Mrs. Arilee Cox christens the SS William Cox, a Liberty Ship named in her late husband’s honor. J.A. Jones Shipyard, Brunswick, Georgia. December 1944.
Eighty-one years ago on a brisk December day, a fashionable young Savannah widow stood before a crowd at the J. A. Jones Shipyard in Brunswick.
Mrs. William “Arilee” Cox—in stole, lace hat, with leather gloves in hand—lifted a bottle to christen a Liberty Ship bearing her late husband’s name: The SS William Cox
The SS William Cox was the first Liberty Ship built in Brunswick to honor an African American serviceman, and one of only seventeen Liberty Ships nationwide to carry the name of a Black honoree.
William “Willie” Cox was born in Cairo, Georgia in 1898 and spent more than 25 years in maritime work, beginning as a coal passer on the Merchant Miner Steamship line.
Mr. William Cox Obituary, The Afro-American, Baltimore, Maryland, January 13, 1945
At the dawn of World War II, Cox joined the Merchant Marines and survived two ship sinkings before he became a fireman aboard the SS David H. Atwater. The ship was sunk by a German U-boat off the coast of Virginia in April '42. Cox was killed in the attack.
The U.S. Maritime Commission selected Willie’s name for a Liberty Ship two years later, an important milestone as the first Liberty Ship built in Brunswick to honor an African American serviceman. The J.A. Jones Shipyard would turn out ninety-nine cargo ships before the war ended.
With an unusual show of that solidarity, construction of the S.S. William Cox brought out a multitude of well-wishers that winter.
On Christmas Day 1944, black and white shipyard workers volunteered to work without pay to finish the vessel ahead of schedule as a gift “for the boys overseas.”
For a wartime coastal city operating under segregation, the moment stood out then and still does today.
