Emergency Shipbuilding program
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
government effort to quickly build simple cargo ships to carry troops and materiel to allies and foreign theatres during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Run by the U.S. Maritime Commission
United States Maritime Commission
The United States Maritime Commission was an independent executive agency of the U.S. federal government that was created by the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, passed by Congress on June 29, 1936, and replaced the U.S. Shipping Board which had existed since World War I...
, the program built almost 6,000 ships.
Origins
By the fall of 1940, the British Merchant Navy (equivalent to the United States Merchant MarineUnited States Merchant Marine
The United States Merchant Marine refers to the fleet of U.S. civilian-owned merchant vessels, operated by either the government or the private sector, that engage in commerce or transportation of goods and services in and out of the navigable waters of the United States. The Merchant Marine is...
) was being sunk in the Battle of the Atlantic by Germany's U-Boat
U-boat
U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
s faster than the United Kingdom could replace them. Led by Sir Arthur Salter, a group of men called the British Merchant Shipping Mission came to North America from the UK to enlist U.S. and Canadian shipbuilders to construct merchant ships. As all existing U.S. shipyards capable to constructing oceangoing merchant ships were already occupied by either work of building ships for the U.S. Navy or for the U.S. Maritime Commission's Long Range Shipbuilding Program
Long Range Shipbuilding Program
The Long Range Shipbuilding program was implemented by the U.S. Maritime Commission shortly after its establishment in 1937 as part of the mandate of the Merchant Marine Act of 1936 which stated that:United States shall have a merchant marine...
which had begun three years previously to fulfill the goals set forth in the Merchant Marine Act of 1936
Merchant Marine Act of 1936
The Merchant Marine Act of 1936 is a United States federal law. Its purpose is "to further the development and maintenance of an adequate and well-balanced American merchant marine, to promote the commerce of the United States, to aid in the national defense, to repeal certain former legislation,...
, the Mission negotiated with a consortium of companies made up of the existing U.S. ship repairer Todd Shipyards
Todd Shipyards
Todd Shipyards was an American soccer club based in Brooklyn, New York that was an inaugural member of the American Soccer League. The team was formed when the Todd Shipyard company decided to merge the Brooklyn Robins Dry Dock with Tebo Yacht Basin F.C....
which had its headquarters in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in league with the shipbuilder Bath Iron Works
Bath Iron Works
Bath Iron Works is a major American shipyard located on the Kennebec River in Bath, Maine, United States. Since its founding in 1884 , BIW has built private, commercial and military vessels, most of which have been ordered by the United States Navy...
located in Bath, Maine
Bath, Maine
Bath is a city in Sagadahoc County, Maine, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 9,266. It is the county seat of Sagadahoc County. Located on the Kennebec River, Bath is a port of entry with a good harbor. The city is popular with tourists, many drawn by its...
. The new yard, called the Todd-Bath Iron Shipbuilding Corporation was to be an entirely new facility located on a piece of mostly vacant land located adjacent to Cummings Point in South Portland, Maine
South Portland, Maine
South Portland is a city in Cumberland County, Maine, United States, and is the fourth-largest city in the state. Founded in 1895, as of the 2010 census, the city population was 25,002. Known for its working waterfront, South Portland is situated on Portland Harbor and overlooks the skyline of...
for the purpose of building thirty cargo ships. The Mission likewise, negotiating with a different consortium made up of Todd along with a group of heavy construction companies in the Western U.S. for the building of a new shipyard in the San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
area for construction of thirty ships identical to those to be built in Maine. That yard was to be called the Todd-California Shipbuilding Corp. It was slated to be built on the tide flats of Richmond
Richmond, California
Richmond is a city in western Contra Costa County, California, United States. The city was incorporated on August 7, 1905. It is located in the East Bay, part of the San Francisco Bay Area. It is a residential inner suburb of San Francisco, as well as the site of heavy industry, which has been...
on the east side of the Bay. The construction companies that made up the second half of that corporation had no experience building ships but did have an extensive resume with the construction of highways, bridges and major public works projects such as the Hoover Dam
Hoover Dam
Hoover Dam, once known as Boulder Dam, is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the US states of Arizona and Nevada. It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression and was dedicated on September 30, 1935, by President...
, the Bonneville Dam
Bonneville Dam
Bonneville Lock and Dam consists of several run-of-the-river dam structures that together complete a span of the Columbia River between the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington at River Mile 146.1. The dam is located east of Portland, Oregon, in the Columbia River Gorge. The primary functions of...
and the massive Grand Coulee Dam
Grand Coulee Dam
Grand Coulee Dam is a gravity dam on the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington built to produce hydroelectric power and provide irrigation. It was constructed between 1933 and 1942, originally with two power plants. A third power station was completed in 1974 to increase its energy...
. Known as the Six Companies
Six Companies
Six Companies, Inc. was a joint venture of construction companies that was formed to build the Hoover Dam across the Colorado River in Nevada and Arizona....
, the members included two companies which were to become driving powers in wartime merchant shipbuilding during the ensuing years, and the men behind those companies were Henry J. Kaiser
Henry J. Kaiser
Henry John Kaiser was an American industrialist who became known as the father of modern American shipbuilding. He established the Kaiser Shipyard which built Liberty ships during World War II, after which he formed Kaiser Aluminum and Kaiser Steel. Kaiser organized Kaiser Permanente health care...
, who headed the Kaiser Companies, and J.A. McCone, who led the Bechtel
Bechtel
Bechtel Corporation is the largest engineering company in the United States, ranking as the 5th-largest privately owned company in the U.S...
/McCone Company.
Contracts for both yards and the ships was signed on December 20, 1940. All the ships to be built were collectively called the Ocean class and to be of an existing British design for 5-hatch cargo ships of about 10,000 tons' load displacement and 11 knots' service speed using obsolete, but readily available, triple-expansion reciprocating steam engine and coal-fired Scotch-type fire tube boilers. The first of these vessels, the SS Ocean Vanguard was launched at the Todd-California yard on October 15, 1941.
The early years
With the defense of both the U.S. and its overseas possessions along with a very strong national interest in assisting Britain in its struggle to keep its supply lines open to both North America and its overseas Colonies, President Franklin Roosevelt announced what was to become known as the Emergency Shipbuilding Program on January 3, 1941 for the construction of 200 ships very much similar to those being built for the British. He designated that the Program be implemented and administered by the Maritime Commission which since 1937 had been the Federal government department tasked with Merchant Marine development and which had worked very closely with the British Mission in placing its 60 ship order. Immediately the Commission authorized that the two yards building for the British build ships for the U.S. upon completion of their current contracts. The Maritime Commission also funded the yards to add building ways and realizing that more than two yards would be needed for the program they were expecting to enter into contracts to build new shipyards on the Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific coasts of the U.S. In this first wave of expansion seven additional yards were added to those in Maine and California and like those yards were to be for the sole purpose of building only the Emergency type of ships. While all the yards were to be built by private contractors and operated by commercial shipbuilding companies, the new yards were financed by the Maritime Commission with funds authorized by Congress and thus owned by Federal Government. One of the new yards planned for construction was to be in Baltimore, Maryland by the Bethlehem Steel Corporation. That facility became known as the Bethlehem-Fairfield shipyard for the Fairfield section of Baltimore where it was located. Bethlehem Steel was one of the nation's largest shipbuilding companies having construction yards on the East Coast in Quincy, MassachusettsQuincy, Massachusetts
Quincy is a city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. Its nicknames are "City of Presidents", "City of Legends", and "Birthplace of the American Dream". As a major part of Metropolitan Boston, Quincy is a member of Boston's Inner Core Committee for the Metropolitan Area Planning Council...
, on Staten Island, New York and at Sparrows Point
Sparrows Point
Sparrows Point is an unincorporated area in Baltimore County, Maryland, adjacent to Dundalk, Maryland. Named for Thomas Sparrow, landowner, it was the site of a very large industrial complex owned by Bethlehem Steel, known for steelmaking and shipbuilding....
, also in Baltimore. On the West Coast it had yards in San Pedro
San Pedro, Los Angeles, California
San Pedro is a port district of the city of Los Angeles, California, United States. It was annexed in 1909 and is a major seaport of the area...
and San Francisco. Another was to be in Wilmington, North Carolina
Wilmington, North Carolina
Wilmington is a port city in and is the county seat of New Hanover County, North Carolina, United States. The population is 106,476 according to the 2010 Census, making it the eighth most populous city in the state of North Carolina...
and managed by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company of Newport News, Virginia
Newport News, Virginia
Newport News is an independent city located in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of Virginia. It is at the southeastern end of the Virginia Peninsula, on the north shore of the James River extending southeast from Skiffe's Creek along many miles of waterfront to the river's mouth at Newport News...
, which had one of the largest commercial yards in the U.S. and by 1941 was exclusively building large combatant ship
Combatant ship
A combatant ship is a naval ship designed primarily to go "into harm's way."A combatant ship is armed with offensive weaponry, although the ship and its weapons may be employed in offensive or defensive roles. Combatant ships and auxiliary ships form the two primary groups of naval vessels...
s for the Navy. That yard was to be called the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company
North Carolina Shipbuilding Company
North Carolina Shipbuilding Company was a shipyard in Wilmington, North Carolina, created as part of the U.S. Government's Emergency Shipbuilding Program in the early days of World War II. From 1941 through 1946, the company built 243 ships in all, beginning with the Liberty ship SS Zebulon B....
.
Additionally, yards were authorized to be built on the Gulf of Mexico
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...
coast at Mobile, Alabama
Mobile, Alabama
Mobile is the third most populous city in the Southern US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 195,111 during the 2010 census. It is the largest...
which was to be operated by the Mobile based Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding Company
Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding Company
The Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding Company located in Mobile, Alabama, was one of the largest marine production facilities in the United States of America during the 20th century. Beginning operation in 1917, the shipyard is presently owned by The Lehman Group The Alabama Drydock and...
, in New Orleans on the Industrial Canal
Industrial Canal
The Industrial Canal is a 5.5 mile waterway in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. The waterway's proper name, as used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and on NOAA nautical charts, is Inner Harbor Navigation Canal...
to be known as the Delta Shipbuilding Company and operated by the American Shipbuilding Company of Toledo, Ohio
Toledo, Ohio
Toledo is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Lucas County. Toledo is in northwest Ohio, on the western end of Lake Erie, and borders the State of Michigan...
, one at Houston, Texas
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
on the Houston Ship Channel
Houston Ship Channel
The Houston Ship Channel, located in Houston, Texas, is part of the Port of Houston—one of the United States's busiest seaports. The channel is the conduit for ocean-going vessels between the Houston-area shipyards and the Gulf of Mexico.-Overview:...
to be operated by Todd Shipyards and called the Todd-Houston Shipbuilding Corp. On the West Coast, one yard was contracted to be built in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
at Terminal Island
Terminal Island
Terminal Island is an island located in Los Angeles County, California between Los Angeles Harbor and Long Beach Harbor. Originally a mudflat known to the Spanish as Isla Raza de Buena Gente, and later called Rattlesnake Island, it has officially been Terminal Island since 1918...
and managed by the Bechtel/McCone Company. That yard would be called the California Shipbuilding Corporation
California Shipbuilding Corporation
California Shipbuilding Corporation built 467 Liberty and Victory ships during World War II, including Haskell-class attack transports. California Shipbuilding Corporation was often referred to as Calship...
or CalShip for short. The Kaiser Corporation itself received a contract to build a new yard on the Columbia River
Columbia River
The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada, flows northwest and then south into the U.S. state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state...
at Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
which would be known as the Oregon Shipbuilding Corp.
The emergency ships
Type C2 ship
Type C2 ships were designed by the United States Maritime Commission in 1937-38. They were all-purpose cargo ships with five holds, and U.S. shipyards built 173 of them from 1939-1945. Compared to ships built before 1939, the C2s were remarkable for their speed and fuel economy. Their design speed...
s or type C3 ship
Type C3 ship
Type C3 ships were the third type of cargo ship designed by the United States Maritime Commission in the late 1930s. As it had done with the Type C1 ships and Type C2 ships, MARCOM circulated preliminary plans for comment...
s, the President had declared them to be "dreadful looking objects" and from that the term "Ugly Duckling" became the unofficial name for the emergency vessels. It was not until April 1941 that the vessels collectively were being officially referred to as the "Liberty Fleet" ships and not long after the term "Liberty Ship
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...
" became the standard name applied to all vessels of the class. Like their British counterparts, the Ocean class, the Liberty ships were of a 5 hatch design of approximately 10000 tons loaded displacement powered by the same size triple expansion reciprocating steam engines but using more modern oil fired water-tube boiler
Water-tube boiler
A water tube boiler is a type of boiler in which water circulates in tubes heated externally by the fire. Fuel is burned inside the furnace, creating hot gas which heats water in the steam-generating tubes...
s. Overall they were somewhat antiquated for the era and there was some quiet objection on the part of some of the members of the Maritime Commission to devoting so many valuable resources to their construction. Some believed that fewer although faster ships would be able to move as much cargo since with their added speed they could make more voyages in any given year, but faster and more complex ships required more time to build and more importantly, required steam turbine
Steam turbine
A steam turbine is a mechanical device that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam, and converts it into rotary motion. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Parsons in 1884....
s in order to gain the additional speed. In 1941, the manufacturers of steam turbines in the U.S., companies such as General Electric
General Electric
General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
, Westinghouse and Allis-Chalmers
Allis-Chalmers
The Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Co. of West Allis, Wisconsin, is an American company known for its past as a manufacturer with diverse interests, perhaps most famous for their bright Persian Orange farm tractors...
, did not have adequate production capacity to build all the turbines demanded the Navy or for the Maritime Commissions standard dry cargo ships or tankers it was intending to still build. In the end, it was decided that what the looming war was going to require were ships which could be built quickly using prefabrication by workers relatively unskilled in shipbuilding and in greatest numbers with the available resources. With that, the Liberty ship was adopted as the only emergency type to be built and thus shared by all of the new emergency shipyards. While all the new yards were able to get their first keels laid in a very short period of time, the first of the Liberty ships to be launched was the SS Patrick Henry
SS Patrick Henry
The SS Patrick Henry was the first Liberty ship launched.The ships initially had a poor public image and to try to assuage public opinion, 27 September 1941 was designated Liberty Fleet Day, and the first 14 "Emergency" vessels were launched that day. The first of these was Patrick Henry,...
which rolled down the ways at the Bethlehem-Fairfield yard on September 27, 1941.
The program grows as war nears
As 1941 progressed, the construction of the emergency yards accelerated rapidly and keels laid upon the new building ways. Well before the first wave of expansion was underway or the original sixty British ships were delivered, shortly after the Lend-LeaseLend-Lease
Lend-Lease was the program under which the United States of America supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, China, Free France, and other Allied nations with materiel between 1941 and 1945. It was signed into law on March 11, 1941, a year and a half after the outbreak of war in Europe in...
Bill was passed by Congress in March, a second wave of 306 additional ships were ordered. The ships ordered this second wave included 112 emergency type, the remainder were standard type vessels and tankers. This additional number of ships required additional building ways, so the Maritime Commission authorized new ways to be added to the yards in both the Long Range and Emergency Programs and also contracted for a second yard to be built for the Kaiser managed yards in Richmond, California. After this time the original Kaiser yard became known as Richmond #1 and the new yard as Richmond #2.
After the May 27 Declaration of Unlimited National Emergency by the President, the Emergency Program was further expanded in a third wave. To accommodate the addition of more ships to be built, additional ways were added to the yards in the program and the schedule of construction accelerated to build more ships per shipway per year. In total this increase raised the planned output of all merchant shipbuilders to approximately 500 ships (5 million total deadweight tons) for 1942 and 700 ships (7 million tons) in 1943.
Further expansion after the U.S. entry into World War II
The December 7, 1941 Japanese Attack on Pearl HarborAttack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
and the subsequent entry of the U.S. into the war caused all previously established production schedules to be further revised dramatically upward. With the need to assist Britain replace its lost tonnage and to provide adequate ships to the Army to transport troops and supplies to foreign theaters, in January 1942 President Roosevelt asked that 8 million tons of shipping be built in 1942 and 10 million in 1943. This Fourth Wave of Expansion involved further shortening the time for building the ships as well as the further addition of building ways at the existing yards and to add new yards to the emergency program. In early 1942, yards for building Liberty Ships were contracted to be built in Vancouver, Washington
Vancouver, Washington
Vancouver is a city on the north bank of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington. Incorporated in 1857, it is the fourth largest city in the state with a 2010 census population of 161,791 as of April 1, 2010...
to be managed by the Kaiser Corporation and a yard in Savannah, Georgia
Savannah, Georgia
Savannah is the largest city and the county seat of Chatham County, in the U.S. state of Georgia. Established in 1733, the city of Savannah was the colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later the first state capital of Georgia. Today Savannah is an industrial center and an important...
which was to be operated by a new company named Savannah Shipyards although they had no previous experience with building ships. New yards also contracted to be built at this time, but not for the emergency type ships, were a third yard in Richmond, also to be managed by the Kaiser Corporation, a yard in Alameda, California
Alameda, California
Alameda is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. It is located on Alameda Island and Bay Farm Island, and is adjacent to Oakland in the San Francisco Bay. The Bay Farm Island portion of the city is adjacent to the Oakland International Airport. At the 2010 census, the city had a...
to be managed by Bethlehem. This Fourth Wave brought to total number of building ways available to the Commission to 221.
Incredibly, the 18 millions tons of cargo ships (roughly equal to 1800 10000 ton Liberty ships) was determined by early February 1942 by the Joint Chief's of Staff to not be adequate for anticipated needs and thus the President directed the Maritime Commission to increase the orders to the equivalent of 24 million tons. With no certainty that astonishing quantity of ships could be built before the end of 1943, the Commission increased their contracts with the existing yards for more building ways and to contract for more shipyards to build Liberty ships as well as to build other types of vessels such as tankers, troop transports and military type vessels. For the construction of Liberty type ships, a new yard was ordered to be built at Providence, Rhode Island
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...
to be managed by the Rheem Corporation, a new yard in Brunswick, Georgia
Brunswick, Georgia
Brunswick is the major urban and economic center in southeastern Georgia in the United States. The municipality is located on a harbor near the Atlantic Ocean, approximately 30 miles north of Florida and 70 miles south of South Carolina. Brunswick is bordered on the east by the Atlantic...
which would be managed by the J.A. Jones Construction Company, another in Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida in terms of both population and land area, and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the county seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968...
which would be operated by the Merrill-Stevens Boatbuilding Company of Miami, a yard in Panama City, Florida
Panama City, Florida
-Personal income:The median income for a household in the city was $31,572, and the median income for a family was $40,890. Males had a median income of $30,401 versus $21,431 for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,830...
which would also be managed by J.A. Jones and,, a yard at Sausalito, California
Sausalito, California
Sausalito is a San Francisco Bay Area city, in Marin County, California, United States. Sausalito is south-southeast of San Rafael, at an elevation of 13 feet . The population was 7,061 as of the 2010 census. The community is situated near the northern end of the Golden Gate Bridge, and prior to...
to be managed by the Bechtel/McCone Group. For non Liberty ship construction the Commission ordered another addition yard in Richmond to be managed as the others there, by Kaiser, to be known as Richmond #4 and a yard at Swan Island on the Willamette River
Willamette River
The Willamette River is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States...
in Portland, Oregon for the construction of tankers.
Material shortages
While this rapid expansion was taking place, all other defense industries were also in a maximum production mode to accommodate the orders being placed by the Federal Government for all other manner of military equipment which included the massive wartime Naval Expansion program begun in 1940 with the passage of the Two Ocean Navy Act. So much growth in demand happening simultaneously in industries sharing common materials inevitably led to shortages in steel, propulsion machinery and most all other manner of ship equipment. In many cases the shortages effected the Emergency Program more than it did the Navy's since its programs were deemed of higher priority in the eyes of the many wartime boards set up for deciding on where scare resources would be allocated. All along the way, the Navy made claim to as much of the raw materials, steel, machinery, manufacturing plant allocations, and labor that it could get. Mostly, this imbalance occurred because the Maritime Commission lacked the clout that the Military Branches possessed and that clout ultimately swayed entities such as the Supply Priorities and Allocation Board (otherwise known as SPAB) to decide in favor of the Navy's demands. This disproportionate allocation regime often left the Maritime Commission without the resources needed to accomplish the goals established for it by President Roosevelt and it was only through direct appeal to FDR by Admiral Land that enough of the critical resources made it to the Emergency Program. These shortages were their most severe during all of 1941 and through much of 1942, but additional steel rolling and plate mills as well as expanded propulsion machinery manufacturing capability reduced many of those shortages in the course of 1943, however they were never fully eliminated up until the end of the war. Materials such as oil, gasoline, rubber and grease were rationed for the fighting units and so the Pennsylvania Shipyard had to improvise, but bananas were very cheap, South American markets having been hampered by the war . Combat needs were top priority so alternative substances had to be found for materials such as the grease used to lubricate the ramp down which a boat slid into the water when launching. The boatbuilders found that ships could be launched handily by covering the ramp in a layer of ripe unpeeled bananas. It worked very well until a supervisor decided to cut costs by buying even cheaper green bananas. Of course, they were also very gummy and did not "mush" like ripe ones. The only time this was used, the boat went about one-third down the ramp and stuck. It took nearly two days to dig out the keel and lever the boat to the water where it floated quite well. Thereafter, the shipyard did not use any but well-ripened bananas. This happened to one of the boats being worked on by a young Texas A&M engineer named Keith Sandefer.Manpower shortages in early days of the program and recruitment of new sources of labor
Another effect of the breakneck growth in production in the early years of the War, was a labor shortage in the towns and cities that the emergency shipyards were being built. Since there had been a de facto drought in shipbuilding work in the U.S. for nearly two decades, the number of experienced shipbuilders was quite small at the war's start. Additionally, many of those towns and cities which new yards were to be built had not been major shipbuilding centers before 1941, it was in these yards where the shortage of men skilled in the shipbuilding trades was most felt. In order to overcome this shortage, an aggressive recruiting program was undertaken by both the Commission and the companies operating the shipyards. Since many of the Emergency yards were being managed by established ship building or repair companies, they could send some of their more skilled men to get "the new facilities on their feet and running". What was needed however was a labor force with abilities to accomplish heavy industrial and mechanical work. To find this labor, recruiting was directed towards areas of the nation's hinterland which had only a few years before found themselves in the depths of the Great DepressionGreat Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
in the not mistaken belief that men used to keeping farm machinery operating could built ships as well. To get these former farmers to decide to take up shipbuilding was not too difficult an undertaking because the wages offered to these previously poor men were much higher had ever been offered to such working class Americans before. This opportunity to earn a good working man's wage showed the way to a possible future where life might provide better security than in the poverty years of the 1930s and that was all that was needed to get people on the move. It was not uncommon for entire families to make the pilgrimage from places such as the Dust Bowl
Dust Bowl
The Dust Bowl, or the Dirty Thirties, was a period of severe dust storms causing major ecological and agricultural damage to American and Canadian prairie lands from 1930 to 1936...
regions of Texas and Oklahoma to the shipbuilding centers on the West Coast or the Gulf of Mexico. With such a rapid influx of new workers to these communities however there were acute shortages in housing, schools and other needed services. Along with building new shipyards and ships, there was a need to build all the necessities for many workers to live in most of the largest shipbuilding centers such as Richmond, California and Portland, Oregon. Needless to say that just about any skilled trade had steady employment in those communities throughout the course of the war. Some skilled workers such as engineers were "frozen" in their jobs and were not allowed to leave their work, even to enlist.
Women and minorities enter the shipbuilding workforce
Before the War, shipbuilding had been exclusively a male occupation, but the need to reach out to new sources of labor for the Emergency yards created opportunities for women to gain employment in the many trades which are needed to construct a ship. While there was not as much riveting as welding in the building of the emergency ships, the popular symbolic figure of Rosie the RiveterRosie the Riveter
Rosie the Riveter is a cultural icon of the United States, representing the American women who worked in factories during World War II, many of whom produced munitions and war supplies. These women sometimes took entirely new jobs replacing the male workers who were in the military...
partly sprung from the wartime shipyard where a new cadre of female ship fitters suddenly developed. Additionally, in the deep South where African Americans had been excluded from the higher paying industrial and manufacturing employment, there was such a shortage of labor for the yards on the Gulf that reluctant employers had to accept that black labor was required in order to meet production goals. In the end, it was shown the record productivity for Negro labor in the Gulf Shipyards was no lower than for any other group employed.
Training for new workers and new shipbuilding techniques
Since many of the workers hired for the new yards had no shipbuilding experience prior to being hired, schools were set up in the individual shipyards as well as in the local school systems of the host cities. One of the factors that led to the great success of the Emergency Program was to change the shipbuilding arts from one where a man had to progress through a many years long apprenticeship up to become a journeyman and then many years later, a master in their chosen trade. The use of welding allowed ships to be built in modular sections eliminating the time consuming and highly skilled shipfitting of individual hull pieces to be riveted in place on the building ways. Prefabrication allowed a much more streamlined approach to the building of a ship more akin towards modern manufacturing assembly processes where a worker would be tasked with doing one small task in the many thousands of tasks required to assemble a ship. With volume production, that worker could be employed doing that same task repetitively which would ultimately lead to high productivity due to a worker becoming a master of his assigned task very quickly. Old-timers would scoff at the way the Liberty ships were built by "farmers" as they would say, but the results were far beyond what anyone might have imagined in 1940 when the program began.Movement of workers to and from the wartime shipyards
As successful as the Maritime Commission and the shipbuilding companies were in their recruiting efforts, the scale of the national wartime economy was so great that there was always a degree of a labor shortage in the yards although the shortfall in manpower became more severely felt in the later years of the war. Many of the men employed in the yards in the first years of the program were of age for the draft and as the war progressed more and more of these men left the wars to serve in the military. Other war industries also competed for labor and many of the cities and towns that hosted shipyards also had other labor intensive wartime industries such as aircraft plants. In many cases, the wages were close to what could be earned at a shipyard for work which was not as physically taxing so there was a slow but steady movement of labor from one defense industry to another and often shipbuilding lost more labor than it gained.The program reaches full production
By the 2nd half of 1942 the yards contracted in the first waves of expansion were fully built and those yards had completed three or more ships per building way. The time for building the ships fell dramatically as experience was gained by the workers in their jobs and by the management in each yard in the most effective means to do the construction. One factor which played a major part in getting the productivity so high was the use of welding and prefabrication in which large sections of each ship's hull or superstructure would be built off the building ways and then moved into position only when the assemblers were ready. This method became so efficient that a single Liberty ship to be fully assembled, launched, outfitted and delivered went from a program average of almost 240 days at the beginning of 1942 to only 56 days at the end of the year. At the most productive yards on the West Coast, Oregon Ship and Richmond #2, the time a single vessel spent on the ways before launching was only a little more than two weeks. Two particular ships were built in record breaking amounts of time. First in September 1942 the Liberty ship SS Joseph N. Teal was built Oregon Shipbuilding in 10 days. Two months later in November at Richmond yard #2, the SS Robert E. PearySS Robert E. Peary
SS Robert E. Peary was a Liberty ship which gained fame during World War II for being built in a shorter time than any other such vessel. Named after Robert Peary, an American explorer who claimed to have been the first person to reach the geographic North Pole, she was launched on November 12,...
was launching in only 4 days, 15 hours, 29 minutes from the time her keel was laid. While not ever met or repeated during the remainder of World War II, these "stunt" ships came only a little more than one years after the first ships ordered as part of the Emergency Program were launched themselves.
As coming into play during this time was a de facto combining of the both the Long Range Shipbuilding Program with the Emergency and oversight of the yards became decentralized into four separate Regional Directors. The Programs added together at the peak of output in mid 1943 ultimately employed 650,000 workers in all the Maritime Commission contracted yards and unknown tens of thousands more manufacturing the components need to assemble the ships. It was not without hurdles which needed to be overcome to reach the levels of production achieved. The Maritime Commission struggled throughout 1942 and the first half on 1943 to get enough steel allocated to it from the War Production Board
War Production Board
The War Production Board was established as a government agency on January 16, 1942 by executive order of Franklin D. Roosevelt.The purpose of the board was to regulate the production and allocation of materials and fuel during World War II in the United States...
. With plate mills around the country running beyond their normal capacity, the demand for plate by all war industries, but especially the Navy's shipbuilding was still more than could be made. It was not until the 2nd half on 1943 when new or expanded plate production facilities came online, that the shortage to steel plate abated. Additionally, there were constant shortages of many of the parts which were shared between Navy and Merchant vessels such as pumps and valves. Still with all the hurdles faced, the Maritime Commission and the yards contracted to it were able to deliver 8million tons of shipping to the war effort by the end of 1942 and more than 12million tons in 1943.
Changes to ship design and types during 1943
By the time that Liberty ship construction was reaching its maximum output rate in early 1943, it became clear to military planners and the Maritime Commission that it was preferable to slow the rate of the building Liberty class vessels and begin building a class with a higher operating speed. What was decided was to begin building a class no larger than the Liberty class but with steam turbine propulsion. The shortage of turbines having been relieved by the expansion of turbine manufacturing capacity during 1941 and 1942. Beginning in March 1943, with enough turbines, the Victory shipVictory ship
The Victory ship was a type of cargo ship produced in large numbers by North American shipyards during World War II to replace shipping losses caused by German submarines...
or VC2 type cargo vessels were contracted for at all of the West Coast yards which had been previously building Liberties as well as at the Bethlehem-Fairfield yard. The first of the new class, the SS United Victory being completed and delivered at Oregon Shipbuilding in February 1944. All the other yards building Liberty ships continued to do so although many of those yards would begin building specialized military type vessels for the Navy such as landing ships, troops transports, frigates and escort aircraft carriers. Originally, military types were not expected to be a part of the Maritime Commission's wartime building programs but the Joint Chiefs of Staff required a high number for specialized vessels be built for upcoming military operations. When was determined that there was an inability for Navy contracted yards to meet that demand, the Maritime Commission was tasked if it could switch some of its production to meet the Navy's needs. Some types of very designed with only military purpose but which could be built along the standards of merchant vessels. This was especially true of the auxiliary naval vessels which supported the combat ships and landing ships such as LSTs which had been one of the types in especially short supply in 1943.
Similarly, it was determined early in the Program that having a sufficient number of oil tankers would become as important, if not more so, than dry cargo ships for the war effort. In the fourth wave of expansion in 1942, the Commission increased the Programs orders for the construction of T2 and T3 type tankers . Ultimately, five yards would become committed to tanker construction . Sun Shipbuilding in Chester, PA and Bethlehem Steel at Sparrows Point which had both been principally building tankers since the beginning of the program. Alabama Shipbuilding yard in Mobile & the MarinShip yard at Sausalito switched from building Liberty ships to tanker construction and the previously mentioned new yard at Swan Island in Portland, OR managed by the Kaiser Group was built to construct tankers exclusively.
Shipyards in the program
By the end of World War II, the list of shipyards building for the Maritime Commission comprised the following (yards in italics were yards which did not exist prior to the Emergency Program's start in 1940):| Yard Name | Location (City, State) | 1st Ship Delivery Date | Ship Types Delivered | Total Number of Ways | Total Vessels Built for USMC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Company was a major shipbuilding company in Chester, Pennsylvania, about 15 miles south of Philadelphia on the Delaware River. Its primary product was tankers, but the company built many types of ships over its 70-year history. During World War II, it participated in the... |
Chester, PA | 1938 | C2 type, C4 type, T2 type, T3 type | number | 276 ships for USMC (plus 78 private acct.) |
| Bethlehem Steel Corp. Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation Bethlehem Steel Corporation Shipbuilding Division was created in 1905 when Bethlehem Steel Corporation acquired the San Francisco shipyard Union Iron Works in 1905... (Bethlehem Sparrows Point Shipyard) |
Sparrows Pt., MD | 1939 | C1 type, C2 type, C3 type, C5 type, R1 type, T2 type, T3 type | number | 77 ships for USMC (plus 38 for private acct.) |
| Federal Shipbuilding Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company The Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company was a United States shipyard, active from 1917 to 1949. During World War II, it built ships as part of the U.S. Government's Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Operated by a subsidiary of the United States Steel Corporation, the shipyard was located at... |
Kearny, NJ | 1939 | C1 type, C2 type, C3 type, P2 type, T3 type | number | 84 ships for USMC (plus 92 for USN or private acct.) |
| Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. | Newport News, VA | 1940 | C2 type, C3 type, P4 type, T3 type | number | 18 ships for USMC (remainder for USN) |
| Bethlehem Steel Corp. | Staten Island, NY | January 1941 | C1 type | number | 5 ships for USMC (remainder for USN) |
| Bath Iron Works Corp. Bath Iron Works Bath Iron Works is a major American shipyard located on the Kennebec River in Bath, Maine, United States. Since its founding in 1884 , BIW has built private, commercial and military vessels, most of which have been ordered by the United States Navy... |
Bath, ME | August 1941 | C2 type | number | 4 ships for USMC (remainder for USN) |
| Bethlehem Fairfield Shipyards, Inc. | Baltimore, MD | December 1941 | EC2 type, S2 (LST) type, VC2 type | 16 ways | 514 ships for USMC |
| Pusey and Jones Pusey and Jones The Pusey and Jones Corporation was a major ship and equipment manufacturer from 1846 to 1959. Ship building was the primary focus from 1853 until the end of World War II, when the company converted the shipyard to production of paper manufacturing machinery... Corp. |
Wilmington, DE | January 1942 | C1 type | 3 ways | 19 ships for USMC |
| North Carolina Shipbuilding Corp. North Carolina Shipbuilding Company North Carolina Shipbuilding Company was a shipyard in Wilmington, North Carolina, created as part of the U.S. Government's Emergency Shipbuilding Program in the early days of World War II. From 1941 through 1946, the company built 243 ships in all, beginning with the Liberty ship SS Zebulon B.... |
Wilmington, NC | February 1942 | EC2 type, C2 type | 9 ways | 243 ships for USMC |
| Todd-Bath Shipbuilding Corp. New England Shipbuilding Corporation The New England Shipbuilding Corporation was a shipyard located in the city of South Portland, Maine, United States. The yard originated as two separate entities, the Todd-Bath Iron Shipbuilding Corporation and the South Portland Shipbuilding Corporation, which were created in 1940 and 1941... |
South Portland, ME | March 1942 | British Ocean type, EC2 type | 13 ways | 30 ships for UK, 242 ships for USMC |
| Walsh-Kaiser Company, Inc. Walsh-Kaiser Co., Inc. Walsh-Kaiser Co., Inc. was a shipyard in both Cranston and Providence, Rhode Island. It was built during World War II and financed by the Maritime Commission as part of the country's Emergency Shipbuilding Program. It was originally operated by Rheem Manufacturing, a company with no previous... |
Providence, RI | February 1943 | EC2 type, S2 (frigate) type, S4 (transport) type | 6 ways | 64 ships for USMC |
| Southeastern Shipbuilding Co. | Savannah, GA | March 1943 | EC2 type, C1-M type | 6 ways | 105 ships for USMC |
| St. John's River Shipbuilding Co. | Jacksonville, FL | April 1943 | EC2 type, T1 type | 6 ways | 94 ships for USMC |
| J.A. Jones Construction J.A. Jones Construction J.A. Jones Construction was a heavy construction company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. Operating internationally since the 1950s, it merged with Germany's Philipp Holzmann AG in 1979.... Co. |
Brunswick, GA | May 1943 | EC2 type, C1-M type | 6 ways | 99 ships for USMC |
| Penn-Jersey Shipbuilding Corp. | Camden, NJ | August 1943 | N3 type | number | 14 ships for USMC |
| Welding Shipyards | Norfolk, VA | November 1943 | T3 type | 1 way | 10 ships for USMC (remainder for private acct.) |
| Yard Name | Location (city, state) | 1st Ship Delivery Date | Ship Types Delivered | Total Number of Ways | total vessels built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Moore Dry Dock Company Moore Dry Dock Company Moore Dry Dock Company was a ship repair and shipbuilding company in Oakland, California. It was started in San Francisco in 1905 as the Moore & Scott Iron Works, but was destroyed by fire in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. It reopened soon and in 1909 purchased the Boole Shipyard in Oakland.... |
Oakland, CA | July 1940 | C2 type, R2 type, C3 type | 4 ways | __ ships for USMC (remainder for USN) |
| Bethlehem Steel Corp. | San Francisco, CA | February 1941 | C1 type | number | 5 ships for USMC (remainder for USN) |
| Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation The Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation was a United States corporation which built ships for the US Navy and merchant marine during World War II .... |
Tacoma, WA | April 1941 | C1 type, C3 type, T1 type | 8 ways | __ ships for USMC (remainder for USN) |
| Western Pipe & Steel Corp. Western Pipe and Steel Company The Western Pipe and Steel Company was an American manufacturing company that is best remembered today for its construction of ships for the Maritime Commission in World War II. It also built ships for the U.S... |
South San Francisco, CA | April 1941 | C1 type, C3 type | 4 ways | __ ships for USMC |
| Kaiser Permanente Permanente Metals Permanente Metals Company managed the Richmond Shipyards, owned by Henry J. Kaiser. These four of the Kaiser Shipyards were known for the construction of Liberty ships.The company was also a major producer of magnesium during World War II... (Richmond yard #1) |
Richmond, CA | August 1941 | British Ocean type, EC2 type, VC2 type | 7 ways | 30 ships for UK, __ ships for USMC |
| Kaiser Permanente (Richmond yard #2) | Richmond, CA | September 1941 | EC2 type, VC2 type | 12 ways | __ ships for USMC |
| Consolidated Steel Corp. Consolidated Steel Corporation Consolidated Steel Corporation was an American steel and shipbuilding business. Consolidated built ships during World War II in two locations: Wilmington, California and Orange, Texas... |
Wilmington, CA | September 1941 | C1 type, C1-M type, C2 type, P1 type, S2 (frigate) type, S4 (transport) type | 8 ways | __ ships for USMC |
| Oregon Shipbuilding Co. Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation was a World War II emergency shipyard located in Portland, Oregon, United States, that built over 1000 Liberty and Victory ships between 1941 and 1945. It was closed after the war ended.... |
Portland, OR | January 1942 | EC2 type, VC2 type | 11 ways | __ ships for USMC |
| California Shipbuilding Corp. California Shipbuilding Corporation California Shipbuilding Corporation built 467 Liberty and Victory ships during World War II, including Haskell-class attack transports. California Shipbuilding Corporation was often referred to as Calship... (CalShip) |
Terminal Island, Los Angeles, CA | February 1942 | EC2 type, VC2 type | 14 ways | __ ships for USMC |
| Kaiser Company, Inc. | Vancouver, WA | July 1942 | EC2 type, S2 (LST) type, S4 (escort carrier) type, VC2, type & C4 type | 12 ways | __ ships for USMC |
| MarinShip Corp. Marinship Marinship Corporation was a shipbuilding company of the United States during World War II, created to build the shipping required for the war effort... |
Sausalito, CA | October 1942 | EC2 type, T2 type | 6 ways | __ ships for USMC |
| Pacific Bridge Co. | Alameda, CA | December 1942 | N3 type | 2 ways (basins) | 9 ships for USMC (remainder for USN) |
| Kaiser Company, Inc. | Swan Island, Portland, OR | December 1942 | T2 type | 8 ways | __ ships for USMC |
| Kaiser Cargo (Richmond yard #4) | Richmond, CA | April 1943 | S2 (LST) type, S2 (frigate) type, C1-M type | 3 ways | __ ships for USMC |
| Kaiser Shipbuilding (Richmond yard #3) | Richmond, CA | August 1943 | C4 type | 5 ways (basins) | __ ships for USMC |
| Bethlehem Steel Corp. | Alameda, CA | August 1944 | P2 type | 4 ways | 10 ships for USMC |
| Yard Name | Location (City, State) | 1st Ship Delivery Date | Ship Types Delivered | Total Number of Ways | Total Vessels Built for USMC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ingalls Shipbuilding Ingalls Shipbuilding Ingalls Shipbuilding is a shipyard located in Pascagoula, Mississippi, USA, originally established in 1938, and is now part of Huntington Ingalls Industries... |
Pascagoula, MS | 1940 | C3 type | 6 ways | 80 ships for USMC or for private acct. |
| Tampa Shipbuilding Corp. Tampa Shipbuilding Company Tampa Shipbuilding Company, or TASCO, was a shipyard in Tampa, Florida. Started in 1917, it had three shipways in the years before World War II. It grew larger because of its involvement in the United States Maritime Commission's pre-war long-range shipbuilding program. During the war it... |
Tampa, FL | July 1940 | C2 type | 3 ways | 13 ships for USMC (plus 37 more for USN) |
| Gulf Shipbuilding | Chickasaw, AL | April 1941 | C2 type | number | 36 ships for USMC (plus 39 for USN) |
| Pennsylvania Shipyards | Beaumont, TX | May 1941 | C1 type, C1-M type, N3 type, V4 type | 5 way | 99 ships for USMC |
| Todd Houston Shipbuilding Corp. | Houston, TX | May 1942 | EC2 type | 9 ways | 222 ships for USMC |
| Delta Shipbuilding Co. | New Orleans, LA | May 1942 | EC2 type | 8 ways | 188 ships for USMC |
| Alabama Drydock Co. Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding Company The Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding Company located in Mobile, Alabama, was one of the largest marine production facilities in the United States of America during the 20th century. Beginning operation in 1917, the shipyard is presently owned by The Lehman Group The Alabama Drydock and... |
Mobile, AL | May 1942 | EC2 type, T2 type | 12 ways | 123 ships for USMC (remainder for private acct.) |
| Avondale Marine Ways Avondale Shipyard Avondale Shipyard was an independent shipbuilding company, acquired by Litton Industries, in turn acquired by Northrop Grumman Corporation. Now, along with the former Ingalls Shipbuilding, the yard is part of Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding. The yard is located on the West Bank of the Mississippi... |
Westwego, LA | January 1943 | N3 type, V4 type | number | 22 ships (remainder for private acct.) |
| J.A. Jones Construction Co. | Panama City, FL | March 1943 | EC2 type, T1 type | 6 ways | 108 ships for USMC |
| Pendleton Shipyards Corp. | New Orleans, LA | August 1943 | N3 type, V4 type | number | 13 ships for USMC |
| Todd Galveston Drydocks Co. | Galveston, TX | September 1943 | T1 type | number | 12 ships |
| Yard Name | Location (City, State) | 1st Ship Delivery Date | Ship Types Delivered | Total Number of Ways | Total Vessels Built for USMC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cargill Inc. | Savage, MN | November 1941 | T1 type | number | 19 ships for USMC (remainder to other govt acct.) |
| Leatham D. Smith Shipbuilding Co. | Sturgeon Bay, WI | November 1942 | C1-M type, N3 type, S2 (frigate) type | number | 34 ships for USMC (remainder to USN or other govt. acct.) |
| Walter Butler Shipbuilders | Superior, WI | December 1942 | C1-M type, N3 type, S2 (frigate) type | number | 52 ships for USMC |
| Froemming Brothers | Milwaukee, WI | April 1943 | C1-M type, V4 type, S2 (frigate) type | number | 26 ships for USMC |
| American Shipbuilding American Ship Building Company The American Ship Building Company was the dominant shipbuilder on the Great Lakes before the Second World War. It started as Cleveland Shipbuilding in Cleveland, Ohio in 1888 and opened the yard in Lorain, Ohio in 1898... |
Lorain, OH | May 1943 | L6 type, S2 (frigate) type | number | 14 ships for USMC (remainder 35 for USN or private acct.) |
| Walter Butler Shipbuilders Inc. | Duluth, MN | May 1943 | C1-M type, N3 type, T1 type | number | 38 ships for USMC (remainder to private acct?) |
| Globe Shipbuilding Co. | Superior, WI | May 1943 | C1-M type, V4 type, S2 (frigate) type | number | 29 ships for USMC |
| Great Lakes Engineering Co. | Ecorse, MI | May 1943 | L6 type | number | 6 ships for USMC (remainder for private acct.) |
| Great Lakes Engineering Co. | Ashtabula, OH | May 1943 | L6 type | number | 4 ships (remainder for private acct.) |
| American Shipbuilding | Cleveland, OH | June 1943 | L6 type, S2 (frigate) type | number | 9 ships for USMC (plus 16 for USN) |
Ships built by type
| type of ship (incl. all variant designs w/in type) | deliveries 1940 | deliveries 1941 | deliveries 1942 | deliveries 1943 | deliveries 1944 | deliveries 1945 | totals for all years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C1 type Type C1 ship Type C1 was a designation for small cargo ships built for the U.S. Maritime Commission before and during World War II. The first C1 types were the smallest of the three original Maritime Commission designs, meant for shorter routes where high speed and capacity were less important. Only a handful... |
1 | 29 | 20 | 78 | 64 | 2 | 194 |
| C1-M type | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 64 | 189 | 220 |
| C2 type Type C2 ship Type C2 ships were designed by the United States Maritime Commission in 1937-38. They were all-purpose cargo ships with five holds, and U.S. shipyards built 173 of them from 1939-1945. Compared to ships built before 1939, the C2s were remarkable for their speed and fuel economy. Their design speed... |
6 | 17 | 20 | 54 | 109 | 82 | 309 |
| EC2 type (1) 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... |
0 | 7 | 55 | 1279 | 728 | 144 | 2755 |
| VC2 type Victory ship The Victory ship was a type of cargo ship produced in large numbers by North American shipyards during World War II to replace shipping losses caused by German submarines... |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 208 | 322 | 530 |
| C3 type Type C3 ship Type C3 ships were the third type of cargo ship designed by the United States Maritime Commission in the late 1930s. As it had done with the Type C1 ships and Type C2 ships, MARCOM circulated preliminary plans for comment... |
26 | 14 | 25 | 65 | 44 | 36 | 315 |
| C4 type | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 26 | 34 | 65 |
| T1 type | 0 | 0 | 0 | 25 | 37 | 46 | 108 |
| T2 type T2 tanker The T2 tanker, or T2, was an oil tanker constructed and produced in large quantities in the United States during World War II. The largest "navy oilers" after the T3s at the time, nearly 500 of them were built between 1940 and the end of 1945.... |
0 | 2 | 31 | 139 | 218 | 139 | 529 |
| T3 type | 4 | 1 | 2 | 21 | 14 | 10 | 59 |
| P2 type | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 16 | 19 |
| S2 (frigate) type | 0 | 0 | 0 | 18 | 59 | 8 | 85 |
| S3 (landing ship) type | 0 | 0 | 12 | 64 | 0 | 0 | 76 |
| S4 (escort carrier) type | 0 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 31 | 0 | 50 |
| S4 (transport) type | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 29 | 35 | 64 |
| L6 type | 0 | 0 | 0 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 16 |
| N3 type | 0 | 0 | 0 | 46 | 51 | 6 | 107 |
| V4 type | 0 | 0 | 0 | 46 | 3 | 0 | 48 |
(1)includes 60 British type