When my stepdad was 17 he took a welding class in Oklahoma then hitchhiked
out to Richmond, CA and got a job welding on those Liberty ships. He was
welding these big plates that had to be wedged into place. He said that on
his first shift his welds kept breaking apart and the crew working with him
would have to jam the steel plates back into place again. He told them to
"stay with me boys, and I'll get the hang of it" and he finally did. After
about 6 months or so in Richmond he joined up and served in North Africa
and India.
He and my mom were out for a visit a few years back and we drove through
Richmond and looked at where he used to work. I'd seen the big old cranes
they built the Liberty ships with for years, but didn't have any idea they
were a part of history until that visit. It was a couple years later that I
found out about and visited the Liberty Ship Museum in Sausalito. There's
also a restored Liberty Ship somewhere around here, but I don't know if
it's open to the public or not.
Henry Deaton
SF, CA
At 11:47 AM 1/14/2001 -0700, Ed Van Scoy wrote:
>FastmetalBDF@aol.com wrote:
>
> > >SNIP< " I like to check out welding supply places, among other
> places like
> > speed shops, etc., and they had it at this weld supply house right next
> to where
> > all those
> > Liberty ships were built, during WW II, by Kaiser Shipbuilding, in
> > Richmond, California ."
>
>Wasn't it real hard to weld on those Liberty Ships ;-)
>Ed
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