Constructed by the California Shipbuilding Corporation yard on Terminal Island, California, the S.S Victory Wheaton set sail on March 22, 1945. Chosen by the U.S. Maritime Commission, it was one of a series of Victory ships named after America’s oldest educational institutions with student enrollment over 500. As with all ships of it class (officially VC2), the S.S. Victory Wheaton was 455 feet long and 62 feet wide. Her cross-compound steam turbine with double reduction gears developed 6,000 (AP2 type) or 8,500 (AP3s type) horsepower, allowing it great advantage in speed over its predecessor, the Liberty ship. Mrs. Kenneth Godwin, wife of the Executive Office of the Bureau of Yards and Docks of San Francisco, christened the vessel. Wheaton was represented at the ceremony by the Reverend John Shearer, ’39, pastor of North Hollywood Presbyterian Church and Chaplain L.J. Soerhide, U.S.N.R., ’39. A new Victory Ship memorial has been developed in Florida. Wheaton will have a plaque recognizing it along with the other schools for which Victory ships were named.