Missed this a week ago; Sept. 27, 1941: First Liberty Ship Launched, More to Follow | This Day In Tech | Wired.com [h=1]Sept. 27, 1941: First Liberty Ship Launched, More to Follow[/h]1941: SS Patrick Henry, the first Liberty ship, is launched at the Bethlehem-Fairfield shipyard near Baltimore. Originally referred to as “emergency vessels,” these cargo ships were among the first to be mass-produced. Numbers were critical as the Allies hustled to recover from the staggering losses wrought by German submarines during the Battle of the Atlantic. The vessels became known as Liberty ships after President Franklin D. Roosevelt, christening the Patrick Henry, quoted the ship’s namesake: “Give me liberty, or give me death.” Liberty ships represented the assembly line fully realized. The keel was laid in traditional fashion but the ship was then constructed from prefabricated sections welded together in the graving dock. Although it took 244 days to build the Patrick Henry, the average dropped to a mere 42 days per ship by the middle of the war. One Liberty, the SS Robert E. Peary, was built in an astounding four days at the Kaiser shipyard in Richmond, California. This was largely a publicity and morale stunt, however, and the feat was not repeated. Although the Patrick Henry slid down the ways nearly 10 weeks before the United States came fully into the war, the U.S. Navy was already engaged, helping to escort merchant convoys through the U-boat–infested waters of the North Atlantic. Around 2,700 Liberty ships were built during World War II, and many survivors found their way into merchant fleets after the war. Two fully operational Liberty ships remain afloat: SS Jeremiah O’Brien is tied up in San Francisco, and SS John W. Brown is home-ported in Baltimore. The O’Brien has the distinction of being the sole surviving merchant vessel of the vast armada that took part in the Normandy invasion.
Always satisfying sinking a Liberty...Steaming along nonchalantly...Aircraft or tanks strapped to the deck...Up my tonnage! "Dive dive dive!...Take her to periscope depth..." The English may have been the rulers of the waves, but the Americans were the rulers of the dockyard.
You guys ever been ON a Liberty Ship? I have, although it was moored in Dutch Harbor at the time... Ref: http://www.aleutiansriskassessment.com/documents/090109EGAIRA_UniSea_.pdf (see slide 2) I was an Engineer aboard the Viceroy, the "Vita Barge" was the old Liberty Ship. To this day, I still can't stand to smell, let alone eat, crab. ACK!
Just as a note to this.....my dad returned from the Pacific on the U.S.S. Marine Perch, which was the latter part of our troops time in the region. He did complain of a lot of sea sickness on board by most passengers. I later read that to manufacture some of these ships quickly, certain ballast tanks for stable sailing were left out to get them built and in service quickly. The Marine Perch was later used to transport Holocaust victims, several trips recorded in Holocaust stories. They also mentioned a lot of sea sickness in some stories. I also read that all the manifests of most Liberty Ships that would record their war service stories were destroyed because of orders to do so. No reason given for those orders but as a result there is only the accounts of passengers to record most of the service of these vessels. The Marine Perch was eventually renamed the Yellowstone and in a collision was sunk in 1978. Regarding the manifests see the following: http://www.ww2troopships.com/crossings/1946.htm
I toured The John W Brown when it visited Halifax a few years ago, and I recommend that anyone interested in World War II era ships go see her . It is great to see a museum ship like this that is still operational.. Would anyone know if they are visiting eastern Canada anytime in the future ?
