S.S. Idaho Falls collection

Correspondence, newspaper clippings, and photographs concerning the launching of the S.S. Idaho Falls in Portland, Oregon, on March 25, 1944.


Idaho Falls (T-2 Tanker Hull # 59) 1944-1977
Idaho Falls was a Merchant Marines ship so her history is limited. She was built by the Kaiser company at the Swan Island shipyards in Portland Oregon and Christened/launched on 25 March 1944 by Mrs. Victor Craig. Her husband Mr. Victor Craig was the material comptroller at Swan Island and was formerly with the Idaho Falls Fish and Wildlife service. The Merchant Marines had three different tanker classes. The T2-SE-A1 was the largest and was sometimes referred to as the ‘workhorse of the tanker fleet.’ The Idaho Falls was one of 481 T2-SE-A1 ships. She was just over 523 feet long and had a liquid capacity of close to 6 million gallons. She had a crew of 56 as well as 28 navy gunners. One of the crew was a young man, age 16, named Teddy O. Clark from Blackfoot, Idaho.
The city of Idaho Falls sent several representatives to the christening along with local Idaho products such as 200 lbs of sugar, 1000 lbs of Idaho Russet potatoes, 8 sacks of flour, 30 lbs of butter, 2, 5lb blocks of cheese, even a live lamb named Ida. Idaho Falls’ first skipper was Captain Dan Thompson from San Francisco. Her first cargo was reported to be high test aviation gasoline destined for the south Pacific. By March 1946, the Idaho Falls paper, The Post-Register, reported she had delivered 44,357,300 gallons of high-octane gasoline and 12,984,300 gallons of fuel oil to the U.S. fighting forces throughout the world and had been around the world three times. It also reported, “Throughout the war, she didn’t have a single casualty and received no serious damage although she was in the thick of things on a good many occasions. She had two torpedo scares while loaded with gasoline and also numerous air raid alerts.”
Idaho Falls was sold to Standard Oil Company of California in 1948. She was in service with them until circa 1977 when she was scrapped. She arrived in Kaohsiung, Taiwan 29 March 1977 for destruction. The christening bottle of champagne was wrapped in cloth to prevent particles of glass from flying out during the ceremony. At one time, remnants of the cloth were on display at the Idaho Falls chamber of commerce. A local Idaho Falls radio station, KID broadcast the ceremony and the Idaho Falls chamber of commerce received a copy of the recording.


(https://ussidahocommittee.org/history#us-navy-ships-named-for-idaho)