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 Four.
THE AMERICAN RESERVE FLEET
In 1943 the Maritime Commission of America and its War Shipping Administration appointed a committee known as Post War Planning to plan for America's shipping requirements for commerce and its defence. Needless to say at wars end America owned a massive surplus, it therefore decided by act of Congress to establish its National Defence Fleet and at the same time authorised its Maritime Commission to sell off surplus vessels for commercial service. In the main American protectionism was to prevail and more surplus vessels were to find there way to the 'Mothballed Fleet' however some were retained for the American Forces and the ship below illustrates their longevity and use until the mid seventies.
HIBBING VICTORY
The Reserve Fleet was laid up in eight locations spread across America, Hudson River, New York, James River near Newport News Virginia, Wilmington in North Carolina, Mobile, Alabama, Beaumont in Texas, Suisun Bay in San Francisco, Columbia River in Oregon and finally Paget Sound near Washington. From this maintained mothball fleet ships were drawn to meet demands such as the Korean War, the closing of the Suez Canal and lastly believe it or not the Vietnam War. The recommissioning costs for each vessel, mostly the faster Victory class was first estimated at $325,000 per ship however this was a costly underestimate and by 1966 it proved cheaper to charter in more modern tonnage.
In 1954 during an unprecedented grain surplus eighty-four ships from the Columbia River Fleet, forty-three from Washington and others from the Hudson and James Rivers were utilised as grain storage facilities.
Reserve Fleet at Suisun Bay, California.
Mothballed Liberties
Such was the condition of some of the ships that they were soon dispatched to the breakers yard and as time passed more and more became unseaworthy, between 1957 through to 1966 832 were sold for breaking. The Patrick Henry, the first Liberty ship to be completed was in a group of thirty-five ships sold as a job lot back to Bethlehem Steel Company for scrapping twelve years after her launching by the said company, altogether not a fitting end for such a ground breaking vessel.
As a matter of interest the Reserve Fleet in 1962 totalled 1.872 ships of which 1,051 were Liberty's, three years later the Liberty figure still stood at 859 out of a total of 1,579 ships, of these 231 had been assigned for the breakers yard in the near future. The government had declared that of the laid up tonnage 960 were of sufficient importance to maintain them to the highest standards possible because many of the ships were classified as military reserves.
During the ships lay up at the eight sites allocated some maintenance was carried out to varying degrees. Hulls and decks were painted grey after 1956, before they had been painted a red/brown colour, which had lead to many complaints from the public, in fact one woman successfully sued the government over the deterioration of her view of the river.
Suisun Bay, California. September 1972.
Bob Childs Collection.
The internals of all machinery and boilers were coated with a protective compound and all electrical generating equipment and motors were maintained on a planned maintenance schedule. In an attempt to slow down corrosion below the water line electrically charged anodes were fitted to the ships hulls whilst graphite anodes were laid on the riverbed.
Some of the Liberty's were used as ammunition dumps known as 'Operation Chase' from 1963 onwards by the USN, having been stripped of all usable parts the ships were loaded with ordnance, some going back to the Second World War and towed out to sea for scuttling. The second ship to be so used exploded accidentally and formed the basis for experiments whereby other ships under controlled conditions were used to monitor the difference between natural and man made seismic shocks, in short giving the US the ability to detect underwater nuclear tests, this program was to continue until 1970.
In 1968 the last of the North Carolina ships numbering twenty two were sold along with a further thirty four from other locations to Union Minerals & Alloys Corporation of New York for $2.5 million dollars, most of the ships were broken by contractors at Kearny and Panama City. By now the Liberty ship fleet had fallen to only 462 ships though the military reserve remained unaltered at 83 vessels, by now the worldwide fleet operated by commercial companies had fallen to just 300 ships
The scrapping program continued and it was at this juncture that the Liberty Ship Programme was instigated for the preservation of the Liberty Ships memory. The two sponsors were the American Marine Institute and the American Institute of Marine Underwriters both major concerns in the field of marine insurance; their endeavour had the full support of the Maritime Administration. Part of the heritage programme was to cut the nameplates off the ships at the point of scrapping and present them to the towns, communities and organisations associated with the famous American after whom all the ships had been named.
By 1970 the fleets distribution was down to only six locations, the following April the site on the Hudson River was also closed, at its peak 189 ships had been laid up there. Some of the Liberty's were recycled when steel plates of quality were removed from the ships and rolled, welded into prefabricated sections at Panama City for further use as barges at the newly constructed yard at Green Cove Springs in Florida. Barges of varying lengths, breadths and weights were constructed under the recycle program. In Portland, Oregon the bows of 130 Liberty's were filled with concrete and used as landfill eventually being turned into a waterfront park.
Shipbow
A law was passed in 1972 called the Artificial Fish Reef Programme and along with various other materials some of the Liberty's found their final resting places as homes for various forms of sea life off the coasts of Texas, Virginia, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, North Carolina, Georgia and California, some would think an ignominious end. Prior to their sinking each ship was emptied of residue oils, all non-ferrous metal and machinery was removed and the ships underwent a final cleaning, in all forty vessels were used for this purpose.
It was envisaged by 1971 that there would be a requirement to retain only thirty seven of the original ships with the rest having been either scrapped or recycled and it was estimated that by 1975 they would have passed their sell by date. However the American Government decided that there was still a requirement for a laid up Fleet and with the 'Victory' built ships still capable of sixteen knots, they, along with the large P2-type troopships, some thirteen and 159 Victory's were still in the Reserve Fleet accompanied by bought in tonnage from commercial operators. By 1983 the sites had been reduced to three, James River, Beaumomt and Suisan Bay and the ships numbered some 263. Of the laid up fleet only one was a 'Liberty', the military auxiliary Protector ex Warren P Marks, by 1984 she had been joined by a further two one of which was the John W Brown and an application was made to have the latter placed on the National Register of Historic Places joining the Jeremiah O'Brien which was berthed on the West Coast. The Protector and the Arthur M Huddle, the other remaining Liberty were finally assigned to act as artificial fish reefs in 1984.
Of the 2,710 Liberty ships completed only two survive in their original form, Jeremiah O'Brien which can be found at San Francisco, California and the John W Brown which is berthed at Boston, Massachusetts.
More on Jeremiah O’Brien can be found here.
More on John W Brown can be found here.
To be continued ......