Post-war
On 28 June 1946, was transferred to the custody of the Maritime Commission. Later sold by that agency, she was placed in service as SS Gulfoil by the Gulf Oil Corporation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Gulfoil hauled oil until 7 August 1958, when the ship collided with the gasoline tanker S. E. Graham near Newport, Rhode Island. The Graham sank and most of Gulfoil's crew died but the heavily damaged Gulfoil was taken to Baltimore.
The ship was rebuilt as a straight deck bulk carrier and lengthened from 500-feet to 730-feet, the maximum size for the new Saint Lawrence Seaway, reentering service in 1961. She was sold to Pioneer Steamship Co., and renamed SS Pioneer Challenge. She was again resold in 1962 to the Oglebay Norton Corporation, renamed SS Middletown. In 1982, she was converted to a self-unloader at Bay Shipbuilding Company in Sturgeon Bay. In 1986, off Wisconsin, Middletown suffered an explosion in its boiler room caused by methane offgassing from its coal cargo. Several crewmmembers are injured.
She was sold in 2006, to Liberty Steamship Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of American Steamship, and renamed SS American Victory. She was still operational on the Great Lakes as of 2008, but has been in long-term lay-up since.
Read more about this topic: USS Neshanic (AO-71)
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