| Why do we include the Liberty ships here? Early in the Second World War (1940) with Britain losing an increasing monthly tonnage of shipping, the United States was approached with a view to building 60 merchant ships as replacements for the loses. These ships, later to be known as the 'Ocean' class were to be built on plans produced by the Sunderland shipyard of Joseph L. Thompson & Sons. By 1941 with America's shipbuilding at maximum capacity, it was seen that supply could not meet demand for ships designed, built and 'engined' to the current US maritime standards. The solution to this was for a ship based on the plans supplied earlier by J. L. Thompson & Sons. These plans gave an already tried and tested design of ship, with further modification, a ship amenable to mass production techniques. That was powered by a less sophisticated engine, an engine easily built by both non-maritime and maritime engine builders. These plans were adopted and the 'Liberty' class of ship was born with some 2751 Liberty ships being built in the United States during the Second World War. Out of the 2751 Liberty ships built, two have been preserved to be more than just memories, the 'SS Jeremiah O'Brien' in San Francisco and the 'SS John W Brown' in Baltimore.
Pictured above is the SS Jeremiah O'Brien, restored to her Second World
War configuration, leaving San Francisco on her way to the 50th
anniversary of the D-day celebrations in 1994. A detailed history of the Liberty ships and more photographs of the SS Jeremiah O'Brien can be found at:- www.ssjeremiahobrien.org/ SS John W Brown:- www.liberty-ship.com/ |
