WRECK: LIBERTY SHIP GEORGE WALTON~~ 1950

 GEORGE WALTON

243051
Liberty Ship hull #0344
7,176 G.t. 4,380 N.t.
Built 1943, Savannah, Georgia. 422.8' x 57' x 34.8'
Lost to fire off WA. coast.
Died: 1 by explosion and 5 by drowning, according to McCurdy's.
Another source claims more died.
Capt. Alfred Bentsen

Liberty Ship GEORGE WALTON
Lost en route to India loaded
with a cargo of wheat.
Acme Wire Photo to US Coast Guard.
From the archives of the S.P.H.S.©

"The steamship GEORGE WALTON was swept by fire 390 miles off the WA coast on 6 Nov. 1950 as a result of a boiler explosion which killed Second Engineer Gus Larsen. Capt. Bentsen and the crew launched boats in heavy seas that capsized one of the boats. Five more members of the crew were drowned as a result of this accident. The Greek freighter KATHERINE picked up 12 survivors, the Japanese freighter KENKON MARU rescued 12 and the Coast Guard cutter WACHUSETT, six. The injured seamen were flown to Seattle hospitals, the remainder being landed at Port Angeles. The GEORGE WALTON, a Liberty ship, had departed Portland with 9,000 tons of grain for India. It was first assumed that the burned-out vessel would sink, but she maintained an even keel and, almost two weeks later, was towed to Puget Sound by the tug Barbara Foss. She was later scrapped."
Above quote from The H.W. McCurdy's Marine History of the P.N.W. Newell, Gordon, editor.