THE LIBERTY SHIPS
By F.J.W and D. Innola
Sources: Liberty Ships and Associated Designs By Sam Peters, The Liberty Ships by L.A. Sawyer and W.H. Mitchell, The National American Archives.
Part Three.
TANKERS Z-ET1-S-C3
Z as a prefix stood for modified from a standard designed Liberty ship.
ET stood for Emergency tanker whilst the 1 indicated the ship was under 450 ft in length.
With the shortage of tankers becoming serious due to losses incurred mainly in the Atlantic the American Maritime Corporation investigated the possibilities of converting existing Liberty ships. After consideration it was decided to confine the alterations to ships as yet not built. Contracts for the design and subsequent building were awarded to the Delta Shipbuilding Company of New Orleans and the California Shipbuilding Corporation. Initially 102 were ordered but within a few months the number required fell to 62.
After slight delays caused by material becoming available and initial teething problems on the production lines the ships rolled down the slipways nearly as fast as the cargo ships, most were completed in 1943 with the balance early the following year.
In an attempt to confuse would be attackers the ships outward appearance was identical to that of its cargo carrying sisters, deck piping was sheathed and dummy cargo work gear was installed, the oil hatches were small and hidden at all times. These can just be made out on the hatches of the Andrew Marschalk pictured below.
ANDREW MARSCHALK
©US Archives
The machinery spaces and equipment remained the same though on later reflection it was pointed out that the engine room should have been situated at the aft end of the ship. The two forward deep tanks were not fitted and a section of the midships-deep tank became pump rooms 1 and 2, each pump room had two vertical steam driven duplex pumps and the cargo handling valves were operated from upper deck enclosures. A major alteration was the fitting of a longitudinal centre line bulkhead stretching the full length of the vessel; these along with the main transverse bulkheads were rendered oil tight. This gave the ships nine cargo tanks and two fuel bunker tanks, a void space around the engine room allowed for the installation of valve chests and pipe work required for bunkering and discharge, thus keeping them out of sight.
The cargo hatches were replaced by steel work and additional structural strengthening was added such as stringers and girders. The forward tanks could either carry petrol or heavier oils and the aft tanks could carry heavy oil only. The cargo tank vents were situated alongside the masts 25ft above deck level and the petrol tank vents when in use were also fitted with relief valves and flame arresters ( a fine metal gauze). Steam heating coils were fitted in all the tanks, necessary when carrying heavy grade fuel oils and each were fitted with steam smothering.
Not as efficient as conventional tankers but proved more than adequate for the task at hand and also had the capability to carry deck cargo’s, some were even converted for use as distilling ships for the production of fresh water by the United States Navy.
COLLIERS EC2-S-AW1.
After successfully redesigning and building the tankers the Maritime Commission approached Delta Shipbuilding to design and build to their specifications a fleet of colliers, however it was with a view to a long time future that the ships were completed not just for the immediate war programme.
The ships were designed to operate on America’s eastern seaboard between Hampton Roads and New England primarily to replace lost and outdated tonnage. In an attempt to build the correct tonnage required by the operators in the trade meetings between all parties concerned took place and the end result was considered to be extremely satisfactory. Similar problems were faced by the builders that had been experienced during the tanker programme and the colliers had to be altered to suit their specific trade.
POCAHONTAS SEAM.
©Alex Duncan
One enormous difference in the construction of the vessel was to situate the engine room aft and that instead of using wood for dividing partitions ect., steel was to be used. Because the engine room was positioned aft a different configuration of the machinery was required, therefore the triple expansion engine, condensers and large pumps were at their normal level whilst the boilers, generators, evaporators, compressors and smaller auxiliaries were positioned on a platform twenty-one feet above. Instead of the boilers being forward of the engine with the furnaces facing aft the colliers boilers were positioned aft of the engine with the furnaces facing inboard. Like their cargo sisters the Colliers had five holds but each had two hinged hatches fixed by way of the transverse coaming, again as in other designs longitudinal as well as gunwale bars were riveted.
Four cargo winches were fitted but this time under cover, not only did this concept make for a safer working environment but greatly reduced maintenance.
Colliers were fitted out to carry a ships compliment of forty six with additional space for gunners should they be required. The Captain along with his Deck/Radio Officers were accommodated in the midships bridge structure, Engineers were housed in the aft section on the boat deck, the hospital catering and Bosun on the poop deck, and the deck and engine crew on the upper deck aft.
Due to the very nature of its trade (large quantities of coal dust) the outside accommodation surfaces were sealed and insulated and had its own interior ventilating/heating system which was diesel driven.
Large ballast pumps were fitted due to the speed that ballast had to be discharged, primary reason being that should the vessel experience bad weather conditions during its passage cargo work could not commence until all the water had been pumped overboard, to facilitate the rapid egress sluicing valves were fitted allowing for direct overboard discharge.
The collier class were fitted with four aluminium alloy lifeboats, two on the upper bridge deck which could carry thirteen crew each and a further two, diesel engine powered capable of carrying 104 between them situated on the boat deck.
The ships proved not only popular with crew and owner alike but due to the fact they were oil fired were extremely efficient and a whole two knots faster than their predecessors. Turn round time was reduced; stability was improved running costs fell with the reduction in crew and stevedoring costs were eliminated altogether. A total of twenty four were built within a few months and the impact on the trade was immense only restricted by the size of berths available, a solution for the problem was soon in hand. The ships were all named after large American coal seams.
BOXED AIRCRAFT TRANSPORTS Z-EC2-S-C5.
These particular types of ship were delivered to the Army and Navy ready for conversion for the transportation of aircraft and only had four hatches, two forward and two aft as opposed to the normal five. Due to the very nature of cargo carried the ships were fitted with goal post masts, one each positioned forward of the holds, a pair of king posts were also located forward of the bridge. Each hatch had two thirty ton and two fifteen ton booms save for the aft hatch, number four which had two five ton derricks.
Initially forty ships were ordered with the first delivered in January of 1945, however due to the war ending the last four were never delivered with the contracts being cancelled. During the mid fifties the Navy decided to convert some of their tonnage to Ocean Radar Station Ships thus giving America an early warning system.
US NAVY’S SHIP OUTPOST FORMERLY FRANCIS J. O’GARA.
©John J Callis.
Each ship was filled with communication systems, both air and surface capable radar systems and a centralised command unit. Because of the very nature of operation both accommodation and recreational areas were upgraded for the ships compliment of 151, thirteen Officers and 138 Ratings. By 1965 more sophisticated methods of early detection were employed thus making the ships redundant, all were placed in the Reserve Fleet.
Three other ships were designated Hydrographic and Research vessels, one in 1961 and the two remaining in 1963, in 1964 all three were reclassed as Technical Research ships. All three were decommissioned in 1969 and within two years had all been scrapped.
ARMY TANK TRANSPORTS Z-EC2-S-C2
Only eight of the tank transports were completed and all at the Wainwright Yard of J.A. Jones Construction Company, Panama City. This class of ship had much in common with the Boxed Aircraft Transports and were able to substitute each other with minimum effort.
The only real difference of note was the dimensions of the hatches though the numbers were the same and the installing of a platform deck below the second deck. All eight ships were completed between November 1943/ February 1944, after the war all eight went to the Reserve Fleet. The first was scrapped in 1971 followed by another five a year later, the penultimate in 1973 with the final ship lasting till 1977 when she was sunk to act as an artificial fish reef. Certain items were removed from her prior to her sinking and can now be found in the Mariners Museum, Newport News, Virginia.
HOSPITAL SHIPS
No designated number.
Of the twenty four hospital ships employed by the USN and Army only six were converted Liberty Ships, all were to be given names of flowers by the then existing policy of the Surgeon Generals Office, however only two were to carry the said names, Dogwood and Wisteria.
The crews of such ships were civilian employee’s of the Transportation Corps and all the medical staff were assigned by the Medical Department and functioned in the same way as shore based hospitals. All patients carried on this type of ship were not allowed to be berthed more than two decks below the boat deck and accommodation for the carriage of wounded had been previously agreed between the Chief of Transportation and the Surgeon General.
BLANCHE F SIGMAN
©US Army
Named after the first Army nurse to be killed in action.
First LT B.F.Sigman died at the Anzio beach head.
During conversion a lower deck was added, further bulkheads, a one inch thick, eighteen inch wide band of steel was riveted around most of the hull and plates of a similar nature were riveted to their upper decks. Then and only then did they commence to put in place the extra decks required by a ship of this type. After closing for good the hatch ways a new superstructure was added giving the ships a distinctly different appearance. After conversion the ships could carry nearly 600 hundred patients which were cared for in any one of its 44 wards, other wards for the mental and violent cases were catered for also. The medical staff comprised seventeen Officers, thirty nine nurses and 159 attendants, the ships crew numbered 123. In compliance with international law for hospital ships the funnel had to be changed to allow for 12ft Red Cross symbols, the same symbols were also visible on the upper deck and ships side.
CONVERSION TO TROOPSHIPS
During the war the USA operated over three hundred ships which could be classified as ‘Troopships’, many were converted Liberty Ships, their carrying capacities varied according to duties required and as the war progressed they increased the capacities accordingly, not only to carry troops out but to bring back POW.s.
Additional features on a converted troopship included extra galleys, desalination plants, fitting of berths, military, signal and medical offices, heavy lift equipment, strong rooms and rooms to store the troops equipment. Extra lifeboats were fitted as were quick release life rafts and depending on how many troops were carried sufficient storage space for lifebelts had to be considered. In each hold two escape stairwells were fitted and the accommodation had extra ventilation and heating supplied, troops were not berthed below the waterline.
Initially carrying capacity was set at 308 troops or POW.s this was later increased to 504, however on one particular voyage the Benjamin Contee was carrying 1,800 Italian POWs when she was struck and damaged by a torpedo in the Mediterranean, 320 Italians were subsequently killed in the attack. During the Anzio landings 504 American servicemen were also killed when the Paul Hamilton was sunk, just how many troops were being carried is unknown. Once the POWs numbers dwindled from the European theatre the carrying capacity was reduced to 350 allowing for the removal of two tiers of berths from the original five but when the vessels redeployed to the Far East this numbered increased to 550 and the berths had to be reinstated. At wars end most of the troopships were laid up and because of the many alterations the ships had undergone they were soon to find their way to the scrapyards.
JOHN DUBUQUE
©Vic Young
THE SAM SHIPS EC2-S-C1
This particular group were the 200 ships representing the DAS Appropriation Act agreed by Congress on the 27th of March 1941, the number of ships represented only 7.5 per cent of the total tonnage built and were loaned to Britain on lease lend terms. It was generally thought that the nomenclature ‘Sam’ stood for Uncle Sam however to burst the fanciful bubble the prefix in fact stood for Superstructure Aft of Midships a designation given them by the Ministry of War Transport. For two years after the war the Sam ships continued to operate under Britain’s control but in a wave of ‘American Nationalism’, which I prefer to call protectionism the Americans, called for their return and subsequent mothballing. After acrimonious and protracted meetings the Americans finally agreed to sell 100 of the ships to their British operators at a price far and above the vessels true value. The price had to be agreed because of the dire shortage of tonnage within the British Mercantile Fleet due to Britain’s high wartime losses, now that’s ironic is it not? Most of the outstanding ships left after those purchased by British companies did in fact go into the Reserve Fleet never to sail the seas again! I have been sent just over seventy photos of SAM ships and because of download time we’ve broken them down into seven groups.
IVAN.M.LOMBARDO AND LIBERTY SHIP REPLACEMENTS FOR ITALY'S DEPLETED MERCHANT FLEET.
Ivan M. Lombardo, Italian politician. Served as Chief of the Italian delegation to the treaty negotiations with the U.S.A., 1947; member of the National Assembly, 1948-53; minister of Foreign Trade, 1950-51; and chief of the Italian delegation to the E.D.C. Conference, Paris, 1951-54.
The American delegation was headed by the Under Secretary of State Professor Willard Thorp. His staff comprised Mr. Rubin, Dr. Sterling, Dr. Surienta, and a few others who proved extremely helpful. Nevertheless, negotiations took four months. The document, the memoranda of understanding, was signed on the 14th of August, 1947.
During the protracted negotiations, though amicable, Italy was able to secure the following concessions, amongst others, the transfer of eight Italian ships that had been seized during the war. Some of them had been eventually transferred to the belligerent nations. Moreover, 15 Liberty ships were transferred to Italy in order to replace those that had been lost during the war.
The United States Government had seized the vessels for war necessities, some of them being lost. Incidentally, among those returned were two of their important passenger ships. There also were two other passenger ships, but for those two they agreed that the American Line would, for a certain time to come, practically manage them until they were replaced by their own. The two ships in question were the Independence and Constitution.
Lombardo was then able to secure a very definite promise that as many Victory ships and Liberty ships as they would eventually need to purchase would be offered at a very special price in order to rebuild their merchant fleet. Over the following four years Italy applied to that facility agreed.
Go to Part Four Go to Pictures of the Sam ships