One of South Portland’s claims to fame is being home to two giant shipyards during WWII where we built 244 Liberty ships and 30 Ocean ships from 1941 to 1945. Once those Liberty ships were ready to head across the Atlantic, they needed a crew.
While there was a small Navy crew on board each ship, primarily to operate the guns on board, these were not considered military ships. They were operated by crew members from the U.S. Merchant Marine. Let’s take a look at the life of one of these civilian sailors who were so desperately needed to operate the thousands of ships supplying the Allied troops.
Portrait of young Merchant Marine cadet Ralph Tobiassen. South Portland Historical Society photo
Ralph Tobiassen was born in Portland in 1921, the son of Peder and Sylvia Roning Tobiassen who had immigrated to the United States from Norway. Ralph’s parents had become naturalized citizens in 1918 at Camp Devens in Massachusetts; their naturalization had been expedited after an Act was passed in May, 1918, allowing foreign-born service members to become American citizens by simply showing their proof of enlistment and having two witnesses give testimony.
The Tobiassen family lived in Portland. Ralph attended local schools and graduated from Portland High School in 1939. Within a few months, Germany had invaded Poland and war broke out in Europe.
He first tried his hand at lobstering, using a dory, and also worked for a short time as a plumber. When the Todd-Bath Iron Shipbuilding yard was constructed in South Portland, however, Ralph was one of the early employees to join the workforce, building Ocean-class cargo ships for Britain.
He quit his job in October, 1942, and entered the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at King’s Point, New York. His leaving the shipyard was in keeping with the high turnover of the early workers; the yard had hired a whole crew in 1941, but after the attack at Pearl Harbor in December, 1941, we had very high turnover at the yard as many men left to join the military and some others, like Ralph, would end up as Merchant Marine sailors.
Ralph left the Merchant Marine Academy in 1943, before his graduation, so that he could go right to work on a Liberty ship.
Cadets at the Merchant Marine Academy in 1943. South Portland Historical Society photo
He was only 22 years old when he signed on as a crew member of the Liberty ship SS Ephraim Brevard on Dec. 2, 1943, in Boston. He was listed as an engineering cadet. According to his son Randy, Ralph worked in the boiler room; as he called it, “The worst place to be, below the waterline.”
The Ephraim Brevard had been constructed by the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company in 1943. They sailed from Boston to England, then made the return trip to the U.S. – leaving Newport, England, on Jan. 29, 1944, and arriving in New York on Feb. 17. He took a week of shore leave from Feb. 19-25, then went right back on the Ephraim Brevard for more trips across the Atlantic.
According to Ralph’s obituary in the Portland Press Herald, “He used to tell of standing on the bow of merchant ships during the war watching torpedoes narrowly miss the ship.” He was on the Ephraim Brevard when it took part in the Normandy invasion in June, 1944.
Not only was he in constant danger of a U-boat attack while sailing about the Ephraim Brevard, but being in England was a danger, as well. For example, one of his ports of call was Southampton, a huge target city for the Germans. Located on the southern coast, Southampton endured 57 bombing attacks during the war. It is estimated that more than 30,000 incendiary devices were dropped on the city.
The Liberty ship SS Ephraim Brevard. From December, 1943, to January, 1945, Ralph Tobiassen worked in the boiler room of the Ephraim Brevard, in convoys across the Atlantic Ocean and also at the Normandy invasion. Courtesy photo/US Maritime Administration
Ralph was finally discharged from service on the Ephraim Brevard on Jan. 8, 1945. In July, 1945, with the war in Europe ended, Ralph signed on with the Liberty ship SS Theodoric Bland in New York City, which had been consigned to United Fruit Company with a cargo to be delivered to the port of Texas City, Texas. He was back in New York City in January, 1946, when he signed on as a crew member of the SS Wolverine on a round trip to Ghent, Belgium, for States Marine Corporation.
Early in his career, Ralph would sail around the world. In 1947 and 1948, he worked for the American Pacific Steamship Company of California, serving on its vessels, the SS Yamhill, the SS Arickaree, and the SS Ampac California. In 1949, he worked for the North American Shipping and Trading Co. of New York, sailing on the SS Jeanny between Venezuela and New York in March and April, then to Aruba and to Cartagena, Colombia, in May.
Starting in the 1950s, he worked closer to home when he began working for Moran Towing & Transportation Co. of New York. A lot of the work consisted of moving liquid fuels. He would work on barges moving through the New York State Barge Canal, on the Great Lakes, the St. Lawrence Seaway, and in New York Harbor and Long Island Sound.
The Victory Medal and Bar earned by Ralph Tobiassen for his service aboard the Liberty ship SS Ephraim Brevard during World War II. He also received the Atlantic War Zone Bar and the Merchant Marine Combat Bar, awarded for active service on a ship which was engaged in direct enemy action. South Portland Historical Society photo
A story in the Buffalo Evening News Magazine in 1967 documented a trip of the tugboat Margot Moran that was pushing a barge through the Erie Canal. Ralph Tobiassen was the captain of the 229-foot barge that was carrying “2440 tons of caustic soda from the Hooker Chemical Co., Niagara Falls, to Weehawken, N.J.”
In spite of his career at sea, Ralph Tobiassen did marry and have a family. In 1959, he married Rita Dunn of Rochester, New York (Rochester is a port city on Lake Ontario). They made their home in Portland where they raised two sons, Thomas and Randy, spending summers at their camp on Thomas Pond in Raymond. Ralph was able to make it work as he’d be away for a few weeks working, then be home for a week or two between jobs.
Ralph Tobiassen died in 1993 at the age of 72. He is buried with his wife Rita at Evergreen Cemetery in Portland.
UPCOMING LECTURE: South Portland Historical Society will hold an illustrated lecture on Saturday, March 23, at 1 p.m. The event will be held in the Casco Bay Room of the South Portland Community Center. The lecture is free for current historical society members, or $20 for non-members. Annual family memberships are $25. Please arrive early if you wish to join at the door. Our speaker series is brought to you with the financial support of Bristol Seafoods. South Portland Historical Society can be reached by phone at 207-767-7299, or by email at sphistory04106@gmail.com.
Merchant seaman, Ralph Tobiassen. South Portland Historical Society photo
Tobiassen served on the crew of the Liberty ship SS Theodoric Bland on its first post-war voyage in 1945. The ship had been consigned to carry fruit from New York to Texas. South Portland Historic Society photo
Kathryn Onos DiPhilippo is executive director of the South Portland Historical Society. She can be reached at sphistory04106@gmail.com.
Copy the Story LinkComments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
