SS Ben Robertson

The SS Ben Robertson was a Liberty ship, Maritime Commission hull number 2432, built during World War II and named for Clemson University alumnus (Class of 1923), journalist, and war correspondent Benjamin F. Robertson, who was killed in the crash of a Pan Am Boeing 314 flying boat, the Yankee Clipper, in the Tagus River, near Lisbon, Portugal, on 22 February 1943.

Ben Robertson was constructed at the yards of the Southeastern Shipbuilding Corporation, Savannah, Georgia, one of 88 Liberty ships the yard built. Laid down on 18 November 1943, it was launched on 4 January 1944. Mrs. Julian Longley, Robertson's sister, of Dalton, Georgia, was sponsor for the new ship, part of a nationwide maritime program of naming Liberty ships for war correspondents killed in action. ^[1] The new vessel was delivered on 21 January 1944, having spent 47 days on the ways and 17 in the water for a total of 64 days building.

More than 2,400 Liberty ships survived the war, only 196 having been lost in combat. Of these, 835 made up the postwar cargo fleet. Greek entrepreneurs bought 526 ships and Italian ones bought 98. Ben Robertson was sold to a private firm in 1947. The ship was scrapped in 1968.

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