LIBERTY SHIPS

2710 Liberty ships were built in 18 US shipyards to a design developed from the British 'Ocean' Class, by far the largest number of merchant ships ever built to a single design. Most of the ships built were to the standard dry cargo design, although a few were built as tankers and many of the ships used by the US Navy were much modified. A number were supplied direct to the USSR under Lease-Lend and others acquired postwar, whilst 117 were supplied to Britain with names prefixed by 'SAM'. From 1945, many were sold to European shipowners as a cheap replacement for tonnage lost during the War. Built with a design life of only 5 years, many lasted into the 1960's in commerical use and some well into the 1970's. They were not satisfactory in all respects, being built using the then new welding techniques in shipyards that were not traditional shipbuilders by unskilled labour, leading to problems with structural weaknesses. They were also very wet ships, being flush decked, and too slow to operate without escort protection or in a naval fleet train.These pictures are published for pleasure/information/research purposes only and are not for sale or copy under any circumstances. Information in captions has been researched as thoroughly as possible but its accuracy cannot be guaranteed.