Liberty ship

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Liberty ships are a class of cargo ship built in the United States during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Although British in concept, the design was adopted by the United States for its simple, low-cost construction. Mass-produced on an unprecedented scale, the Liberty ship came to symbolize U.S. wartime industrial output. The class was developed to meet British orders for transports to replace ships that had been lost. Eighteen American shipyards built 2,710 Liberty ships between 1941 and 1945 (an average of three ships every two days), easily the largest number of ships ever produced to a single design. The Liberty ship was effectively superseded by the Victory ship, a somewhat larger, materially faster, more modern-powered vessel of generally similar design. A total of 531 Victory ships were built between 1944 and 1946. Liberty ship production mirrored (albeit on a much larger scale) the manufacture of "Hog Islander" and similar standardized ship types during...

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