Liberty Ships

Discussion in 'USA' started by angie999, Aug 1, 2004.

  1. angie999

    angie999 Very Senior Member

    Production of merchant shipping in US yards was phenomenal in WWII and the standard Liberty Ship design was a war winner. Long, long before the war's end, the US built enough ships to replace and then exceed the total tonnage sunk by U-boats.

    Perhaps it was Rosie the Riveter who won the war!
     
  2. Gerry Chester

    Gerry Chester WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    Of the over 2,700 Liberty Ships built,only two are now afloat. Here's a photo of one of them, Jeremiah O'Brien:
    [​IMG]

    Whence came the names given to the Liberty Ships? I recollect once reading that the name of one of the one of the chaps who built them was chosen, perhaps by lottery. Anyone know?
     
  3. morse1001

    morse1001 Very Senior Member

    Whence came the names given to the Liberty Ships? I recollect once reading that the name of one of the one of the chaps who built them was chosen, perhaps by lottery. Anyone know?

    i do not know about the origins of the name but I do know that they were based upon a british design of 1909!!
     
  4. Neil B

    Neil B Member

    Jeremiah O'Brien was a naval hero from the American Revolution. This ship is still active. I had the good fortune to tour it when it sailed up to Portland OR in the mid-1990's. These ships werr named after prominent American authors, statesmen and military figures. There was even a Lou Gehrig named after the Yankee great.
     
  5. angie999

    angie999 Very Senior Member

    Originally posted by Neil B@Aug 1 2004, 08:45 PM
    These ships werr named after prominent American authors, statesmen and military figures. There was even a Lou Gehrig named after the Yankee great.
    I can't remember which series it was in, but I's sure I can remember a documentary where it was said that they were building them so fast that they were running out of names.
     
  6. Kiwiwriter

    Kiwiwriter Very Senior Member

    They were building Liberty Ships quickly. I believe the record for fastest production of a Liberty Ship was three days.

    And they did run out of names...there was a John J. McGraw, named for the Giants' manager.

    However, they were easy to build, well-designed, could put up with all kinds of weather, and replaced the vast losses in both oceans. Henry J. Kaiser, the man who built them, had never built ships before, and approached the process from his experience in auto manufacturing, and it worked.

    And "Rosie the Riveter" was the symbol, but most of those women were really welders.
     
  7. Aerofalcon14

    Aerofalcon14 Junior Member

    The fastest production of a liberty ship was 4 days, I looked it up.
     
  8. Ramiles

    Ramiles Researching 9th Lancers, 24th L and SRY

    Re. Liberty Ships - around 51min 30seconds in.... stemming from British designs.



    "When James Holland’s The Rise of Germany, the first volume in his War in the West trilogy, ended, the Nazi war machine looked to be unstoppable. In The Allies Strike Back, while Germany’s invasion of Russia unfolds in the east, in the west, the Americans formally enter the war, defeat Rommel in North Africa, and the bombing of Germany escalates, aiming to destroy Nazi industry and crush civilian morale."

    Liberty.jpg

    Liberty ship - Wikipedia
     

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