Liberty Ships

They are rebuilding a ship in Tampa Florida,when i was there about 5 years ago, i didn't go in for the whole tour. but it was originally built by Allis Chalmers, i think it said in 1951, doing it threw donations, that metal in there is all 1 or 1 1/4 thick, sheets of it,Very interesting for this country boy,i was never in the Navy !
 
It is amazing the amount of stuff that got built and out to the various fronts, just amazing.
 
Accoring to Ike, one of the three most important items, along with the proximity fuse and the landing craft, leading to Allied victory.

Also the last hurrah for triple expansion steam.

Mu uncle from Iowa made 13 North Atlantic crossings in one.

Great photos, UD.

Dean
 
Our mom was a Wanda the Welder (liberty ships) in the Savannah, Ga. shipyards.
She only did it for about 6 months, but she sure could weld.
 
I looked it up and the Kaiser built ships had less than 10 percent problems compared to 20 percent problems of other makes of Liberty ships. They also were built in 2/3 the amount of time and at 1/4 the cost of other shipyards (Wikipedia).

That last statement I myself find hard to believe and I don't know how to fact check it. Could he really build a ship for 1/4 the cost of other shipyards? Maybe because they were welded and not riveted.
 
Very interesting , so many ships and so fast! Just think of the support factories to make that happen, just the welding rod alone would be tons. thanks joe
 
I rode the Maurice Rose in 1964. Can't remember the name of the one I rode home on in 1966. I could get 10 railcars delivered to Metz, Le Havre or Paris in 5 days, but couldn't get an airplane ride home!

Bill
 
My Mother and Father were both in ths South Pacific during WWII.

They first met in Leyte Gulf in January 1945.

My Mother spent leave in Australia in 1943.

Dean
 
A seaman my father knew used that name,
not something I invented, just repeating,
shall we discuss pig boats or iron
coffins? Maybe large slow targets?
 
Some amazing pictures.

The welder eating ice has a leather sleeve around his right arm and a knee pad on his elbow. It doesn't say what his job was, but I'll bet it was very uncomfortable.
 
The hydraulic pumps used for steering were made by Northern Pump in NE Minneapolis.
They were a radial piston design and were also used in industry, such as metal stamping presses.
Spare parts orders were still received until about 1970. A few Liberty ships were still being used as cheap freighters in SE Pacific.

My cousins' grandfather was the Captain of the SS_Nathanael_Greene. It got some notice.
USS N. Greene
 
SS_Nathanael_Greene.

She was terrpeeded of Oran, Algeria in 1943 and beached/declared a total loss. Four hundred tons of her cargo were saved. She was sold for scrap in 1946.

It is kind of curious that the morale booster movie "Action in the North Atlantic" (Humphrey Bogart) was made in 1943. I have often wondered if it was loosely based on a single Liberty ship or was an amalgam of Liberty ships in general.

Tovarich
 
(quoted from post at 09:42:26 07/29/20) Imagine trying to get that done with today's workforce!

A 6000 guest cruise ship can be built from laying the keel to taking on passengers in less than two years .
If up to the military it would take 8-10 years to leave the ship yard and another 3-4 years for shake down.
 

LST (landing ship, tank). large slow target

My grandfather was on LST 820 in the pacific during WWII
 
Careful BuickandDeere.

yes it takes a long time to build a 1000 foot aircraft carrier. There are a lot of specialized part that are required-for example the aircraft catapults how many are there, at least 3 maybe 4. They get a fully loaded high performance fighter/bomber in the air and flying in a very short run while landing other high performance planes. That's surface ships how bout subs? How long should it take to build a ship that completely submerge and go fast enough to loose that cruse ship. AND these ships are expected to keep doing it for the next 40+ years with no refueling.
 
To be brief, the military doesn't build them. They are built by contractors. The military
does some supervision and supplies the finance, if they can get it. In peace-time, they have
to operate with a skeleton crew and stretch things out. A big part of their job is to maintain a cadre of individuals and businesses that know how to do it.
 
Just out of high school, I worked in the hardware store in my hometown of 2,000 people. The old guy who had owned the hardware store for decades but sold it still worked there part time. Think mid-1980's.

He had been in the Merchant Marine during WW 2. It is my understanding that they were the people who staffed the Liberty Ships, among other things.

He said that the Merchant Marine had the highest percentage of casualties of any branch of the service during WW 2. Not the most overall casualties, but the highest percentage.

There probably weren't that many people in the Merchant Marine compared to other branches, so I tend to think he was probably correct.
 

The metallurgy of the steel was iffy . If used in freezing cold water and stressed . Some of the Liberty ships tended to break apart .
 
Thats why Henry J. put a steel strap around the bridge. Since he could build a ship in 4 days, using sub-assemblies, he just needed to make the joint,
more robust.
 

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