There Are Several Ships Named For Macoupin County Figures

By TOM EMERY

Having a ship named after you is a big deal. In Macoupin County, several former residents can claim that honor.

At least five ships have been named for people from the county, and served the nation in major wars. Four that honored area figures were Liberty ships, a series of mass-produced vessels that were often used for cargo.

Some 2,710 Liberty ships were built by eighteen shipyards nationwide at a cost of $2 million each. The ships were usually 441 feet long, with a 57-foot beam and 27 feet of draft. Each vessel weighed 14,474 tons, and could carry the equivalent of four trains of 75 cars each.

Liberty ships were built with remarkable speed. As production evolved, assembly of a Liberty ship required only 42 days on average. Only two Liberty ships survive in U.S. waters today.

While they are credited for their role in the American victory, their appearance was suspect. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a former Assistant Secretary of the Navy, called Liberty ships a “dreadful-looking object,” while Time magazine referred to the ship as an “Ugly Duckling.”

Liberty ships were frequently named for American historical or social figures, including John M. Palmer, the Carlinville product who was a Civil War major general before serving as governor of Illinois from 1869-73 and U.S. Senator from 1891-97.

Unfortunately, the Palmer name did not last long. Shortly after its launch, the vessel was soon re-commissioned as the Draco, a cargo ship named for a constellation.

Two other Liberty ships, however, lasted the war with Carlinville names. One, the Will B. Otwell, was launched in 1944 to honor the man whose farm youth activities are credited as the forerunner of the 4-H movement.

Another, the Mary Austin, was for a Carlinville author who achieved some national measure of literary fame in the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-centuries.

Austin was one of 114 women for whom Liberty ships were named. Eighteen were named for African-Americans, while others were named for Confederate leaders, including Jefferson Davis and James Longstreet.

A fourth Macoupin County name on a Liberty ship was the Charles Goodnight, named for the man born south of Bunker Hill in 1836 and who became a legendary cattleman on the Texas panhandle. A subject in the novel and miniseries Lonesome Dove, Goodnight later co-owned a Texas ranch of a million acres, with a herd of 100,000 head.

Bunker Hill was also represented on the USS Ellet, a 341-foot destroyer named for members of the Ellet family, who lived in the area before commanding a fleet of rams on the Mississippi River during the Civil War. They included Alfred Ellet, who rose to brigadier general.

The Ellet served in the Pacific during World War II, and received ten battle stars. Launched in 1938, the Ellet was decommissioned in 1945 and sold two years later.

Tom Emery is a freelance writer and historical researcher from Carlinville. He may be reached at 217-710-8392 or [email protected].