{"id":4503,"date":"2023-04-13T16:18:24","date_gmt":"2023-04-13T20:18:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/?p=4503"},"modified":"2025-07-23T16:27:41","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T20:27:41","slug":"goucher-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/goucher-victory\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering the SS Goucher Victory"},"content":{"rendered":"

D<\/span>uring World War II, the U.S. Maritime Commission built a class of merchant ships called victory ships, many of them named after U.S. colleges. On June 2, 1945, the SS Goucher Victory<\/em> launched at Baltimore from the Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard, where it was built. It was the first victory ship to honor a college in Maryland.<\/p>\n

About 125 people from the Goucher community attended the launch, including alumnae, students, President David Robertson, and Susannah Eby \u201945<\/strong><\/span>, the student government president and the \u201csponsor\u201d of Goucher Victory<\/em>. Traditionally, sponsors of U.S. Navy ships were women civilians and were thought to bring good luck to the ship and its crew.<\/p>\n

That August, Goucher Alumnae Quarterly<\/em> published a piece by Eby about her experience christening the ship. She described the \u201ckaleidoscopic jumble of the sound of the loudspeaker at the shipyards, the flash of the news cameras, the scent of the red roses, and the weight of the champagne bottle in my hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eby worried about successfully breaking the bottle of champagne over the ship\u2019s bow; she was aware of the recent \u201cdisastrous attempts\u201d to christen two airplanes by Bess Truman, President Harry Truman\u2019s wife. \u201cI had heard innumerable tales of her failure,\u201d wrote Eby. So Eby and her roommate went to the back corner of 2229 North Charles Street and practiced with a bottle of ginger ale. The practice went well, and so did the christening. Eby remembered standing in a puddle of champagne.<\/p>\n

After the launch, Goucher Victory<\/em> was used to bring U.S. soldiers\u2014alive, wounded, and dead\u2014back to the states. In 1947, the last of the American soldiers left Brisbane, Australia, on the ship. It also brought home nearly 2,000 coffins of deceased U.S. service personnel who had been buried in Australia. Among the numbers was an Unknown Soldier, who was carried in a procession through Brisbane as 30,000 people watched the solemn event. Only one other Unknown Soldier has since been given a procession through an Australian city.<\/p>\n

In recognition of the upcoming Olympics in Brisbane in 2032, a local group is trying to highlight Goucher Victory<\/em>\u2019s history in Australia with a petition<\/a> to the Brisbane City Council. It proposes that a small space near the Newstead Wharf be established called the \u201cUSAT Goucher Victory Place.\u201d The petitioners are also looking to plant, over time, a small grove of trees in honor of many Australian World War II veterans, including those who are usually overlooked, such as women and Indigenous veterans.<\/p>\n

Goucher Victory<\/em> remained in service through the Korean War, and it stayed in the National Defense Reserve Fleet until it was sold in 1972. The college\u2019s founder also inspired another wartime vessel: The liberty ship John F. Goucher<\/em>, built in 1943 as part of a class of ships named after well-known men. It was eventually renamed Culebra Island<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The petition<\/a> can be signed through April 25, 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On June 2, 1945, the SS Goucher Victory launched at Baltimore, where it was built. It was the first victory ship to honor a college in Maryland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":352,"featured_media":4506,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[87510],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[87484],"class_list":["post-4503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features"],"yoast_head":"\nRemembering the SS Goucher Victory | Goucher Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"On June 2, 1945, the SS Goucher Victory launched at Baltimore, where it was built. It was the first victory ship to honor a college in Maryland.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/goucher-victory\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Remembering the SS Goucher Victory\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On June 2, 1945, the SS Goucher Victory launched at Baltimore, where it was built. It was the first victory ship to honor a college in Maryland.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/goucher-victory\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Goucher Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-04-13T20:18:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-23T20:27:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2023\/04\/SS-Goucher-Victory-e1681417094651.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1370\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"585\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Molly Englund\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Remembering the SS Goucher Victory\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"On June 2, 1945, the SS Goucher Victory launched at Baltimore, where it was built. It was the first victory ship to honor a college in Maryland.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2023\/04\/SS-Goucher-Victory-e1681417094651.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Molly Englund\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/goucher-victory\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/goucher-victory\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Molly Englund\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#\/schema\/person\/43155b9e9455876089c51a5a895ca8ca\"},\"headline\":\"Remembering the SS Goucher Victory\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-04-13T20:18:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-23T20:27:41+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/goucher-victory\/\"},\"wordCount\":480,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/goucher-victory\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2023\/04\/SS-Goucher-Victory-e1681417094651.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Features\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/goucher-victory\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/goucher-victory\/\",\"name\":\"Remembering the SS Goucher Victory | Goucher Magazine\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/goucher-victory\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/goucher-victory\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2023\/04\/SS-Goucher-Victory-e1681417094651.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-04-13T20:18:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-23T20:27:41+00:00\",\"description\":\"On June 2, 1945, the SS Goucher Victory launched at Baltimore, where it was built. It was the first victory ship to honor a college in Maryland.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/goucher-victory\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/goucher-victory\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/goucher-victory\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2023\/04\/SS-Goucher-Victory-e1681417094651.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2023\/04\/SS-Goucher-Victory-e1681417094651.png\",\"width\":1370,\"height\":585,\"caption\":\"A 1945 photo of the SS Goucher Victory.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/goucher-victory\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Remembering the SS Goucher Victory\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/\",\"name\":\"Goucher Magazine\",\"description\":\"The magazine for Goucher College's alumnae\/i since 1921.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Goucher College\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2018\/02\/G_logo.gif\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2018\/02\/G_logo.gif\",\"width\":300,\"height\":150,\"caption\":\"Goucher College\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#\/schema\/person\/43155b9e9455876089c51a5a895ca8ca\",\"name\":\"Molly Englund\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/b58c87739d7e579ba3fa778f0f114c2b\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0e687550d6628807db9571095d4bc4be35a9498346515c6d7c5f214aa8b3b9a0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0e687550d6628807db9571095d4bc4be35a9498346515c6d7c5f214aa8b3b9a0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Molly Englund\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/author\/moeng001\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Remembering the SS Goucher Victory | Goucher Magazine","description":"On June 2, 1945, the SS Goucher Victory launched at Baltimore, where it was built. It was the first victory ship to honor a college in Maryland.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/goucher-victory\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Remembering the SS Goucher Victory","og_description":"On June 2, 1945, the SS Goucher Victory launched at Baltimore, where it was built. It was the first victory ship to honor a college in Maryland.","og_url":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/goucher-victory\/","og_site_name":"Goucher Magazine","article_published_time":"2023-04-13T20:18:24+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-07-23T20:27:41+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1370,"height":585,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2023\/04\/SS-Goucher-Victory-e1681417094651.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Molly Englund","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Remembering the SS Goucher Victory","twitter_description":"On June 2, 1945, the SS Goucher Victory launched at Baltimore, where it was built. It was the first victory ship to honor a college in Maryland.","twitter_image":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2023\/04\/SS-Goucher-Victory-e1681417094651.png","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Molly Englund","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/goucher-victory\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/goucher-victory\/"},"author":{"name":"Molly Englund","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#\/schema\/person\/43155b9e9455876089c51a5a895ca8ca"},"headline":"Remembering the SS Goucher Victory","datePublished":"2023-04-13T20:18:24+00:00","dateModified":"2025-07-23T20:27:41+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/goucher-victory\/"},"wordCount":480,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/goucher-victory\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2023\/04\/SS-Goucher-Victory-e1681417094651.png","articleSection":["Features"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/goucher-victory\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/goucher-victory\/","name":"Remembering the SS Goucher Victory | Goucher Magazine","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/goucher-victory\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/goucher-victory\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2023\/04\/SS-Goucher-Victory-e1681417094651.png","datePublished":"2023-04-13T20:18:24+00:00","dateModified":"2025-07-23T20:27:41+00:00","description":"On June 2, 1945, the SS Goucher Victory launched at Baltimore, where it was built. It was the first victory ship to honor a college in Maryland.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/goucher-victory\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/goucher-victory\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/goucher-victory\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2023\/04\/SS-Goucher-Victory-e1681417094651.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2023\/04\/SS-Goucher-Victory-e1681417094651.png","width":1370,"height":585,"caption":"A 1945 photo of the SS Goucher Victory."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/goucher-victory\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Remembering the SS Goucher Victory"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/","name":"Goucher Magazine","description":"The magazine for Goucher College's alumnae\/i since 1921.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#organization","name":"Goucher College","url":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2018\/02\/G_logo.gif","contentUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/files\/2018\/02\/G_logo.gif","width":300,"height":150,"caption":"Goucher College"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#\/schema\/person\/43155b9e9455876089c51a5a895ca8ca","name":"Molly Englund","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/b58c87739d7e579ba3fa778f0f114c2b","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0e687550d6628807db9571095d4bc4be35a9498346515c6d7c5f214aa8b3b9a0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0e687550d6628807db9571095d4bc4be35a9498346515c6d7c5f214aa8b3b9a0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Molly Englund"},"url":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/author\/moeng001\/"}]}},"authors":[{"term_id":87484,"user_id":352,"is_guest":0,"slug":"moeng001","display_name":"Molly Englund","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0e687550d6628807db9571095d4bc4be35a9498346515c6d7c5f214aa8b3b9a0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","first_name":"Molly","last_name":"Englund","user_url":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/352"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4503"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6434,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4503\/revisions\/6434"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4503"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=4503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}