Liberty ship
Liberty ships were cargo ships built in the United States during World War II. Though British in conception, they were adapted by the U.S. as they were cheap and quick to build, and came to symbolize U.S. wartime industrial output. Based on vessels ordered by Britain to replace ships torpedoed by German U-boats, they were purchased for the U.S. fleet and for lend-lease deliveries of war materiel to Britain and to the Soviet Union via deliveries through Iran. Eighteen American shipyards built 2,710 Liberty ships between 1941 and 1945, easily the largest number of ships produced to a single design.
The production of these vessels mirrored on a much larger scale the manufacture of the Hog Islander ship and similar standardized types during World War I. The immense effort to build Liberty ships, the sheer number of ships built, and the fact that some of the ships survived far longer than the original design life of five years, make them the subject of much interest.
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American History USA Articles
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Asbestos was once an often-used insulator in U.S. Navy ships. During World War II, hundreds of thousands were exposed and many later died prematurely.
Books/Sources
- Liberty: The Ships That Won the War - Peter Elphick
- Liberty Ships: The History of the Emergency Type Cargo Ships Constructed in the United States During the Second... - L. A. Sawyer
Youtube
- WW2: Liberty Ship SS Jeremiah O'Brien
- Ship Building In WW2 : Birth Of Victory - 1940's American Shipyards Educational Documentary