The SS Martin Behrman was an American Liberty ship

Liberty ship

Liberty ships were cargo ships built in the United States during World War II. Though British in conception, they were adapted by the U.S. as they were cheap and quick to build, and came to symbolize U.S. wartime industrial output. Based on vessels ordered by Britain to replace ships torpedoed by...

 built in 1944 for service in World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. Her namesake was Martin Behrman

Martin Behrman

Martin Behrman , an American Democratic politician, was the longest-serving mayor in New Orleans history.-Biography:...

, long-time mayor of New Orleans, Louisiana

Louisiana

Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...

.

Among the Liberty ships, the Martin Behrman was an EC2-S-C1 Type with hull number 2827. Like other Liberty ships, she was 441 feet (134 m) long and 56 feet (17 m) wide, carried 9000 tons of cargo and had a top speed of 11 knots (20 km/h). Most Liberty ships were named after prominent deceased Americans.http://www.usmm.org/libertyships.html

This particular ship was built by Delta Shipbuilding Company in New Orleans. Her keel was laid on 25 October 1944 and she was launched on 4 December 1944.http://www.fiu.edu/~thompsop/liberty/liberty_listM.html The Delta shipyard

Shipyard

Shipyards and dockyards are places which repair and build ships. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance and basing activities than shipyards, which are sometimes associated more with initial...

 was started specifically for the war effort, at a site on the Industrial Canal

Industrial Canal

The Industrial Canal is a 5.5 mile waterway in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. The waterway's proper name, as used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and on NOAA nautical charts, is Inner Harbor Navigation Canal...

 near the Almonaster Avenue Bridge, immediately south of the present-day I-10 high-rise bridge. The yard was shut down after the end of the war.http://www.coltoncompany.com/shipbldg/ussbldrs/wwii/merchantshipbuilders/delta.htm

The Martin Behrman survived World War II and saw service in the Korean War

Korean War

The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...

.http://www.usmm.org/koreaships.html In 1947 she was engaged in the Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

n trade in defiance of a Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 blockade, and on one voyage her cargo was confiscated by the Dutch Navy.http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:4jo6DU--XiMJ:www.papuaweb.org/dlib/bk/penders2002/01.pdf+%22Martin+Behrman%22+company+ship&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=41http://www.info.dfat.gov.au/info/historical/HistDocs.nsf/vVolume/7498F70BE31386D4CA256B7E007BE154 She was scrapped at Portland

Portland, Oregon

Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

, Oregon

Oregon

Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

in 1965.http://www.mariners-l.co.uk/LibShipsM.html Her bow, along with the bows of many other Liberty ships, is buried at the Liberty Ship Memorial Park in Portland.http://www.indiodesign.com/libertyshippark/http://www.oakgrovedesigns.net/homepage/libships/