Sapulpa Showcase (June 2021)

Artifact(s) of the Month:

The City of Sapulpa was honored to have not one, but two ships named after it.

1. SS Sapulpa (see image of ship)
2. SS Sapulpa Victory (see model image of ship)

1) In 1919, the SS Sapulpa, according to a story from The Tulsa Democrat, the Sapulpa was the fourth of four ships to be given a name from Oklahoma, based on the city's participation in a World War I Liberty Loan drive. The Tulsa Democrat reported in July 1919 that the Sapulpa was under construction in Oakland, Calif., would be launched in October and sponsored by Mrs. J.W. Hoover. The fate of the ship remains unknown.
2) In 1944, the SS Sapulpa Victory was launched on April 29 of that year. It not only participated in the end of World War II, but through the Korean War, as well. It was scrapped in 1972 in Taiwan. It was 455 feet long, could carry over 9,000 tons at 15 knots.
From Wikipedia:
The SS Sapulpa Victory was the 14th Victory ship built for the United States during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding program. The vessel was launched by the California Shipbuilding Company on April 29, 1944, and completed on June 19, 1944. The ship's US Maritime Commission designation was VC2-S-AP3, hull number 14 (V-14). The Sapulpa served in the Pacific Theater during World War II and was operated by the Alcoa SS Company.
The 10,500-ton Victory ships were designed to replace the earlier Liberty ships. While Liberty ships were designed to be used only during World War II, Victory ships were designed to last longer and serve the US Navy both during and after the war. Victory ships differed from Liberty ships in that they were faster, longer, wider, taller, had a thinner stack set further toward the superstructure and had a long raised forecastle.
SS Sapulpa Victory was christened and launched at the yards of the California Shipbuilding Corporation on Terminal Island in Los Angeles. It was one of the 218 Victory ships that were named after American cities.