I was stationed on one while our ship was in drydock, and there is another
liberty ship tied up just down the
pier from me now. They certainly were cheaply built and rather flimsy. Their
biggest defensive posture problem was the large watertight doors used
internally. They work in theory, but in practicality, you cannot move them
against floodwaters, so you sink.
Your story about the stern breaking off caught my attention as that did happen
on our ship during SLEP, but it was a carrier (CV-67). Don't remember the
exacts of it, but it had to do with modifications to the port quarter that were
inadequately reinforced, resulting in it partially tearing off of the hull. We
did not abandon ship.
>>> Randall <randallyoung@earthlink.net> 09/17 1:57 AM >>>
The story I remember is that the Liberty ships were slopped together in
a huge rush. They were welded just because it was faster, and made of
thinner steel to stretch the wartime steel supplies as far as possible.
The plan at the time was that they were only good enough to last through
WWII, although many of them lasted much longer.
I used to work with a fellow who had served on one of them, he told
several stories of how flimsy they were. His favorite one was of being
on board when they went into dry dock. Seems the drydock workers didn't
put enough supports under the keel as the dock was being raised, with
the result that the ship broke in half. He claimed it was the only time
that "abandon ship" was ever sounded in drydock !
Randall
Derek Harling wrote:
>
> Were the welded Liberty ships the ones where the welds broke in the cold
> of the North Atlantic? Or was that another story altogether?
> Derek (vague memories of college lectures on materials and welding)
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