Liberty Cargo Ships - USA: Books - History and Shipping Lines

Liberty Ships: America's Merchant Marine Transport in World War II (Legends of Warfare)

Although not a weapon in the traditional sense of the word, arguably no item in the Allied arsenal contributed as much to the defeat of the Axis during WWII as did the Liberty ships. The 2,710 Liberty ships placed into service between 1941 and 1945 provided a vital link in the supply chain not only of US but also Allied forces during WWII.
Although the basic design itself was obsolete even before the first one slid down the builder's ways, it had the advantage of being relatively easy to produce, and simple to operate and maintain. Thus, the vessels were mass-produced by no fewer than eighteen shipyards. Building time, initially 244 days, dropped to forty-two days per ship, although as a publicity stunt the "Robert E. Peary" was launched four days and fifteen and a half hours after the keel was laid.

Liberty Factory : The Untold Story of Henry Kaiser's Oregon Shipyards

Churchill famously claimed that the only thing that had really frightened him during the war was the Battle of the Atlantic. Keeping open the lifeline between the US 'arsenal of democracy' and the UK was essential to preparations for the invasion of Europe and in the final analysis this came down to building merchant ships faster than German U-boats could sink them.
Crucial to this achievement was the 'Liberty ship', a simple freighter that could be built rapidly, combined with the untapped industrial potential of the USA that could build them in vast numbers.

Undoubtedly the most important individual in the rapid expansion of US wartime shipyard capacity was Henry Kaiser, a man with no previous shipbuilding experience but an entrepreneur of vision and drive. This book tells the story of how he established huge new yards using novel mass-production techniques in the most surprising location - Oregon, one of the least industrially developed areas of the US and one without an existing pool of skilled labour to draw on.

It was not just the yards that were revolutionary, as the Kaiser companies provided housing, health and welfare benefits that attracted workers from all over the country, including women recruited into an industrial workplace for the first time.
This well-motivated workforce turned the Kaiser yards into the most efficient shipbuilders in the country. In total Kaiser's Oregon yards built over 450 'Liberties' and the follow-on 'Victory ships' - including one built in the record time of 10 days - as well as around 150 tankers, some 50 escort carriers and countless amphibious warfare ships.
Curiously, this truly remarkable achievement, of huge significance to the eventual Allied victory, has been consigned to the footnotes of history, but is fully documented and celebrated for the first time in this book.

On the Swing Shift - Building Liberty Ships in Savannah

During World War II eighty-eight of the almost three thousand Liberty ships built in America were launched in Savannah, Georgia. Without Liberty ships, the Battle of the Atlantic might have been lost.
Few remember the Liberty ships today; fewer remember the shipyard or that the Southeastern Shipbuilding Corporation was the largest industry ever located there. The land on which this shipyard stood is now derelict. Thousands drive by it every day and have no idea of the great contribution to the war effort that was made on that site.

This social history tells the story of the men and women who built these merchant ships in Savannah. Most came from rural areas and had never seen a ship, much less built one. Their work was dangerous and boring, but many worked double shifts, nights, and seven days a week.
There were 45,000 of them during the four years of the shipyard's existence, and in spite of all of the problems faced, they built ships and built them well.

Cope makes use of more than 120 taped interviews with shipyard workers, merchant seamen, dock workers, and Navy and Coast Guard personnel, as well as letters and official documents, to present an authentic and moving record of the working conditions and lives of those who built the Liberty ships in the shipyards of Savannah.