3 Replies Latest reply on May 23, 2019 3:43 PM by Ronald Bennett

Seeking WWII deck logs for US merchant marine vessels

Ronald Bennett May 10, 2019 7:21 AM

Hello,

I see good advice for locating deck logs for US Naval vessels, but merchant marine vessels under Coast Guard command seem to be stored separately. I'm looking for deck logs for the vessels and dates shown below. In my searching online I was directed to nara.gov, which ended up suggesting I send an email request to: "newyork.archives@nara.gov".

Here are sailings of interest:

SS Edward Bellamy: depart 30 Apr 1943 (from east coast US) bound for Port Said, Egypt. Return from Port Said, discharge 7 Sep 1943 New York.
Park Holland: depart 30 Sep 1943 from Boston, discharge 1 Feb 1944 Newport News, VA.
Park Holland: depart 2 Feb 1944 from Newport News, discharge 16 Feb 1944 Philadelphia, PA
W.B. Rogers: depart 9 Jan 1945 from San Francisco. Discharge 2 Apr 1945 San Francisco.
W.B. Rogers: depart 5 Apr 1945 from San Francisco bound for Saipan, Marianas. Discharge 22 Aug 1945 San Francisco.
SS Swan Island: depart 13 Dec 1945 from New Orleans, LA. Discharge 3 Feb 1946 Galveston, TX.
SS Swan Island: depart 16 Apr 1946 from Chester, PA. Discharge 11 May 1946 at Philadelphia, PA.

So, I guess my question is, "Is this the correct correspondence address for this sort of deck log request or is there an alternative source for these documents?".

Thanks,

Ron

Re: Seeking WWII deck logs for US merchant marine vessels

Ronald Bennett May 14, 2019 11:41 AM (in response to Ronald Bennett)

The email address listed above worked well to get a start on accessing these merchant marine vessel logs. I had a prompt (two days) reply from Kelly at the National Archives in New York, who located logs for two of the seven trips and provided me with email addresses to look for some of the others.

To obtain copies of the actual deck logs, which can be quite lengthy, you contact the archives for the port of arrival, which have addresses like: philadelphia.archives@nara.gov and then discuss price and contents for the pages of interest.
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Re: Seeking WWII deck logs for US merchant marine vessels

Rebecca Collier May 15, 2019 11:28 AM (in response to Ronald Bennett)
Dear Mr. Bennett,

Thank you for posting your initial and follow-up requests on History Hub!

We searched the National Archives Catalog and located a series titled Central Correspondence Files, 1936 - 1950 in the Records of the U.S. Maritime Commission (Record Group 178) that includes the following file units:
901-10778 Edward Bellamy (Vessel) (MC #1625)
901-12522 Park Holland (SS) (MCE #823) Renamed Ocean Liberty
901-13525 W. B. Rogers (SS) (MCE #2736) Renamed Akti
901-15056 Swan Island (SS) (MC #1943)

We also located a series titled Armed Guard Logs, 1943 - 1945 in the Records of the Bureau of Naval Personnel (Record Group 24) that includes logs of the SS Edward Bellamy and Armed Guard Files, 1934 - 1946 in the Records of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (Record Group 38) that includes a file unit titled Edward Bellamy 04/24/43 - 03/12/46.

For access to and/or copies of these records, please contact the National Archives at College Park - Textual Reference (RDT2) via email at archives2reference@nara.gov.

We hope this additional information is helpful. Best of luck with your research!
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- Re: Seeking WWII deck logs for US merchant marine vessels
  
  Ronald Bennett May 23, 2019 3:43 PM (in response to Rebecca Collier)
  
  Rebecca,
  
  Thanks so much for the leads. Most helpful.
  
  Ron
  
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Seeking WWII deck logs for US merchant marine vessels

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