Haley Gagliano
Catalog Number: 1982.045.01
This christening bottle is from the S.S. La Crosse, a victory ship named after the city, which was christened 75 years ago on December 22, 1944. Christening is an age-old good luck tradition of breaking a champagne bottle over the bow of a new boat.
The S.S. La Crosse Victory was built in The Bethlehem-Fairfield Yard, a mass-production yard for Victory and cargo ships that was founded in 1941. Victory ships were created to transport war cargo quickly.
A La Crosse Gold Star mother, Nellie Mae Cilley, launched the ship into the waters of the Patapsco River as she cracked the champagne bottle across the bow of the big merchant vessel. The broken bottle keeps its shape inside of a fabric cover which is tied and sewn shut to keep the pieces together, and to ensure that the broken pieces of glass didn’t end up in the water.
Cilley was chosen by the Navy Mothers Club No. 318 of La Crosse to christen the ship because she had lost two sons in the war and her third son was serving in the navy. One of her sons, Machinist Mate First Class La Verne D. Cilley, was lost on October 20, 1943 on his first voyage aboard a submarine in the south Pacific. Another, Sergeant Halsie E. Cilley, died on September 14 of injuries suffered while on duty at the Barton, Florida army air base. Her third son, Seaman First Class Paul E. Cilley, was taking advanced naval radio training in Chicago.
After the end of the war, the S.S. La Crosse Victory was used to bring soldiers home as were many other Victory ships. In 1947, the ship entered private ownership, was wrecked and repaired in 1961 and was eventually scrapped in 1969.
This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on December 21, 2019.
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