SHIPS OF THE U.S. MERCHANT MARINE 



TODAY, with a company-owned fleet of fifty fast, modern, C-type 

 cargo vessels and scores of others (required to maintain emergency 

 service on its trade routes) under charter from the United States Maritime 

 Commission, Lykes Bros. Steamship Co., Inc., maintains its position, 

 won after World War I, as owner and operator of the largest fleet of 

 American-flag freighters engaged in foreign trade. 



With a large staff of sea and shore personnel long skilled in ocean ship- 

 ping, located both here and in key centers overseas, Lykes Lines are 

 splicing together again the war-torn pattern of service to American 

 exporters and importers which was a guiding ideal in the growth of the 

 Lykes organization for almost half a century. 



Counting its war casualties in ships, Lykes Bros. Steamship Co., Inc., 

 listed as lost through enemy action twenty-one of its own vessels and 

 seven>ships operated by them for the War Shipping Administration. In 

 personnel, the organization lost many volunteers in both the merchant 

 and armed services, among them Dick Mayo Lykes, an ensign in the 

 Navy, who was killed at Okinawa. Lykes seamen and vessels were at the 

 front in all theaters of war, sharing in glory and danger like the other 

 thousands of men and women afloat and ashore who enabled the Amer- 

 ican Merchant Marine to perform its miracle of overseas transport. The 

 men and ships lost are enshrined in the memory of all the nation. 



Taking 1945 as a typical period of the services of Lykes ships and per- 

 sonnel during World War II, records show that the company operated 

 138 government-controlled vessels. During the same period the Lykes 

 organization, as berth agents, serviced 852 other vessels and, in coopera- 

 tion with other general agents and the War Shipping Administration, 

 loaded or discharged 1,500 ships engaged in essential war commerce. 

 More than eight million tons of vital cargoes were loaded for overseas 

 shipment. In recognition of wartime service, the War Shipping Admin- 



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