TWO SHIPS NAMED CAPE GIRARDEAU

Carrying on a proud tradition, the SS Cape Girardeau is an active ship in the Military Sealift Command's Ready Reserve Force, ready for service when called.

Launched in 1943, the first SS Cape Girardeau was one of 2,751 Liberty Ships, built during World War II for the United States Maritime Commission. It has joined the history of all but two of the giant Liberty Ships -- It's not around any more.

Liberty Ship was the name given to the EC2 type ships designed for "emergency" construction by the Maritime Commission, said John Riley, of the Naval History Division in Washington D.C.

Built on a standardized design that could be mass-produced, "these ships cold be put together in a hurry," said Riley. "Parts were pre-fabricated throughout the nation in large sections. The SS Robert E. Perry was put together in four-and-half days."

The Liberty Ships were all about the same, 441-feet long, 56 feet wide, three-cylinder motors capable of a speed of 11 knots. Their five holds could carry more than 9,000 tons of cargo, plus airplanes, tanks and locomotives lashed to the deck.

The ships were built for the Maritime Service, which doled them out to wherever they were most needed.

Only two of the old Liberty Ships are still in commission, said Riley -- the SS John W. Brown, a museum ship in Baltimore, Md., and the SS Jeremiah O'Brien at San Diego, Calif. "Both are alive and well," said Riley. The remainder were dismantled or sold.

Hometown vessel

The SS Cape Girardeau received its name through the efforts of a former Cape Girardeau woman who worked at the ship company.

Erna Thilenius Bergland, a shipyard accounting employee, became interested in having one of the giant 13,000-ton Liberty Ships named after her home city

It was considered appropriate to name the ship after Cape Girardeau, since a number of other ships were named for capes, and Cape Girardeau was a name designating the only inland cape in the nation.

The SS Cape Girardeau was built at the Consolidated Steel Shipyard in Wilmington, Calif., and was launched Nov. 7, 1943.

Bergland served as matron of honor at the dedication. Another former resident of Cape Girardeau, Col. William B. Wilson of the Army Medical Corp. was guest speaker prior to the giant vessel's easement in to the water.

More than 25,000 people were on hand for the launching of the ship, which had all the pomp and circumstance of a major ship launching including the Southern Pacific Club Band playing the "Star Spangled Banner." During the program "Stars and Stripes Forever, "Victory is on its Way," "Star Dust" and "Make Believe" were all played.

The ship was in the Navy for exactly seven months and one day before its transfer to the British Ministry of War where it was renamed British Empire Spearhead and participated in the Invasion of Normandy, early on the morning of June 6, 1944, one of some 7,000 vessels which landed American and British Divisions on Normandy beach.

Today's SS Cape Girardeau, constructed in 1985, is larger than its namesake at more than 600 feet.

"All of the ships in sealift program are named Cape," Riley. How the word Girardeau got into the name game this time is something Riley said he does not know.