WSA · AK
John Burke
Photos and infoEC2-S-C1 Liberty ship, one of 2,710, named for John Burke, the tenth governor of North Dakota. Not a Navy ship. The War Shipping Administration owned her and Northland Transportation of Seattle operated her. Keel laid 20 November 1942 at Oregon Shipbuilding in Portland. The Maritime Commission took delivery on 23 December, thirty-three days later. She carried dry cargo in the Pacific for two years. On 28 December 1944, loaded with ammunition for the Mindoro beachhead, a kamikaze hit her in the Mindanao Sea. The cargo detonated and nothing was left.
| Type | Cargo ship (AK) |
|---|---|
| Builder | Oregon Shipbuilding, Portland |
| Launched | mid-December 1942 |
| Fate | Sunk. 28 December 1944 in the Mindanao Sea. A kamikaze crashed between the No. 2 and No. 3 holds and the ammunition cargo detonated. The ship disintegrated. Forty merchant mariners and twenty-eight Armed Guard were killed. Some lists count twenty-nine guards. No survivors. |
Laid down, displacement, length, beam, draft, speed, and complement are not stored for each hull, so this table leaves them out.
SS John Burke, 10 May 1944, northwest of Vancouver Island. Canadian Forces photograph. Public domain.
No color version yet. Colored pictures and film will be added here.