SS EDWARD P. COSTIGAN [Unfortunately I do not have a picture of the SS Edward P. Costigan....if any reader of this document has a picture and/or data on this vessel and would wish to share....please feel free to contact the author]

The person ‘behind the name’ of this particular Liberty ship happens to be most interesting to the state of Colorado. Mr. Costigan obtained his education in law from Harvard University in 1899. After graduation he moved to Denver, Colorado to practice law. A few years went by and he got interested, and became a member of the Progressive Party. This all led Edward to run for governor, but unfortunately he lost that election. Well one thing led to another after his losing this election and he was eyeballed by President Woodrow Wilson to become a member of the United States Tariff Commission in 1917, and this led to Edward being elected to the US Senate as a Democrat in 1930. Edward & another Senator by the name of Wagner Edward Prentiss Costigan (July 1, sponsored a federal anti-lynching law in 1934. Now this 1874 - January 17, 1939) was a pretty big deal at the time. Many Senate leaders really pushed for President Franklin D Roosevelt to support this ‘Costigan-Wagner’ Bill. One of the provisions of the bill that made the President concerned was punishment of sheriffs who failed to protect their prisoners from lynch mobs. Roosevelt at the time was scared to death that he would lose support of the white voters in the South by approving this bill, which could cause him to loose the 1936 election. The bill was defeated but in the discussion of the bill, brought attention to the crime of lynching....so eventually this caused a great deal of reform. -------------------------------------he SS Edward P. Costigan was a Liberty ship type freighter. The Costigan’s keel was laid on December 23rd, 1942 at the Permanente Metals Corporation, Yard No. 2. She was launched on January 28, 1943, and then delivered to her operator: American President Lines Ltd. on February 11th, 1943. The Edward P. Costigan [Master: Robert Sweetser] had sailed from Algiers, Algeria with 2,000 tons of general cargo to Bizerte, Tunisia. When the Costigan got to Bizerte she anchored in the bay.

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While at anchor on the evening of September 16th 1943 the Edward P. Costigan was attack around 2000 along with other vessels in the harbor. One near miss struck fifteen feet off the starboard side at the #4 hatch. The concussion from a near miss, even if it does not actually hit a vessel can be extremely damaging, and in this case it broke the Costigan’s shaft bearings, as well as damaging the auxiliary condenser and some electrical gear.. The bomb also sprung some of the hull plates, and the ship’s bilge tanks were leaking at the rate of five inches of water per hour. Luckily the 8 officers, 34 men, 28 US Navy Armed Guard, and 333 passengers on board did not abandon the ship, nor was anyone injured during the attack. [Author’s Note: If the reader would like to get a listing of all the convoy’s the SS Edward P. Costigan was involved in, along with departure, arrival, and size of convoys you can do so by clicking on this link: http://www.convoyweb.org.uk/ports/search.php?vessel=edward%20costigan The SS Edward P. Costigan accomplished all that was expected of her during the war years. She entered the Astoria Reserve Fleet on December 3rd, 1946 and was withdrawn from that location on February 11th, 1959. She was scrapped at Portland, Oregon in August of that very same year. -----------------------------------------Author: Bud Shortridge Sources:

U.S. Merchant Vessel War Casualties of WW II By: Robert M. Browning The Liberty Ships By: Capt. Walter W. Jaffee ----------------------------------------------I welcome any and all comments as well as any additional data you may wish to share related to this document or any of my other history documents related to my ship history site BUD’S LIBERTY & MERCHANT SHIP HISTORIES [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]