Troubled Waters: The History of City College’s Victory Ships
Words and Illustrations by Kia Thomas
Photos courtesy of The City College Archives
In the public eye, City College’s dedication to social justice and philanthropy stood a close second to its academic prestige. Many remain unaware of its history of wartime involvement. Most of what can be discovered surround veteran recognition and obituaries of the College’s decorated soldiers. Less publicized are the Victory Ships named after the college, commissioned for use in World War II and the Vietnamese War. Cohen Library Archives has taken measures to preserve evidence of the ships and the history of City College in the battlefield.
On June 23, 1945 the C.C.N.Y. Victory was officiallycommissioned at the Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard. Representing the AlumniAssociation, I. Arnold Ross, wrote a letter to the Maritime Commission aboutnaming a wartime vessel after City College. He, along with Earl P. Clark,grandniece of Townsend Harris, were present at the ship’s christening luncheonin Baltimore. The City College Alumnusreported, “...since most of [the Alumni] are in the Armed forces or essentialgovernment agencies few were able to be present.” Intended for cargo, theC.C.N.Y. Victory was repurposed as a troopship, used to transport soldiersduring redeployment into the “Far East.”
There is very little information on the S.S. TownsendHarris, the first of the victory ships to be commissioned. Named after theCollege’s founder, it was launched at the Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard, twoyears before her sister in 1943. Harris was the first Japanese diplomat,responsible for negotiating TheTreaty of Amity and Commerce which opened Japanese ports of trade toAmericans and granted them immune to the jurisdiction of local law. This isironic when one considers the tragedy of Hiroshima.
History professor Richard Van Nort spoke on the significanceof American victory ships and how they played a part in bringing World War IIto an end. He said, “These ships were not beautiful. They could be builtanywhere between a month and three months. They were, however, sturdy anddependable, and they were a key element in winning the battle in the Atlantic.”
German submarines were extremely efficient in sinking shipsattempting to enter Europe during the war. In response, Americans sent overconvoys and/or victory ships. Since these ships were mass produced at acceleratedrates, they were discarded and replaced easily. Van Nort said, “We built moreships than they could sink. They had good cargo capacity and they could carryalmost anything.”
The building and commissioning of the ship was not a secret.Faculty and students worked together to raise funds for the ship’s library, andit was “embellished with various souvenirs of the College.” At the time, CityCollege was heavily involved in the war effort. The campus was used as a centerfor wartime training during and prior to World War II. According to a 1942address, the college had been home to the “largest voluntary collegiate ROTCunit in the country.” Basic training for combat had been established on campussince 1919 and produced “close to 1,000 commissioned officers.” Courses inmilitary engineering, civil aeronautics, science and personnel management wereheld at the college’s School of Technology, authorized by the United StatesOffice of Education. The college had even decided to “accelerate the springsemester,” shortening it six weeks so that students would be able to join thearmed forces. By April 1942, “1,824 members of the staff, student body andalumni” were fighting in the war. Faculty made compromises in their curriculumto “place emphasis on instruction useful in the war emergency.”
President Harry N. Wright developed the Civilian Defense Council at City College, which consisted of faculty members and students. This council produced a myriad of wartime fundraising and education initiatives, serving the entire metropolitan area. The Council provided “instruction in methods of civilian protection... [which] led to the publication of the enthusiastically received ‘Handbook of Civilian Protection,’ issued by Whittlesey House.” These methods were utilized by police and fire departments and civilian defense programs across New York City. They “conducted a twice-weekly radio series over Station WNYC” to update citizens on war problems.
In 1958, The C.C.N.Y. Victory was decommissioned after 14years of service and stored in the Maritime Commision's Hudson River Reserve.It was recommissioned during the Vietnam War in 1966. Between these years, theship was chartered from the government by private shipping companies and usedto transport goods to the Mediterranean.
There is very little documentation on the ship’s activity orthe college’s war efforts during the Vietnam war compared to World War II. Bythis time, the College’s attitude towards war had shifted dramatically. On June18, 1966, John Palmer, Commissioner of Public Events, presented the CCNYVictory flag to Dr. Buell G. Gallagher, the then-president of the college. OnOctober 6, 1966, the Maritime Administration presented a photograph of theC.C.N.Y. Victory to Dr. Gallagher in a special ceremony. The New York Times reported on the backlash to the event, writing“anti-war demonstrators replied by presenting to Dr. Gallagher a photograph ofa Vietnamese woman carrying two wounded children entitled ‘Is Tis the CCNYVictory?’”
Jerry Moy, a City College ‘72 alumni, recalled a universalanti-war sentiment on campus during the Vietnamese war. Presenting a photographfrom around 1970-1971, Moy said "This photo basically shows a group ofstudents demonstrating against the war, simulating a shooting. That was alwaysa lot of fun!”
Moy is archiving Athletic Department photos from the 60’s and 70’s. As a photographer, he participated in the anti-war efforts by documenting them. He said, “I walked the strange line of being a semi-jock. I was on the fencing team and I worked. I got involved with all these [demonstrations] and took the time to record [them].”
Despite City College’s deep and invested history in the wareffort, many students were ignorant to the extent. Sensing the students’ disdainfor American presence in Vietnamese waters, the College tried to gloss overtheir history of war training and involvement. Moy said, “The victory shipsyou’re talking about...nobody knew about them. The primary focus, at least inmy perspective, [was] ‘Nixon’s screwing around with the world, let’s get himout of here.’ There were UN protests on campus about the war itself.”
Moy knew City College students that had been drafted for theVietnam War, despite the hostile resistance on campus. He said, “Essentiallyyou were assigned a number, so if your number was low, as the requirements cameup, they would pick the lower number in the draft.”
Students and young people found creatives ways to circumventthe draft. Many relied on their status as students to avoiding fighting, whileothers depended on their practical skills. “You were chosen unless, of course, you had a student deferral, which Idid, but a few of my friends did have low numbers and a few of them got drafted.”he said.
Moy reminisced, “My friend William was a [typing] whiz! Hetyped almost a hundred words a minute. So he said, ‘I’m about to be drafted,but I’ll join the National Guard instead. When they found out about his typingskills, they said ‘You are not leaving Manhattan. You are going to be in theArmory because we need you to type.’”
Up until the end of World War II, American soldiers wereoften the children of affluent families with ties to the government. Manygovernment officials were veterans. These children were brought up to fight, attendingMilitary Prep Schools and joining military forces as soon as possible. Van Nortsaid, “Unlike today, the upper classes of America were very involved in thewar. The relationship between our military and aristocracy was deeplyconnected.”
“For example, one of the causalities of D-Day was GeneralRoosevelt, the son of president Theodore Roosevelt. The Kennedy Brothers,Lyndon B Johnson, and Richard Nixon were veterans as well,” he said.
It’s possible that City College was able to become “the poorman’s Harvard” through its dedication to providing current events to New York,developing strategies for law enforcement, state government and the military,and preparing young men to fight in the war.
Perhaps the College’s decision to involve itself so deeplyin World War II had to do with securing connections for the College. Withfriends in high places, the College could secure funding with greater ease,establish a name for itself in the country and rise to the affluence of IvyLeague colleges while remaining accessible to the middle and low-class citizensof New York.
City College has yet to publicly acknowledge and reconcilethis part of its history in relation to its high quantity of anti-war students –past and present. History cannot be changed, but it can inform us, and facingit can heal our collective wounds.
