The USNS General Harry Taylor
The USS General Harry Taylor was built in 1943 by Kaiser Co. Inc in Richmond, California. She was named for the US Army Chief of Engineers Harry Taylor.
Like the Langfitt, she was originally a troop transport during the war. When the war was over, the Navy decommissioned her. But on March 1, 1950, the Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS) reactivated her to help transport refugees and troops from Europe, back to the Americas or elsewhere in the world.
In 1957, she carried thousands of Hungarian refugees to Australia during the Hungarian Revolution for a year, then was deactivated once again in 1958. In 1961 she was transferred to the US Air Force and renamed the USAFS General Hoyt S. Vandenberg. In 1964, the Navy acquired her and she was designated T-AGM-10, as a Missile Range Instrumentation Ship, carrying out duties in both Atlantic and Pacific waters until 1993, when she was stricken from the Naval register.
In 1998, the movie “Virus” shot some scenes aboard the ex-General Hoyt S. Vandenberg. The ship was supposed to be a Russian vessel known as the Akademik Vladislav Volkov.
On Wednesday, May 27, 2009, she was sunk off the coast of Florida, in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, used as an artificial reef. You can still see some of the Cyrillic lettering painted on the hull from the movie filming to this day.
The USS General Harry Taylor carried Janis Akerfelds and his family, minus his eldest two sons, to Berthoud, Colorado, USA on August 12, 1950 from Bremerhaven, Germany.
a diver explores the sunken General Hoyt Vandenburg
My name is Audris Zidermanis. I was born in Riga, Latvia. After WWII, I spent approximately seven years in D.P camps in Germany. I also came to the U.S. via USNS General Harry Taylor in 1950. Can you give me the name of your port of entry? Mine was New Orleans. We may have been on the ship at the same time.
Hi Audris!
My family’s port of arrival was New York. It looks like the Harry Taylor made at least 4 trips to New York with Latvian refugees in 1950, landing on 20 Apr, 23 Aug, 23 Oct and 28 Dec. My family was on the 23 Aug trip. Do you know the date of your arrival?
What DP camps were you in?