U.S. Department of Transportation, Maritime Administration Collection S.S. Occidental Victory Materials
Content Description
Builder's Plate; Occidental Victory, object number 2011.001R.0120 Repeater Gyro; Occidental Victory, object number 2011.004R.1199 Life Ring Buoy; Occidental Victory, object number 2011.004R.1382
The S.S. Occidental Victory Collection consists of three maritime artifacts dating from 1945 and associated with the World War II Victory ship named for Occidental College. The collection includes a builder’s plate, a repeater gyro (gyrocompass repeater), and a life ring buoy, each bearing identification associated with the vessel.
The builder’s plate documents the ship’s construction and manufacturer, serving as a permanent identifying marker affixed during the shipbuilding process. The repeater gyro is a navigational instrument component used to relay heading information from the ship’s master gyrocompass to secondary stations, illustrating mid-twentieth-century maritime navigation technology. The life ring buoy represents standard safety equipment carried aboard merchant vessels during wartime service.
Together, these objects have been deposited at Occidental College for permanent display. They are currently displayed in the Mary Norton Library.
Dates
- Creation: 1945
Biographical / Historical
The S.S. Occidental Victory was a United States Victory ship constructed in 1945 as part of the World War II emergency shipbuilding program administered by the U.S. Maritime Commission, later overseen by the U.S. Maritime Administration within the Department of Transportation. Victory ships were standardized cargo vessels designed to replace Liberty ships and to transport troops, equipment, and supplies in support of Allied military operations. More than 500 Victory ships were built between 1944 and 1946.
The Occidental Victory was named in honor of Occidental College in Los Angeles, California, reflecting the wartime practice of naming certain Victory ships after educational institutions. Following the war, many Victory ships were decommissioned, placed in reserve fleets, repurposed for commercial service, or transferred to allied nations under postwar recovery programs.
Following it's time in active service, the Occidental Victory was laid up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet in Suisun Bay. The ship was dismantled in 2006.
Full Extent
3 Object(s) (Builder's Plate; Occidental Victory Repeater Gyro; Occidental Victory Life Ring Buoy; Occidental Victory)
Language of Materials
English
Custodial History
The materials in this collection were transferred to Occidental College Special Collections & College Archives in 2012 on loan for a 3 year term. The loan was renewed in 2016. The loan was converted into a deposit agreement in 2022.
Processing Information
This collection was processed by Alanna Quan in 2025. No original order was present in these materials. Object identifiers for individual items were maintained from the transfer agreement. AI was used to facilitate the creation of some metadata for this collection.
- Title
- U.S. Department of Transportation, Maritime Administration Collection S.S. Occidental Victory Materials
- Status
- In Progress
- Author
- Alanna Quan
- Date
- 02/12/2025
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Special Collections & College Archives, Occidental College Repository