Ed,
Near the end of the war, there was a steel shortage and several ships were built
on both coasts and with similar results...it didn't work! There is a hull, or
what is left of it near Sunset Beach, outside of Cape May, NJ where it beached
itself after a Nor'easter' storm tore it loose from it's mooring. As a kid, we
played on it, today it is just a couple of lumps on concrete on the beach.
joe
Ed Van Scoy wrote:
> Weren't Liberty Ships concrete?
> Ed
>
> Henry Deaton wrote:
>
> > 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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