The SS Jeremiah O’Brien bills itself a "living memorial" to the stirring story of the all-important role played by Liberty Ships and their crews in World War II. A remarkable network of volunteers got the inspiration to lovingly restore the O’Brien and stayed together to maintain the doughty D-Day survivor. In the proud tradition of the workhouse Liberty Ships, the volunteers have put the O’Brien to work to earn her keep. They offer hugely popular mini-cruises around San Francisco Bay. Next up: the Delta to Sacramento. Get your tickets while you can.
Published: June, 2003
The above is an adaptation by Bay Crossings’ Art Director Francisco Arreola of one part of a dramatic triptych hanging in the grand hiring hall of the Sailors’ Union headquarters at First and Harrison Streets in San Francisco. It depicts a heroic battle between the Liberty ship SS Stephen Hopkins and German raiders in the South Atlantic on September 27, 1942. The following account of the action excerpted from U.S. Merchant Vessel War Casualties of World War II, by Robert W. Browning Jr. (Naval Institute Press, reprinted with permission):
On 18 September, the Stephen Hopkins (Paul Buck, Captain) sailed from Cape Town, South Africa, to Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana. Several days out of Cape Town, the radio operator received a message warning of German raiders. On the morning of the 27th a lookout spotted two ships in the haze flying signal flags. They were in reality the 5,000-ton raider Stier and the 7,800-ton Tannenfels. Both immediately began firing on the Liberty ship, and what ensued was one of the most remarkable surface engagements of the war. Captain Buck immediately turned the Hopkins stern to the raiders. The armed guards manned the four-inch stern gun to defend the ship. The gun crew fired as rapidly as possible on the smaller raider. Fire from the Stier killed the gun crew one by one and volunteers replaced those who had fallen. At the same time, the Tannenfels remained at a distance, raking the Hopkins with machine gun fire that was returned by the Hopkins. The Stier had a fire control system that enabled her to fire salvos and hit the Liberty ship repeatedly. One shell hit one of the main boilers, reducing the speed of the Stephen Hopkins to one knot. Shells struck the Hopkins near the waterline, and incendiary shells eventually set fire to the main deckhouse as the ship slowly sank. The Stier, however, had paid for attacking the Stephen Hopkins. The Hopkins crew had repeatedly struck the smaller raider, now in flames and in a sinking condition. After about twenty minutes of fierce firing, the master sounded the ship’s whistle to abandon ship. In one last act of defiance, Cadet Midshipman Edwin O’Hara fired the last five remaining shells from the four-inch gun, and all struck the Stier. A salvo aimed at the gun killed O’Hara after he had fired the last round. The able-bodied men helped place the wounded in the only undamaged lifeboat. This boat searched for two hours picking up survivors. The ship’s complement originally consisted of eight officers, thirty-three men, and fifteen armed guards but only nineteen men cleared the ship. Only fifteen of these men survived – gunners, one officer and nine men. After a thirty-one day trip they made landfall at a small fishing village on the coast of Brazil.
