From the December 3, 2009, Historical Marker Data Base site.
Even before Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt and Congress authorized the Liberty Shipbuilding Program. These vessels were made rapidly, using welded component construction and assembly line production techniques.
The Southeast Shipbuilding Company in Savannah, Georgia, built 87 of them.
Today, only a few of the 2,700 Liberty Class ships remain. During the war, they were a part of the so-called "Atlantic Bridge" to bring munitions of war and soldiers to the European Theater.
A standard Liberty Ship was 441-feet-long with a 56-foot beam, powered by a 2,500 hp triple expansion steam engine capable of going 11 knots while carrying 10,000 tons of cargo in their five holds. That would relate to 300 railroad cars, 2,840 jeeps or 440 Sherman tanks.
They carried a 3-inch gun and two 37 mm Bofors cannons in the bow, a 4- or 5-inch gun at the stern and six 20 mm Oerlikon machine guns for protection.
More to Come. --GreGen
The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.
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