission on 8 April 1943.
She was then converted for use as a naval cargo ship by the Los Angeles Shipbuilding & Drydock Corporation in Los Angeles, California
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and commissioned 14 May 1943 with Lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
J. E. King, USCGR
United States Coast Guard Reserve
The United States Coast Guard Reserve is the reserve component of the United States Coast Guard. It is organized, trained, administered, and supplied under the direction of the Commandant of the Coast Guard through the Director of Reserve and Leadership....
, in command and Lieutenant Rodney W. Norman, USCGR, serving as communications officer. Another seaman on the Murzim was Alex Haley
Alex Haley
Alexander Murray Palmer Haley was an African-American writer. He is best known as the author of Roots: The Saga of an American Family and the coauthor of The Autobiography of Malcolm X.-Early life:...
, who would later gain fame as the writer of Roots: The Saga of an American Family
Roots: The Saga of an American Family
Roots: The Saga of an American Family is a novel written by Alex Haley and first published in 1976. It tells the story of Kunta Kinte, an 18th-century African, captured as an adolescent and sold into slavery in the United States, and follows his life and the lives of his descendants in the U.S....
. Her crew bears distinction for being the only US Navy ship crew in wartime to be ordered to "abandon ship" while at dockside due to an onboard fire while fully loaded with ammunition. The fire was controlled, averting catastrophe.
For almost two months the Murzim operated along the west coast of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
under the 11th Naval District
United States Naval Districts
The naval district is a military and administrative command ashore, established for the purpose of decentralizing the U.S. Navy Department's functions with respect to the control of the coastwise sea communications and the shore activities outside the department proper, and for the further purpose...
; thence, after loading general cargo, she departed from San Francisco 8 July 1943 and arrived at New Caledonia
New Caledonia
New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, east of Australia and about from Metropolitan France. The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of...
on August 5. She then began cargo shuttle runs among American bases in the South Pacific
South West Pacific theatre of World War II
The South West Pacific Theatre, technically the South West Pacific Area, between 1942 and 1945, was one of two designated area commands and war theatres enumerated by the Combined Chiefs of Staff of World War II in the Pacific region....
and during the next year, she delivered supplies from ports in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, and New Caledonia to the New Hebrides
New Hebrides
New Hebrides was the colonial name for an island group in the South Pacific that now forms the nation of Vanuatu. The New Hebrides were colonized by both the British and French in the 18th century shortly after Captain James Cook visited the islands...
, the Fiji Islands
Fiji
Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...
, and the Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal...
. She carried out several voyages between Nouméa
Nouméa
Nouméa is the capital city of the French territory of New Caledonia. It is situated on a peninsula in the south of New Caledonia's main island, Grande Terre, and is home to the majority of the island's European, Polynesian , Indonesian, and Vietnamese populations, as well as many Melanesians,...
and Guadalcanal
Guadalcanal
Guadalcanal is a tropical island in the South-Western Pacific. The largest island in the Solomons, it was discovered by the Spanish expedition of Alvaro de Mendaña in 1568...
, and in the spring of 1944 she extended her runs northward along the Solomon chain to Bougainville
Bougainville Island
Bougainville Island is the main island of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville of Papua New Guinea. This region is also known as Bougainville Province or the North Solomons. The population of the province is 175,160 , which includes the adjacent island of Buka and assorted outlying islands...
, New Georgia
New Georgia
New Georgia is the largest island of the Western Province of the Solomon Islands.-Geography:This island is located in the New Georgia Group, an archipelago including most of the other larger islands in the province...
, , and the Russells
Russell Islands
The Russell Islands are two small islands, as well as several islets, of volcanic origin, in the Central Province of the Solomon Islands. They are located approximately 48 km northwest from Guadalcanal. The islands are partially covered in coconut plantations, and have a copra and oil factory at...
.
In mid-June she sailed from the Solomons via New Guinea
New Guinea
New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...
to the Admiralties
Admiralty Islands
The Admiralty Islands are a group of eighteen islands in the Bismarck Archipelago, to the north of New Guinea in the south Pacific Ocean. These are also sometimes called the Manus Islands, after the largest island. These rainforest-covered islands form part of Manus Province, the smallest and...
where she discharged cargo at Manus
Manus Island
Manus Island is part of Manus Province in northern Papua New Guinea and is the largest island of the Admiralty Islands. It is the fifth largest island in Papua New Guinea with an area of 2,100 km², measuring around 100 km × 30 km. According to the 2000 census, Manus Island had a...
. After steaming to Australia for a cargo of ammunition, she returned to New Guinea 24 August. For almost two months, Murzim supplied antiaircraft ammunition to ships at Hollandia
Jayapura
Jayapura City is the capital of Papua province, Indonesia, on the island of New Guinea. It is situated on Yos Sudarso Bay . Its approximate population in 2002 was 200,000....
preparing for the invasion of the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
. After filling her holds with ammunition from Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
and Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
Australia, she sailed without escort for the Philippines 24 October. Arriving Leyte Gulf
Leyte Gulf
Leyte Gulf is a body of water immediately east of the island of Leyte in the Philippines, adjoining the Philippine Sea of the Pacific Ocean, at . The Gulf is bounded on the north by the island of Samar, which is separated from Leyte on the west by the narrow San Juanico Strait, and on the south by...
29 October, she began duty as an ammo station ship.
During the next 3 months she supplied ships from cruiser
Cruiser
A cruiser is a type of warship. The term has been in use for several hundreds of years, and has had different meanings throughout this period...
s to LSTs with a variety of ammunition which ranged from 6-inch to 20 mm. Despite numerous air alerts, her crew carried out the dangerous business of transferring ammunition to ships alongside. During an enemy air attack 27 November, her 20 mm guns splashed a Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese plane attacking the cargo ship from starboard. Between January 27, 1945 and February 4, Murzim steamed in convoy to Manus where she replenished her holds with ammunition. Thence, after joining a convoy at Hollandia, she returned to Leyte 22 March and resumed ammo station duty in Leyte Gulf. During the closing weeks of the war against Japan, she delivered cargo to Manus and cruised to the Philippines with additional supplies of ammunition.
Following the Japanese surrender, the Murzim was authorized for use in atomic tests in the Marshalls, and was ordered to transfer to joint Task Force 1, 25 February 1946. However, she was assigned to the 14th Naval District
United States Naval Districts
The naval district is a military and administrative command ashore, established for the purpose of decentralizing the U.S. Navy Department's functions with respect to the control of the coastwise sea communications and the shore activities outside the department proper, and for the further purpose...
for inactivation 11 March and she decommissioned at Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...
7 June.
She remained at Pearl Harbor until March 1947 when she was towed to San Francisco. Her name was struck from the Navy List
Naval Vessel Register
The Naval Vessel Register is the official inventory of ships and service craft in custody of or titled by the United States Navy. It contains information on ships and service craft that make up the official inventory of the Navy from the time a vessel is authorized through its life cycle and...
23 June. The Murzim was transferred to the Maritime Commission 5 August 1947, and entered the National Defense Reserve Fleet
National Defense Reserve Fleet
The National Defense Reserve Fleet consists of "mothballed" ships, mostly merchant vessels, that can be activated within 20 to 120 days to provide shipping for the United States of America during national emergencies, either military or non-military, such as commercial shipping crises.The NDRF is...
at Suisun Bay
Suisun Bay
Suisun Bay is a shallow tidal estuary at in northern California, USA. It lies at the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, forming the entrance to the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, an inverted river delta...
where she remained berthed into 1969.
The Murzim received one battle star for World War II service.