With no codified place for storage, War Shipping Administration headquarters in Washington D.C. was the first depository of Gallant Ship citation plaques awarded to ships during the Second World War. After the war, all made their way to the United States Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point in 1946. For a time, they resided in Bowditch Hall; they eventually moved to the American Merchant Marine Museum with two examples installed in Land Hall.
MARAD has a comprehensive list of most Gallant Ships and the circumstances for the award of the citation on their history pages; however, I have done a little more research and unearthed some documents on some of the Second World War-era ships whose citation plaques reside at the American Merchant Marine Museum. To read their citations and to learn more about the ships, click the links off of each vessel’s name in the table below.
gallant ships of the second world war
| vessel | date of action | date of presentation |
| SS Samuel Parker | July 19, 1943 | April 9, 1945 |
| SS Cedar Mills | December 1, 1943 | October 16, 1945 |
| SS William Moultrie | September 12, 1942 | April 5, 1946 |
| SS Marcus Daly | December 5, 1944 | April 30, 1946 |
| SS Adoniram Judson | October 24-29, 1944 | June 27, 1946 |
| SS Nathaniel Greene | September 12, 1942 & February 23, 1943 | August 17, 1946 |
| SS Virginia Dare | September 9–21, 1942 & March 6-13, 1944 | August 17, 1946 |
| SS Stephen Hopkins | September 27, 1942 | August 17, 1946 |
| SS Stanvac Calcutta | June 6, 1942 | March 20, 1952 |
The citation plaques from SS Cedar Mills, SS Nathaniel Green, SS Virginia Dare, SS Stephen Hopkins, and SS Stanvac Calcutta are “original” plaques in that they were never placed aboard the cited ships, but deposited with MARAD’s predecessor agency – at the time of award the ships were either sunk or beached.
Despite MARAD’s ship card note that SS Adoniram Judson‘s citation plaque and medallion were missing, they both re-surfaced separately in 1989. SS Samuel Parker‘s citation plaque and medallion were shipped to Washington D.C. in 1960 and re-appeared in Land Hall at the United States Merchant Marine Academy. Of particular note is the plaque of SS William Moultrie – her replica plaque resides the Land Hall, a copy of her citation plaque is at the American Merchant Marine Museum, and her original plaque and citation is at the Harry Lundeberg School of Seamanship Museum. Of the ships that served in the Second World War, only other integral Gallant Ship citation plaque complete with its medallion survive – that of the SS Marcus Daly. The remaining ships have no notes regarding the deposition of their award plaques; nevertheless, the Nation honors them by the display of their replica plaques in the Gallant Ship Room.
Col.:
gallant ships of the second world war plaque inventory at AMMM
* bold denotes integral plaque at AMMM.