Like all Liberty Ships, our vessel was anonymous.
Oh, it had a name, but not one you would remember for longer than it took to pronounce it. Squat, dark, uncomfortable, plodding ship, it served only to take us from place to place, like a ferry, without character, without interest, without adventure—anonymous.
It was the first Liberty Ship within our experience, although it would not be the last, and of this unlovely brood, the Runner expressed our contempt.
“You know,” he said, gazing in disgust upon the crowded decks, talking above the ship’s shuddering rattle, “they make these things on a weekend. They get a lot of people who have nothing to do and get them all together in one place. Then they get them drunk. On Sunday night they have another one of these.”
He waved his hand to embrace not only our bovine beauty but that entire cowlike line of transports plowing north along the Australian coast.
The record for the fastest built liberty ship was SS Robert E. Peary, launched just four days and fifteen hours after she was laid down. The first liberty ship (SS Patrick Henry) took 244 days to build, but by the end of the war, it was an average of 42. A total of 2,710 of 2,751 planned liberty ships were completed. (via uss-edsall)