MR’S 75TH ANNIVERSARY Steaming the Way to Victory in WWII on(Credit: “Liberty Ship, The Voyages of the JOHN W. BROWN, 1942 -1946,” by Sherod Cooper, Naval Institute Press, 1987)John W. Brown returning to New York on March 18, 1944, at the end of her third voyage, where she shuttled between ports in the Mediterranean Theater for ? ve months before returning home. The ship carried a varied cargo outbound that “required a manifest 61 pages long to list the more than 2,500 items, ranging from TNT, Sherman tanks, and a locomotive, to Purple Heart medals, cigarettes and skirts for female of? cers.”ive me Liberty, or give me the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at The design and con-death!” a rallying cry of the Kings Point. “The Liberty cost $2 mil-To celebrate Maritime Reporter & Engineering “Revolutionary War, got a lion to build, but could carry $87 million News’ 75th Anniversary, each edition in 2014 will offer a specially commissioned feature struction of WWII Gsecond act in World War II. worth of cargo,” says Toni Horodysky, article which examines a historical topic. This time the call was more like, “Give editor of the American Merchant Marine This month we look at the impact of WWII on domestic ship production.me Liberty ships, and make it quick!,” at War website (usmm.org). Hence, “If Liberty cargo ships as the country, desperate to build up its it made a one-way voyage, it paid for outdated ? otilla of cargo ships and dev- itself.” It’s estimated the Liberties de-Don’t miss the special 75th revolutionized ship-anniversary edition to publishastated naval ? eet, bet big on a homely livered 75% of the cargo used in the war.in June 2014, made possiblevessel that touched off a ship-building The full scantling type Liberty had a in part by our 75th building by over-Anniversary sponsors seenrevolution and became key to winning range of 17,000 miles, a carrying capac-on pages 33 & 35.the war ity of about 10,800 tons, steam-operated “Built by the mile and chopped off by winches and was propelled by an 1870’s hauling the blueprint the yard,” Roosevelt promised the no- engine design - a triple expansion re-frills Liberties would form a “bridge of ciprocating steam engine fueled by two ate and repair - important considerations process and stan-ships” across the Atlantic. And they did. oil-? red boilers, single screw, 2500 HP, when materials are limited, time is of the “Without the supply column of Liberty running at a top speed of 11 knots. They essence and the workforce is green. dardizing on com-Ships that endlessly plowed the seas ran about 440 feet, had a raked stem and That simplicity opened the door to en-between America and England, the war cruiser stern, a contra-balanced rudder, abling radical changes on every level – would have been lost,” declared a grate- a windlass and warping winch, two full cost, time, modularity and commonality monality of parts, ful Winston Churchill: decks, seven watertight bulkheads, ? ve of systems and parts – in the construc-That’s big praise for what were es- cargo holds, and a set of defensive arma- tion and design of the Liberty and other welding, pre-fabri-sentially dumpy, lumbering vessels ment. ships going forward. – dubbed “ugly ducklings” after Roos- Under a government plan that stretched cation and assembly evelt, in his generation’s version of an Less is More back to 1936, a record-setting 2710 Lib-ill-advised tweet, described the Liberty Looks aren’t everything; its genius erty-class ships were built between 1941 as “a dreadful looking object.” lay in the design’s embodiment of a cli- and 1945, at 18 mostly “green ? eld” U.S. line construction.An exaggeration perhaps, but in truth, chéd rule of thumb that summed up the ship yards - many of them hastily built the Liberty wasn’t much to write home marching orders for wartime ship build- from the ground up around ships already about. They were throwaway ships with ing: keep it simple stupid. For example, under construction. A combination of a ? ve-year life expectancy, notes Prof. although ships of that era had been run- wholesale adoption of more simple con-By Patricia KeefeJoshua Smith, interim director of the ning on steam turbines, the old-fashioned struction methods - chief among them American Merchant Marine Museum at piston engines were easier to make, oper- welding - standardized vessel and com-32 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • JANUARY 2014MR #1 (32-41).indd 32 1/7/2014 10:50:06 AM