Please report any broken links or trouble you might come across to the Webmaster. Please take a moment to let us know so that we can correct any problems and make your visit as enjoyable and as informative as possible.


NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive

USS Thomas Jefferson (AK-57)


Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Precedence of awards is from left to right
American Campaign Medal - Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal - World War II Victory Medal


Cargo Ship:
  • Laid down, 18 July 1941 as SS Thomas Jefferson a Maritime Commission type (EC2-S-C1) Cargo Ship under Maritime Commission contract (MCE 175) at Oregon Shipbuilding, Portland OR.
  • Launched, 7 December 1941
  • Delivered to the War Shipping Administration, 24 February 1942, for operation by Waterman Steamship Co.
  • Requisitioned by the US Navy at Honolulu, T. H., 1 April 1942 and commissioned USS Thomas Jefferson, the same date, LCDR James Wilson Baldwin USNR in command
  • Decommissioned 11 May 1942

    "Commandant, 14th Naval District, letter of 1 April 1942 directed his Personnel Officer and the Naval Transportation Service officer assigned to his district stating that he had been directed by a secret CinCPac dispatch of the same date to take over SS Thomas Jefferson and to man her with a naval crew and naval officers. The Commandant directed that the vessel be fueled and provisioned for an extended cruise of about 50 days, that she be placed in commission as a US Naval Vessel and supplied with all necessary communication codes and ciphers. He directed his Personnel Officer to call to active duty any naval reserve personnel on inactive duty that were on board the ship, including the ship's captain despite the fact that he was overage. The Personnel Officer was also to canvas the remainder of the crew and recruit them if possible into the Navy for temporary duty, it being highly important to retain as many of the old crew as possible. It was very important to meet these requirements immediately and to have the vessel ready for sailing by 2 April 1942 (the day after the letter was written). According to the ship's deck log, Thomas Jefferson, a new Liberty ship which had been operating as a nitrate carrier, was commissioned at Honolulu on 1 April 1942, departed that port on 3 April, arrived at Midway Island on 8 April, and remained there until 12 April. A radio message of 4 April from Fort Shafter (Honolulu) to Washington identified the ship, stated that she had sailed, and listed her cargo as 1,000,000 rations, 150 tons milk, 340 tons meat, 200 tons rice, 20 tons cigarettes, and 548 tons ammunition. This information was to be passed to the "Supreme Commander in Australia and the Philippines." A second radio message, also from Fort Shafter to Washington and dated 11 Apr 42, reported that CinCPac had recalled the ship to Honolulu.
    VCNO issued instructions to the Bureau of Ships regarding this ship on 6 Apr 42, stating that Com14 had been authorized to accept delivery of this WSA-owned vessel at Honolulu and did so at 1330 hours, 1 Apr 42. The ship was to be classed as a cargo vessel (AK). On 11 Apr 42 the Auxiliary Vessels Board provided formal authority for the acquisition of the ship by recommending that she be taken over. BuShips wrote to WSA on 13 April to sort out the administrative details of the transfer, and on the same date the name Corvus and hull number AK-57 were recommended by VCNO and approved by SecNav for the ex-Thomas Jefferson. But also on 13 April, presumably later in the day, VCNO directed BuShips to cancel his previous directives regarding acquisition of this ship, stating that she was to be returned to WSA at San Francisco. On 16 Apr 42 VCNO cancelled the name Corvus and the designation AK-57 that had been approved for the ship on 13 Apr 42. The ship's deck log (held by the National Archives but attributed to the World War II Navy's other Thomas Jefferson (APA-30) shows that she returned to Honolulu on 18 Apr 42, remained there until the 25th, and then sailed in convoy for San Francisco, arriving on 6 May 42. She was decommissioned there on 11 May 42 and delivered to agents for the Waterman Steamship Co., which had operated the ship for WSA before the Navy took her over. Maritime Commission records concur with this chronology, showing the ship in Navy hands between 1 Apr 42 and 11 May 42. Later Navy records do not show this vessel as a Navy ship, and the hull number AK-57 was officially listed as "not used." The ship probably never received word that it had been renamed Corvus, an astronomical name that was later reused for AKA-26. Courtesy Shipscribe.com.
    This operation appears to have been a desperate effort to re-provision Corregidor as the rest of the Philippines fell to the Japanese. The fall of Bataan on 9 Apr 42 may have persuaded CinCPac that a Liberty ship had no chance of delivering a cargo to the besieged fortress, which finally fell on 6 May 42. For her part, SS Thomas Jefferson was operated by Waterman for the remainder of the war."
    Courtesy Shipscribe.com.

  • Struck from the Naval Register, date unknown
  • Transferred to the Maritime Commission, 23 May 1946, for lay up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet, Suisun Bay, Benecia, CA.
  • Final Disposition, sold for scrapping, 6 February 1961, to National Metal & Steel Corp, Terminal Island, CA. for $52,745.30 (PD-X-595 dated 30 December 1960)
    Specifications:
    Displacement 4,023 t.(lt) 14,550 t.(fl)
    Length 441' 6"
    Beam 56' 11"
    Draft 28' 4"
    Speed 12.5 kts.
    Complement
    Officers 19
    Enlisted 188
    Cargo Capacity 7,700 DWT
    non-refrigerated 404,274 Cu ft
    Largest Boom Capacity 50 t.
    Armament
    one single 5"/38 cal dual purpose gun mount
    one single 3"/50 cal dual purpose gun mount
    two single 40mm AA gun mounts
    six single 20mm AA gun mounts
    Fuel Capacity
    NSFO 7,285 Bbls
    Propulsion
    one General Machine Corp. vertical triple-expansion reciprocating steam engine
    two Combustion Engineering header-type boilers, 220psi 450°
    Ship's Service Generators
    three recip-drive 20Kw 120V D.C.
    one turbo-drive 60Kw 120V D.C.
    single propeller, 2,500shp

    Click On Image
    For Full Size Image
    Size Image Description Contributed
    By
    SS Thomas Jefferson
    Thomas Jefferson 100k SS Thomas Jefferson moored pierside, date and location unknown. Photo courtesy Shipscribe.com. Shipscribe.com.
    USS Thomas Jefferson (AK-57)
    Thomas Jefferson 2141k USS Thomas Jefferson (AK-57) 1 April 1942 logbook entries. Ron Reeves

    USS Thomas Jefferson (AK-57)
    Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS)
    Commanding Officers
    01LCDR. Baldwin, James Wilson USNR1 April 1942 - 11 May 1942
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler and Ron Reeves

    Crew Contact And Reunion Information
    U.S. Navy Memorial Foundation - Navy Log

    Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
    MARAD Vessel History Database

    Back To The Main Photo Index Back To The Service Force Ship Type Index Back To The Cargo Ship (AK) Photo Index
    Comments, Suggestions, E-mail Webmaster.
    This page is created and maintained by Gary P. Priolo
    All pages copyright NavSource Naval History
    Last Updated 4 December 2015