Liberty ship

Liberty ships are a class of cargo ship built in the United States during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Although British in concept, the design was adopted by the United States for its simple, low-cost construction. Mass-produced on an unprecedented scale, the Liberty ship came to symbolize U.S. wartime industrial output.

The class was developed to meet British orders for transports to replace ships that had been lost. Eighteen American shipyards built 2,710 Liberty ships between 1941 and 1945 (an average of three ships every two days), easily the largest number of ships ever produced to a single design.

The Liberty ship was effectively superseded by the Victory ship, a somewhat larger, materially faster, more modern-powered vessel of generally similar design. A total of 531 Victory ships were built between 1944 and 1946.

Liberty ship production mirrored (albeit on a much larger scale) the manufacture of "Hog Islander" and similar standardized ship types during World War I. The immensity of the effort, the number of ships built, the role of female workers in their construction, and the survival of some far longer than their original five-year design life combine to make them the subject of much continued interest.

History

Design

right|thumb|upright=1.5|Profile plan of a Liberty ship

[[File:Planlibertyship.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|alt=A colored diagram of compartments on a ship|A colored diagram of compartments on a Liberty ship, from the right side, front to the right

]]

In 1936, the American Merchant Marine Act was passed to subsidize the annual construction of 50 commercial merchant vessels which could be used in wartime by the United States Navy as naval auxiliaries, crewed by U.S. Merchant Mariners. The number was doubled in 1939 and again in 1940 to 200 ships a year. Ship types included two tankers and three types of merchant vessel, all to be powered by steam turbines. Limited industrial capacity, especially for reduction gears, meant that relatively few of these designs of ships were built.

However, in 1940, the British government ordered 60 Ocean-class freighters from American yards to replace war losses and boost the merchant fleet. These were simple but fairly large (for the time) with a single compound steam engine of outdated but reliable design. Britain specified coal-fired plants, because it then had extensive coal mines and no significant domestic oil production.

The predecessor designs, which included the "Northeast Coast, Open Shelter Deck Steamer", were based on a simple ship originally produced in Sunderland by J.L. Thompson & Sons based on a 1939 design for a simple tramp steamer, which was cheap to build and cheap to run (see Silver Line). Examples include SS Dorington Court built in 1939. The order specified an increase in draft to boost displacement by to . The accommodation, bridge, and main engine were located amidships, with a tunnel connecting the main engine shaft to the propeller via a long aft extension. The first Ocean-class ship, SS Ocean Vanguard, was launched on 16 August 1941.

thumb|upright|140-ton [[compound steam engine#Multiple-expansion engines|vertical triple expansion steam engine of the type used to power World War II Liberty ships, assembled for testing before delivery]]

The design was modified by the United States Maritime Commission, in part to increase conformity to American construction practices, but more importantly to make it even quicker and cheaper to build. The US version was designated 'EC2-S-C1': 'EC' for Emergency Cargo, '2' for a ship between long (Load Waterline Length), 'S' for steam engines, and 'C1' for design C1. The new design replaced much riveting, which accounted for one-third of the labor costs, with welding, and had oil-fired boilers. It was adopted as a Merchant Marine Act design, and production awarded to a conglomerate of West Coast engineering and construction companies headed by Henry J. Kaiser known as the Six Companies. Liberty ships were designed to carry of cargo, usually one type per ship, but, during wartime, generally carried loads far exceeding this.

On 27 March 1941, the number of lend-lease ships was increased to 200 by the Defense Aid Supplemental Appropriations Act and increased again in April to 306, of which 117 would be Liberty ships.

Variants

The basic EC2-S-C1 cargo design was modified during construction into three major variants with the same basic dimensions and slight variance in tonnage. One variant, with basically the same features but different type numbers, had four rather than five holds served by large hatches and kingpost with large capacity booms. Those four hold ships were designated for transport of tanks and boxed aircraft.

In the detailed Federal Register publication of the post war prices of Maritime Commission types the Liberty variants are noted as:

The modifications into troop transports also were not given special type designations.

Propulsion

thumb|Engine room (model cutaway)

By 1941, the steam turbine was the preferred marine steam engine because of its greater efficiency compared to earlier reciprocating compound steam engines. Steam turbine engines however, required very precise manufacturing techniques to machine their complicated double helical reduction gears, and the companies capable of producing them were already committed to the large construction program for warships. Therefore, a vertical triple expansion steam engine, of obsolete design, was selected to power Liberty ships because it was cheaper and easier to build in the numbers required for the Liberty ship program, and because more companies could manufacture it. Eighteen different companies eventually built the engine. It had the additional advantage of ruggedness, simplicity and familiarity to seamen. Parts manufactured by one company were interchangeable with those made by another, and the openness of its design made most of its moving parts easy to see, access, and oil. The engine— long and tall—was designed to operate at 76 rpm and propel a Liberty ship at about .

Construction

The ships were constructed of sections that were welded together. This is similar to the technique used by Palmer's at Jarrow, northeast England, but substituted welding for riveting. Riveted ships took several months to construct. The work force was newly trained as the yards responsible had not previously built welded ships. As America entered the war, the shipbuilding yards employed women, to replace men who were enlisting in the armed forces.

File:Liberty ship construction 03 keel plates.jpg|Day 2 : Laying of the keel plates

File:Liberty ship construction 07 bulkheads.jpg|Day 6 : Bulkheads and girders below the second deck are in place.

File:Liberty ship construction 09 lower decks.jpg|Day 10 : Lower deck being completed and the upper deck amidship erected

File:Liberty ship construction 10 upper decks.jpg|Day 14 : Upper deck erected and mast houses and the after-deck house in place

File:Liberty ship construction 11 prepared for launch.jpg|Day 24 : Ship ready for launching

</gallery>

thumb|right|Launch of [[SS Patrick Henry|SS Patrick Henry, the first Liberty ship, on 27 September 1941]]

The ships initially had a poor public image owing to their appearance. In a speech announcing the emergency shipbuilding program President Franklin D. Roosevelt had referred to the ship as "a dreadful looking object", and Time called it an "Ugly Duckling". 27 September 1941 was dubbed Liberty Fleet Day to try to assuage public opinion, since the first 14 "Emergency" vessels were launched that day. The first of these was , launched by President Roosevelt. In remarks at the launch ceremony FDR cited Patrick Henry's 1775 speech that finished "Give me liberty or give me death!". Roosevelt said that this new class of ship would bring liberty to Europe, which gave rise to the name Liberty ship.

The first ships required about 230 days to build (Patrick Henry took 244 days), but the median production time per ship dropped to 39 days by 1943. The record was set by , which was launched 4 days and 15 hours after the keel had been laid, although this publicity stunt was not repeated: in fact much fitting-out and other work remained to be done after the Peary was launched. The ships were made assembly-line style, from prefabricated sections. In 1943 three Liberty ships were completed daily. They were usually named after famous Americans, starting with the signatories of the Declaration of Independence. Newsreel footage of the launching of the ship named for American author Jack London can be seen in the film Jack London. Seventeen of the Liberty ships were named in honor of outstanding African-Americans. The first, in honor of Booker T. Washington, was christened by Marian Anderson in 1942, and the , recognizing the only woman on the list, was christened on 3 June 1944.

Any group that raised war bonds worth $2 million could propose a name. Most bore the names of deceased people. The only living namesake was Francis J. O'Gara, the purser of , who was thought to have been killed in a submarine attack, but in fact survived the war in a Japanese prisoner of war camp; see USS Outpost. Not named after people were: , named after the USO club in New York; and , named after the United Service Organizations (USO).

Another notable Liberty ship was , which sank the German commerce raider in a ship-to-ship gun battle in 1942 and became the first American ship to sink a German surface combatant.

thumb|right|Eastine Cowner, a former waitress, at work on the Liberty ship at the Kaiser shipyards, Richmond, California, in 1943. One of a series taken by [[E. F. Joseph on behalf of the Office of War Information, documenting the work of African-Americans in the war effort]]

The wreck of lies off the coast of Kent with of explosives still on board, enough to match a very small yield nuclear weapon should they ever go off. detonated with the energy of in July 1944 as it was being loaded, killing 320 sailors and civilians in what was called the Port Chicago disaster. Another Liberty ship that exploded was the rechristened , which caused the Texas City Disaster on 16 April 1947, killing at least 581 people.

Six Liberty ships were converted at Point Clear, Alabama, by the United States Army Air Force, into floating aircraft repair depots, operated by the Army Transport Service, starting in April 1944. The secret project, dubbed "Project Ivory Soap", provided mobile depot support for B-29 Superfortress bombers and P-51 Mustang fighters based on Guam, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa beginning in December 1944. The six ARU(F)s (Aircraft Repair Unit, Floating), however, were also fitted with landing platforms to accommodate four Sikorsky R-4 helicopters, where they provided medical evacuation of combat casualties in both the Philippine Islands and Okinawa.

The last new-build Liberty ship constructed was , launched on 26 September 1945 and delivered on 30 October 1945. She was named after the chief engineer of a United States Army freighter who had stayed below decks to shut down his engines after a 13 April 1945 explosion, an act that won him a posthumous Merchant Marine Distinguished Service Medal. In 1950, a "new" Liberty ship was constructed by Industriale Maritime SpA, Genoa, Italy by using the bow section of and the stern section of , both of which had been wrecked. The new ship was named , and served until scrapped in 1962.

Several designs of mass-produced petroleum tanker were also produced, the most numerous being the T2 tanker series, with about 490 built between 1942 and the end of 1945.

===Problems===

thumb|upright|

Hull cracks

right|thumb|The split apart by [[brittle fracture while in harbor, 1943. It was a 152-meter-long T2 tanker.]]

Early Liberty ships suffered hull and deck cracks, and a few were lost due to such structural defects. During World War II there were nearly 1,500 instances of significant brittle fractures. Twelve ships, including three of the 2,710 Liberty ships built, broke in half without warning, including , which sank on 24 November 1943 with the loss of 10 lives. Suspicion fell on the shipyards, which had often used inexperienced workers and new welding techniques to produce large numbers of ships in great haste.

The Ministry of War Transport borrowed the British-built for testing purposes. Constance Tipper of Cambridge University demonstrated that the fractures did not start in the welds, but were due to the embrittlement of the steel used. When used in riveted construction, however, the same steel did not have this problem. Tipper discovered that at a certain temperature, the steel the ships were made of changed from being ductile to brittle, allowing cracks to form and propagate. This temperature is known as the critical ductile-brittle transition temperature. Ships in the North Atlantic were exposed to temperatures that could fall below this critical point. The predominantly welded hull construction, effectively a continuous sheet of steel, allowed small cracks to propagate unimpeded, unlike in a hull made of separate plates riveted together. One common type of crack nucleated at the square corner of a hatch which coincided with a welded seam, both the corner and the weld acting as stress concentrators. Furthermore, the ships were frequently grossly overloaded, greatly increasing stress, and some of the structural problems occurred during or after severe storms that would have further increased stress. Minor revisions to the hatches and various reinforcements were applied to the Liberty ships to arrest the cracking problem. These are some of the first structural tests that gave birth to the study of materials. The successor Victory ships used the same steel, also welded rather than riveted, but spacing between frames was widened from to , making the ships less stiff and more able to flex.

Consequences and results

The sinking of the Liberty ships led to a new way of thinking about ship design and manufacturing. Modern ships avoid the use of rectangular corners to avoid stress concentration. New types of steel were developed that have higher fracture toughness, especially at lower temperatures. In addition, more talented and educated welders can produce welds without, or at least with fewer, flaws. While the context and time in which Liberty ships were constructed resulted in many failures, the lessons learned led to new innovations that allow for more efficient and safer shipbuilding today.

Service

Use as troopships

thumb|Aerial photograph of the Liberty ship outbound from the United States carrying a large deck cargo after her conversion to a "Limited Capacity [[Troopship". It probably was taken in the summer of 1943 during her second voyage.]]

In September 1943 strategic plans and shortage of more suitable hulls required that Liberty ships be pressed into emergency use as troop transports with about 225 eventually converted for this purpose. The first general conversions were hastily undertaken by the War Shipping Administration (WSA) so that the ships could join convoys on the way to North Africa for Operation Torch. Others in the Southwest Pacific were turned into makeshift troop transports for New Guinea operations by installing field kitchens on deck, latrines aft between #4 and #5 hatches flushed by hoses attached to fire hydrants and about 900 troops sleeping on deck or in 'tween deck spaces. While most of the Liberty ships converted were intended to carry no more than 550 troops, thirty-three were converted to transport 1,600 on shorter voyages from mainland U.S. ports to Alaska, Hawaii and the Caribbean.

The problem of hull cracks caused concern with the United States Coast Guard, which recommended that Liberty ships be withdrawn from troop carrying in February 1944 although military commitments required their continued use. The following year from 22 to 30 January 1944, Lawton B. Evans was involved in the Battle of Anzio in Italy. It was under repeated bombardment from shore batteries and aircraft for eight days. It endured a prolonged barrage of shelling, machine-gun fire and bombs. The ship shot down five German planes.

After the war

More than 2,400 Liberty ships survived the war. Of these, 835 made up the postwar cargo fleet. Greek entrepreneurs bought 526 ships and Italians bought 98. Shipping magnates including John Fredriksen, John Theodoracopoulos, Aristotle Onassis, Stavros Niarchos,

thumb|Propeller of the Liberty ship Quartette which ran aground in 1952 on the [[Pearl and Hermes Atoll in the Pacific Ocean]]

On 21 December 1952, the SS Quartette, a Liberty ship of 7,198 gross register tons, struck the eastern reef of the Pearl and Hermes Atoll at a speed of . The ship was driven further onto the reef by rough waves and winds, which collapsed the forward bow and damaged two forward holds. The crew was evacuated by the SS Frontenac Victory the following day. The salvage tug Ono arrived on 25 December to attempt to tow the ship clear, but persistent stormy weather forced a delay of the rescue attempt. On 3 January, before another rescue attempt could be made, the ship's anchors tore loose and the Quartette was blown onto the reef, and deemed a total loss. Several weeks later, it snapped in half at the keel and the two pieces sank. The wreck site now serves as an artificial reef which provides a habitat for many fish species.

In 1953, the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC), began storing surplus grain in Liberty ships located in the Hudson River, James River, Olympia, and Astoria National Defense Reserve Fleets. In 1955, 22 ships in the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet were withdrawn to be loaded with grain and were then transferred to the Olympia Fleet. In 1956, four ships were withdrawn from the Wilmington Fleet and transferred, loaded with grain, to the Hudson River Fleet.

From 1955 to 1959, 16 former Liberty ships were repurchased by the U.S. Navy and converted to the s for the Atlantic and Pacific Barrier.

In the 1960s, three Liberty ships and two Victory ships were reactivated and converted to technical research ships with the hull classification symbol AGTR (auxiliary, technical research) and used to gather electronic intelligence and for radar picket duties by the United States Navy. The Liberty ships SS Samuel R. Aitken became , SS Robert W. Hart became , SS J. Howland Gardner became with the Victory ships being which became and becoming . All of these ships were decommissioned and struck from the Naval Vessel Register in 1969 and 1970.

thumb|Liberty ships mothballed at Tongue Point, Astoria, Oregon, 1965

thumb|Liberty Ships mothballed at Tongue Point, Astoria, Oregon, 1965

thumb|[[SS Edward Eggleston|Novorossiysk, delivered 1943 to USSR, sailed until 1974]]

From 1946 to 1963, the Pacific Ready Reserve Fleet – Columbia River Group, retained as many as 500 Liberty ships.

In 1946, Liberty ships were mothballed in the Hudson River Reserve Fleet near Tarrytown, New York. At its peak in 1965, 189 hulls were stored there. The last two were sold for scrap to Spain in 1971 and the reserve permanently shut down.

thumb|right|[[SS Arthur M. Huddell|SS Hellas Liberty (ex-SS Arthur M. Huddell), June 2010]]

Only two operational Liberty ships, and , remain. John W. Brown has had a long career as a school ship and many internal modifications, while Jeremiah O'Brien remains largely in her original condition. Both are museum ships that still put out to sea regularly. In 1994, Jeremiah O'Brien steamed from San Francisco to England and France for the 50th anniversary of D-Day, the only large ship from the original Operation Overlord fleet to participate in the anniversary. In 2008, , a ship converted in 1944 into a pipe transport to support Operation Pluto, was transferred to Greece and converted to a floating museum dedicated to the history of the Greek merchant marine; although missing major components were restored this ship is no longer operational.

Liberty ships continue to serve in a "less than whole" function many decades after their launching. In Portland, Oregon, the hulls of Richard Henry Dana and Jane Addams serve as the basis of floating docks. survives as the Star of Kodiak, a landlocked cannery, in Kodiak Harbor at .

was converted into MH-1A (otherwise known as USS Sturgis). MH-1A was a floating nuclear power plant and the first ever built. MH-1A was used to generate electricity at the Panama Canal Zone from 1968 to 1975. She was also used as a fresh water generating plant. She was anchored in the James River Reserve Fleet. The ship was dismantled in 2019 in Brownsville, Texas.

Fifty-eight Liberty ships were lengthened by starting in 1958, giving them additional carrying capacity at a small additional cost. SS Benjamin Chew had its existing condensers modified and a new superheater and geared turbine installed to give the ship 6,000 shp, up from 2,500. SS Thomas Nelson had its bow lengthened, diesel engines installed in place of the original steam engine, and movable cranes outfitted in place of the original cargo handling gear. The GTS (Gas Turbine Ship) John Sergeant had its bow extended, and its steam engine replaced with a General Electric gas turbine of 6,600 shp, connected to a reversible pitch propeller via reduction gearing. John Sergeant was considered overall to be a success, but problems with the reversible pitch propeller ended its trial after three years. GTS William Patterson had its bow extended and its steam engine replaced with 6 General Electric GE-14 free-piston gas generators, connected to two reversible turbines and capable of 6,000 shp total. William Patterson was considered to be a failure as reliability was poor and the scalability of the design was poor. All four vessels were fueled with Bunker C fuel oil, though John Sergeant required a quality of fuel available at limited ports and also required further treatment to reduce contaminants. Three were scrapped in 1971 or 1972 and the diesel-equipped Thomas Nelson was scrapped in 1981.

In 2011, the United States Postal Service issued a postage stamp featuring the Liberty ship as part of a set on the U.S. Merchant Marine.

Shipyards

Liberty ships were built at eighteen shipyards located along the U.S. Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf coasts:

Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding, Mobile, Alabama
Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard, Baltimore, Maryland
California Shipbuilding Corp., Los Angeles, California
Delta Shipbuilding Corp., New Orleans, Louisiana
J.A. Jones Construction Company
Panama City, Florida
Brunswick, Georgia
Kaiser Company, Vancouver, Washington
Marinship, Sausalito, California
New England Shipbuilding Corporation, South Portland, Maine The East and West Yards were both on the same of shipyard. However, the two yards commenced operations under different titles and until early 1942 were separated by rigid legal conditions.
East Yard
West Yard
North Carolina Shipbuilding Company, Wilmington, North Carolina
Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation, Portland, Oregon
Permanente Metals Corporation, Richmond, California (a Kaiser facility)
Kaiser Richmond No. 1 Yard
Kaiser Richmond No. 2 Yard
St. Johns River Shipbuilding, Jacksonville, Florida
Southeastern Shipbuilding Corporation, Savannah, Georgia

Survivors

thumb|Riveters from H. Hansen Industries work on the Liberty ship John W. Brown at Colonna's Shipyard, a ship repair facility located in the Port of [[Norfolk, Virginia, December 2014]]

There are four surviving Liberty ships.

operational and in use as a museum ship in Baltimore Harbor, Maryland
operational and in use as a museum ship, docked at Pier 35, San Francisco, California
transferred to Greece in 2008 and renamed Hellas Liberty. Restored for use as a maritime museum in Piraeus harbor, Greece.
The last Liberty ship built, sold to private ownership in 1964 and renamed Star of Kodiak. Used as a fish cannery ship. She is currently landlocked but remains the headquarters of Trident Seafoods in Kodiak, Alaska.

Ships in class

World War II

EC2-S-AW1 Collier, for coal transport, 24 built by Delta SB.
EC2-S-C1 dry cargo ships for Merchant Navy
Converted to troopships 220 ships
Converted to ammunition ships
One ship, SS Joseph Holt, had engineering spaces converted to unmanned operation and was used with a reduced Navy crew as a temporary minesweeper in 1945 and 1946.
EC2-S-C1 converted for US Navy use
Acubens-class general stores issue ships (AKS) 11 cargo ships
Basilan-class Internal Combustion repair ships (ARG), 2 ships
Belle Isle-class General Stores Issue Ships (AKS), 6 ships
Crater-class cargo ship (AK) 65 ships
Two Crater-class were converted to Aviation Stores Issue Ships (AVS)
Chourre-class aircraft repair ships (ARV) 2 ships (1944–1945)
Indus-class net cargo ships (AKN), 4 built for support of Net laying ships. (1943–1946)
Luzon-class Internal Combustion repair ships (ARG) 12 conversions
Xanthus-class repair ship (AR) 5 ships (1944–1946)
Five converted to unclassified miscellaneous (IX) dry bulk storage ships for Service Squadron use
EC2-S-C1 converted for US Coast Guard use
American Mariner-class ship, US Coast Guard training (1943–1950)
EC2-S-C1 converted for US Army use
Operation Ivory Soap six conversions to US Army Air Force aircraft repair and maintenance ships in 1944
Z-ET1-S-C3 converted for US Navy use
Armadillo-class tankers (IX) 18 ships for Service Squadrons for bulk storage of fuel oil, or diesel or gasoline, Merchant Navy and US Navy crews
Stag-class water distillation ships (IX, later AW), 2 ships for Service Squadrons
Z-EC2-S-C2, eight Tank carriers, with larger hatches and a 30 tons crane. Built by J.A.Jones Construction in 1943 for Merchant Navy
Z-EC2-S-C5 ships for Merchant Navy
Boxed aircraft transport with large larger hatches and 30 tons crane, 28 built by J.A.Jones Construction
Four converted to EC2-S-22a standard to become remote control minesweepers (YAG)
Z-EC2-S-C5 ships for US Navy
Guardian-class radar picket ships (YAGR / AGR) 16 converted in 1955
Oxford-class technical research ships (AGTR), 3 Sigint ships converted in 1961–1963
US Army conversion
MH-1A first floating nuclear power plant (1967–1976), nicknamed USS Sturgis
EC2-S-8a converted to a high-speed cargo ship in 1956
EC2-M-8b, converted to a high-speed cargo ship in 1956
Jumbo Liberty ship, in the 1950s some Liberty ships were lengthened in Japan. The SS Henry M. Stephens became the SS Andros Fairplay.
LNG, Liquid Natural Gas Carrier conversion by Howaldtswerke Deutsche Werft AG at Kiel, Germany. Example to SS Ultragaz São Paulo in 1952, scrapped in 1972.
converted to a pipe carrier in 1944, then cable carrier for AT&T in 1956, then and a museum ship in Greece in 2008.
Floating dock conversions: in 1968 and S Jane Addams in 1947.

Notes

References

Footnotes

Sources

<small> Total pages: 280 </small>

External links

youtube How A Cargo Ship Helped Win WW2: The Liberty Ship Story
SS Jeremiah O'Brien, Liberty museum ship moored at Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco, California
Liberty Ships built by the United States Maritime Commission in World War II
Liberty Ships and Victory Ships, America's Lifeline in War A lesson on Liberty ships and Victory ships from the National Park Service's Teaching with Historic Places.
Ships for Victory: J.A. Jones Construction Company and Liberty Ships in Brunswick, Georgia Eighty-four black-and-white photographs from the J.A. Jones Construction Company collection at the Brunswick-Glynn County Library that depict the company's World War II cargo ship building activities in its Brunswick, Georgia shipyard from 1943 to 1945.
Project Liberty Ship – The Shipyards.
Summary of Constance Tipper's workcontains remarkable photo of fractured Liberty ship still afloat.
Danger presented by the wreck of liberty ship .
Shipbuilding under the United States Maritime Commission, 1936 to 1950
Liberty Ships and World War II – A Role Model
The Last Liberty Ship: Kaiser (video)
Brunswick's "Liberty Ships" historical marker