S.S. James Oglethorpe and the Battle of the Atlantic

S.S. James Oglethorpe and the Battle of the Atlantic is a Georgia historical marker in Chatham County, dedicated 2013.

Savannah Maritime Trade and Convention Center, on the River Walk near the ferry landing.

Get directions ↗Start a road trip Historical trails

S. S. James Oglethorpe launched on November 20, 1942, during World War II, the first of 88 Liberty Ships built by Southeastern Shipbuilding (approximately two miles downriver from here). Setting sail from New York in a convoy bound for Liverpool, she was torpedoed by a German U-boat on March 16, 1943, and was lost the next morning along with 44 of her 74-man crew. Liberty Ships were merchant vessels built quickly and efficiently in numbers high enough to overwhelm German efforts to blockade U.S. ports and disrupt the flow of supplies to Allied forces in Europe. The Liberty Ship-building program marked Georgia's most important contribution to the Battle of the Atlantic. It produced 173 ships built in yards in Savannah and Brunswick and mobilized nearly 62,000 workers statewide.

TodayHistorical map

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection

Historical maps covering this location

1874 · Plache VII. Sea Islands. (Carolina du Sud). (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1942 · Savannah, South Carolina (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)
1955 · Savannah, Georgia (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)
1955 · Sanborn Fire Insurance Map — Savannah, Ga. (1955) (OldInsuranceMaps.net — Sanborn Map Collection)
1978 · Savannah, Georgia (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)

Savannah, South Carolina, 1942, covering the location of S.S. James Oglethorpe and the Battle of the Atlantic, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — Savannah, South Carolina, 1942, covering this location. USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.

Example

For example, one family's tree showed the Articles of Confederation marker in Pennsylvania standing under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s.

What that marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years there.

From one family's 77-marker roster

Upload your family tree and TreeAlive finds the markers near where your own ancestors lived.

See your family's markers

Start with a tree file, a FamilySearch sign in, or a WikiTree ID.

Report a problem with this page

The marker isn't at this spotOur pin may be off. If you know where it stands, tell us.I couldn't find the markerWe record what the source recorded. We have not been to look.The sign reads differentlyThat would be an error, and we can pass it to the program.The historical map looks wrongThe period map behind the pin, not the marker itself.Something else

We may pass what you report to the state's marker program. Please don't include personal details.

This historical marker is part of the Georgia Historical Marker Program and was erected by the Georgia Historical Society. Marker texts and locations come from the Society's own marker database.

More markers nearby

Nuclear Ship Savannahunder 1 mi
Savannah's Irish and Robert Emmet Parkunder 1 mi
Jane Cuylerunder 1 mi
Old Harbor Lightunder 1 mi